“An Unruly pupil’s first day at school photo credit Nationaal Archeif, flickr.com

According to the BBC News website, a government-commissioned study showed that special needs parents need help. My response? No kidding! I could have saved the UK govenrment a lot of money and given them the same answer. As a parent to a special needs child, I, too, feel like I have had to fight the system every step of the way. For goodness sake, I’ve been fighting for a diagnosis since B was 9 months old!

I know too many other parents who have to take on their school boards to get their children the help they require. Even help that is explicitly listed in their Idependent Education Plans (IEPs) has gone ignored. And heaven forbid if you want to hold your child back a year! You need to be ready to go toe to toe with the school board for that one.

So, yes, parents of special needs children need help. I am so glad we now have a Resource Teacher to help us wade through the red tape and navigate the school system. We only have her because B’s speech therapist recommended signing up for special needs day care. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have been connected with this agency and we would have been drifting along in ignorance of all the programs and grants we are eligible for. Every special needs family needs help to be an effective advocate on the part of their child.

It makes me fear the future with little B. She bolts. She hasn’t wandered yet, but she certainly could. We have installed locks high up on the doors to the outside so she can’t let herself out, but she has been known to best many of our child safety devices in the past.

Do you have a wanderer? What do you do to give yourself peace of mind?

Another site I have found is Toys, Tools and Treasures. This was recommended by our Occupational Therapist. It is where she gets a lot of the toys she uses in her practice. As a bonus, this is a Canadian site. This site was founded by Wendy Clifton who is an Occupational Therapist and has lots of great toys that assist kids. Check them out!

photo by griffithchris on Flickr.com

Isn’t this a great picture?  This happens to B a lot too.  We’re finding that now that she’s into size 3 clothes, they don’t have as much room for the diaper as the size 2 does, so her diapers peek out the top a lot.

As you can probably guess by my reference to diapers, she’s still wearing them.  B was interested in using her potty seat and getting stickers for about 5 minutes.  Now, she just doesn’t care.  I’ve tried mentioning that people she admire (like her big sister or older cousins) all use the potty and that doesn’t really phase her at all.  She’s not interested in getting panties–I’ve told her that once she’s using the potty, I’ll take her out to buy special big girl panties.  I’m pretty much at a loss here.  I refuse to make potty training into a battle of wills.  We know she can go in the potty, but I don’t think she can feel when she has to go.  She does not feel when she is wet–she does tell us when she’s done a number 2, but number 1 just doesn’t bug her at all.

Our OT’s recommendation was to set a timer and have B sit on the potty every 40 minutes.  That’s all well and good, but have you tried to make a kid go to the bathroom that often when they don’t want to?  I tried it for a short time but found it to be frustrating for both of us.  So I’ve relaxed about it now.  Since I found out that she can still go to school if she is not potty trained, it’s taken some of the pressure off.  Sure, I’d love for her to be diaper free for school next year, but if she isn’t, we’ll just deal with it.  I’m not going to make this into a big issue because she’s just going to dig in her heels and be stubborn if I do.

B recently was approved for an incontinence grant, so we have some help with funding for her diapering needs.  It’s been a blessing to receive it.  If you have any ideas to help us on our journey to being diaper free, please let me know.  We’re going to the OT this week, so hopefully she’ll have some new ideas too.

photo by MoBikeFed on flickr.com

Figuring out how to incorporate different sensory activities into your child’s day can be a little tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a lot of fun for both you and your child.  One activity B really enjoys is riding her tricycle.   She’s not actually a very good rider, but she tries very hard.  There is a lot of heavy sensory input in pushing the pedals and moving her feet around.  B got to the point over the summer where she could actually get the bike to move under her own pedal power as long as it was in a straight line.  It never occured to me how much there actually is in riding the tricycle–figuring out which foot to push down when and how to keep your feet moving around is just part of the whole thing.  I give B a verbal reminder along with a tactile reminder of which foot to move.  I tell her to push down with her knee that is high, and then I’ll touch that knee so she can actually feel which one to move.

