ECI Therapy from the Perspective of Daddy

Timothy had another therapy session, today it was with the speech therapist. She was very surprised and excited to see Timothy's progress. Today we worked on the "B" sound. When the therapist was leaving Timothy stood at the window, waving and saying Ba Ba. I wish I had this on video because it was very exciting. He has never done this before. I can't wait to see what happens next.

ECI Therapy Session

The therapist had to write a progress note and have me sign it. Quoting from this note "Summary of Activities we worked on today: Timothy played with his yellow schoolbus, caterpillar, tunnel, and musical toy. He manipulated items on the musical toy and imitated by watching his Mom. We named his actions and made sounds for appropriate toys. He vocalized various sounds with inflection. His efforts were praised"

She was really shocked with the noises he was making - she said "Are you sure his evaluation was only 3 weeks ago?" She even looked it up to make sure because she was so surprised by the progress he'd made during this time. She asked "How'd you do it" jokingly.

This would've been the perfect opportunity to talk about how we have Timothy on a program and the benefits of creeping and crawling and such, but I didn't tell her. I thought, "How am I going to convince a THERAPIST that the answer to developmental delays isn't THERAPY?" So, I just laughed.

I'm glad I'm not paying for this, but I'm not as disappointed as I thought I would be. It was stupid, but not tremendously stupid. Basically, she sat on the floor and played with Timothy. She pushed the schoolbus and said "beep beep" and then she said "look, eyes! eyes! These are his eyes!" Stuff like that that anybody would do. It did irritate me a little bit when he pulled on her watch and she said "That's a tick tock!," but everything else was fine. She was just playing with him and talking to him. Nothing special. I do find it strange, though, that they think that's the ANSWER to his delays. We've been doing that since he was born!!

He's supposed to have another therapist come out within a week.

Babbling

ECI came a month ago and our goal over the next 6 months is to get Timothy babbling. He's getting his first therapy session today in an hour and a half.



What do you know - they haven't even started coming yet and he's already met his goal!

Sign

I wanted a really cute picture of Timothy with a sign that said "I crept a mile today." Well, Timothy wanted to play with the sign so I really didn't get a great one.

The last picture is when he crawled his last 20 feet and hit the mile mark and we picked him up and cheered - doesn't he look proud of himself?

A mile is a long, long way for a little baby to crawl! We're so proud of him!!

Milestone!!

Mommy: It's time to eat, Timothy.
Timothy: baaaaaaa?
Mommy: Yes, it's time to eat.
Timothy: boooooo baaaaaaa?
Mommy: Let's go eat.
Timothy: maaaaaaamo?
Mommy: You want some cheese? I have cheese!
Timoth races to his highchair.

Behold the power of cheese.

ROUGH day

Today has been a ROUGH day.

To say the very least, Lady is having some problems...adjusting. She is an OUTDOOR dog but she doesn't seem to know that. She keeps somehow getting through the fence and barking at the front door until I let her in, take her to the back, and throw her out. I've been doing this all day.

It's been storming and we've been without electricity for some of the day.

Timothy really wants Lady in the house and he keeps trying to get me to let Lady in the house.

On the positive side, I got all of Timothy's program and creeping in today - woohoo! Soo we still have a few more hours until daddy gets home and I'm pooped - it's been a miserable day. I *want* to let Timothy watch a video (he hasn't watched anything today), but I just read an article about how tv is horrible for children so I decide time could be spent much better doing something else.

I think of what we could do (we've already read several books today) and I decide I'll let him do a sink or float science experiment. I fill up a large container with water, get some items that sink or float, and let him "play". First thing he does is splash the water everywhere. I resolve not to get frustrated - of course that will happen with water. So I shake off my frustration, sit down, smile, and say "I wonder if this toy car will sink or float!?!" and Timothy proceeds to pick up the ENTIRE container of water (it was heavy) and pour it on me.

I'm soaked through to my undergarments.

Thus ended our science experiment.

Lady

I don't know why, but we got a dog. We kept saying that we wouldn't get one until Timothy was MUCH older, we didn't really want anything else we have to keep alive, we don't want to be tied down, but, alas, we fell in love with this puppy.

