Demi is continuing to do well. Last Friday, I had a conference with her teacher, a routine sit-down to discuss how she's progressing at the half-way point through the semester. She had already checked off half of the IEP goals that had been set to cover Demi's whole school year! Granted, many of those goals were carry over from last year, but she's finally making steady progress.
We've recently started a new intervention as well - Therapeutic Listening. I've heard it called different names - she listens to special music for 30 minutes, twice a day. The music is specifically engineered to stimulate her auditory processing and vestibular system, both of which influence her body awareness, balance, environmental awareness, focus & attention, and much more.
We've been doing the process for 4 wks now. When we first started, the therapist mentioned that some children saw an increase in emotional tone (e.g. more crying), but that was usually for kids who were mostly "flat" emotionally. Since I didn't consider Demi "flat", I assumed she would not be in that category. Boy, was I wrong! She definitely did have an "increase in emotional tone" - a euphemism for meltdowns to drive a family insane. She would meltdown in a split second over the most minor issues. In the presence of a meltdown, it's often difficult to think straight - you just yearn for silence. In retrospect, I believe most of them had to do with extreme and immediate frustration in communication.
My husband was ready to toss the (very expensive) headphones out the window. After talking to the therapist at the 4wk point, I convinced him that we should continue on the program, at least for another 4 wks. The therapist said the crying normally subsided within two months. She also recommended moving to certain CD's which focus on language development, hopefully to mitigate the language frustration I believe she was having.
Strangely enough, she's only had one uncontrolled meltdown this week, as opposed to about five last week.
Since the listening therapy started, I've noticed clearer speech and improved eye contact. According to the therapist, we'll need to continue the therapy for a long time in order for the gains to "stick." If the meltdowns stop, I can deal with the rest of the program.
Little to do with cellular zeolite, but I still believe the Natural Cellular Defense, along with nutrition (fish oil, Juice Plus+), is the foundation on which the therapy and other interventions succeed.
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6 comments:
Hi, my son is doing the listening stuff too, though not at home. He is supposedly getting half an hour a day, 4 days a week at school. So far, I've gotten nothing but good reports on it helping him to focus and stay calm. We may get the program and headphones for at home at a later time.
We're off the NCD temporarily. I feel I saw some progress, my husband is still unconvinced. I know for a fact that I felt better on it. So we'll see.
Laurie, Have you noticed the focus and calmness at home? The therapists have been talking about these significant gains, but I can't say I'm seeing such a significant difference at home - maybe because I'm around her every day and they only see her once a week.
My husband has always been unconvinced of any progress that she has made. I just can't deny the progress she's made in various areas, from fine motor control to eye contact. Something is making a difference; I believe it's everything working together to make the difference in her.
Let me know when you're ready to give NCD another go. ;)
Debbie
I have noticed more temper tantrums at home, either for no apparent reason or when we tell him 'no.' I don't know if it's the listening thing or not, or even if they are very consistently doing it at school. I haven't seen the OT lately because my husband did the chauferring for a week; hopefully this week I'll run into her.
My husband is terribly worried that we won't ever get any language out of our son. His vocabulary is so fantastic--lots of echolalia--but he's not using it to tell us what he wants or needs. Men are so impatient! I know that we just have to find the right interventions for him and be able to afford them.
IMO, the tantrums with Demi are definitely due to the listening. Strange, but true. She has had markedly fewer lately, which is a welcome improvement. She still gets upset, but she doesn't seem to melt down as quickly and as violently and can recover herself once she understands the situation. Before, she would just meltdown and not be able to comprehend the true situation.
How high a dose did you get Monkey up to before you stopped? Some children require a higher dosage to see gains. (You never know, so you were right to go slow.) A poster on AutismNCD said that her child was on 15 drops, 3x/day and seeing nice gains.
How is your Pampered Chef business going?
I had him up to 3 drops/3x a day at one point. I really think I was seeing a difference, and had we not run out, I probably would have increased the dosage in hopes of more changes.
The business is limping along. I am not very good at securing bookings, though I give a great cooking demo, and I can talk about the kitchen tools all night if given the chance. I have a couple of shows scheduled for November, so we'll see how they go.
I think I would be interested in becoming an NCD distributor, if only for our own personal use, but I just can't get the money together to sign up and place that first order. Money is very tight here, and I may have to go out and get a PT job on top of everything else just to make the ends meet.
Have you read about the kids on AutismNCD? Some are seeing great language gains. The higher dose (up to what he can tolerate), the better results you should expect to see. As soon as I have something on hand to handle Demi's yeast when it flares, I'm planning to increase her dose to see if we'll see more gains on a higher dose. We've been at 3 drops, 3x/day for quite a while. I bumped her up briefly to 5 drops and noticed more stimming.
As far as being an NCD distributor, it's only $30 to join. Then you could get one bottle for the wholesale price of $40, saving $10 on each purchse. The cheapest way is the 3-pk for ~$33/bottle.
If you want to talk, you can call me toll free at 866-296-1945. http://www.ZeoliteWellness.com
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