We don’t generally ride for very long because B gets tired and frustrated easily.  After she pedals for a bit, she likes to push the bike around, and that’s fine by me because she’s still getting heavy input.

Now one more thing I have to mention here, because it’s not in the picture.  B wears a helmet whenever she’s on her trike.  First, because it’s the law for kids under 18 to wear a helmet and second, because I want to keep her safe.

I’m looking forward to the day when we can take a family bike ride together. 

and speaking of tricycles, how cool is this one??

with a cool helmet, of course!

photo by hyperscholar on Flickr.com

Both of my kids had lots of fun dressing up in their costumes tonight for Halloween and it reminded me of how much B loves to dress up any day.  Dress up is a great play for my delayed toddler because it helps her to hone her fine and gross motor skills.  Playing dress up has helped her to learn to get herself dressed (of course, that doesn’t mean she’ll actually do it when we want her to).  I think part of why she likes it is that the costumes surround her and give her some deep tissue sensory input.  It also helps with her imaginitive play.  She is currently a doggie and is having fun barking and hopping like a kangaroo (because that is the costume her sister is wearing).

We have a princess dress up box that my oldest was given when she was a toddler.  You don’t need to buy anything expensive though.  A dress up box just needs some old clothes, bathrobes, baby blankets make great capes, costume jewelry is great for them to accessorize with, purses, hats, you might be surprised what you can come up with to make your own dress up box.  One friend of mine waited until after Halloween to go to the store and buy marked down costumes to use for her costume box.  The point is it doesn’t have to be expensive and it can provide hours of creative play and sensory stimulation for your special needs child.

photo by lepiaf.geo on Flickr

In one of my most popular posts I shared about B’s delayed echolalia which she displayed when she asked me to pick her up (B would ask, “Carry you, mama?). Then I posted a celebration when she asked, “Mama, you like you carry me?” Well today, we can have an all out party, because B asked me today, “Mama, can you carry me?” We’ve been working in speech therapy on asking for things (”can I have?”) and we’ve started working on directing her questions to who she is talking to (either with eye contact or by name). I’m so pleased to see this progress! Tomorrow is her last speech therapy appointment for this session. I’m really amazed what a difference eight weeks has made for her. I really believe early intervention has had a huge positive impact.

photo by whgrad on Flickr.com

We’ve been working at integrating some activities daily to meet B’s sensory requirements. These activities were suggested by our Occupational Therapist in her Sensory Diet.  We try to add a lot of physical play to B’s day.  As you can see the little guy in the picture is using a rocker (albeit upside-down!).  B has a rocking horse she likes to ride.  We add imagination play to it as well.  She’ll tell me that her pony is hungry and ask me for carrots or an apple for him.  I’ll pretend to give the food to her and she “feeds” her pony before getting back on.  We also have some pop-up tents which she can crawl through and she gets lots of movement as well as heavy input with this.  Here is a tent similar to what we have:

We’ve also been using a spinner which was loaned to us by our Resource Teacher. It is something like the Sit and Spin:

. This is something we may have to invest in because B loves it. It seems to give her a good amount of heavy input and she thinks it’s fun too (our older daughter loves this too).

Other physical activites we do are fairly simple; go for a walk, have B put her laundry away (I give her one piece at a time and have her come back and forth to get them–keeps her busy and gives her input), putting the wet clothes into the dryer, helping to make her bed. The possibilities are really endless!

If you have some suggestions, please share them here! I’m always looking for new ways add heavy inputs.

The video shows clips from the first two legs of season 15.  Zev explains about Aspergers’ Syndrome.  My favourite parts are when he gives his coat away and when he becomes “The Duck Whisperer”.

All in all, it was a great episode, but I was sad to see my favourites go out that way.  Here is a clip of them being interviewed on the Bonnie Hunt Show.  Pay special attention when Bonnie asks Zev about his Aspergers’.  Too funny!