Her name is Lady, and Timothy absolutely adores her. If she'd stop whining for us to pay attention to her ALL THE TIME, I'd love her too.

Course Recommendation

If you live close to the DFW area and have small children (or want to have children soon), have I got a course to recommend to you!

David and I watched the recorded version of this and it was very informative. They focus very little on how to teach your child (besides some reading), but they focus a LOT on how to make sure your child's brain is functioning well.

David and I decided not to go to this one because 1) we have a PERSONALIZED program for our son's specific issues and 2) we've already seen it on video, but we really thought about going because it's THAT informative.

From what I heard, they still have some open spots left in this class, so there's still time to register!

The Well Rounded Child Seminar presented at Pinnacle Performance Institute 400 Chisholm Place, Suite 411 Plano, TX 75075 Saturday, June 23, 2007 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Donna Bateman, Certified Child Development Evaluator and mother of eight children, will lead you through the Integrative Developmental Progression Chart. Find out the who, what, when, where and why of your child’s physical, emotional and neurological development and the critical role you play in it. Who Should Attend: Parents, teachers, extended family members, therapists, and other serving children will gain insight and practical knowledge that will shed new light on the orderly development of a child’s brain in all areas. Course Objectives: By the end of the Seminar, you will walk away with an understanding of: • how your child learns • the root cause of most learning problems • the 7 main areas of brain function • the order in which the brain learns all functions • the significant milestones of brain development • how to support and stimulate the healthy development of the brain • what you can do TODAY if your child is not developing properly in some area • the joy of understanding your child and participating in their development and learning For information regarding this course or registration, contact Donna Bateman at 214-502-2827 or donna.bateman at gmail.com. Seminar fee is $99 and includes course materials. Certificates for 6 hours of Continuing Education will be presented.

Almost one month report

This Friday will be one month since Timothy's evaluation and, quite honestly, it sorta feels like it's been a lot longer than that... :lol:
I want to give an update on his progress/changes/setbacks
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We've done most of Timothy's program just about everyday. The kid is crawling all the time - we don't pick him up but once or twice a day to carry him away from something he shouldn't be playing with. Lately especially, we've been pushing him really hard (especially my husband), but I'm glad we have been. We both know he'll be walking very soon and we want to heal his BI as much as we can before then. We just want so much for Timothy that we always feel a sense of urgency - we want to do what we can right NOW.
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A month ago, Timothy was not making many different sounds. He was pretty quiet. He would occasionally say some consonants, but mostly he said vowel sounds "ah, ah, oooh, ah, ah". It took three weeks, but Timothy is now CONSISTENTLY babbling - a lot!! He makes "m, g, and b" sounds with the occasional "d". Today was an exciting day - he said "mama" AND "bye bye". Mama was [b]VERY [/b]clear!! I'm just so glad that I was spending time with my sister and parents today so that they could hear it, too - they were very impressed!!
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A month ago, Timothy couldn't locate a sound above his head. Now he can EVERY single time. He turns when a door opens or when a car starts next door or when I turn on the vacuum. The "locate the sounds" part of the program has become a game...a game that he really enjoys. He's doing GREAT here.
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A month ago, Donna yelled in his face and he did nothing. We honked the car horn and he did nothing. Very quickly after starting the program he started to do much better - he cries at the airhorn, car stereo, and scream. It took a good 2 weeks of work to get him to start crying at the car horn, but he does that now, too. HOWEVER I emailed Donna to ask her if we could tone down this part of the program and he must have read my mind or something, because we didn't even reduce it yet and we started having problems. Yesterday, he didn't respond to ANY threatening sounds - he looked rather irritated, but did nothing. I don't guess we'll be reducing his program anytime soon!! I guess we took two steps forward and then one step back - any progress is still progress though (I know my neighbors think I'm nuts for letting my kid crawl outside so I can blast the car horn, though - ha!).
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A month ago, I was really sad and worried about all the problems Timothy has. Now, I'm not so much at all. I have faith that G-d is going to give us the strength and endurance we need to work with Timothy until he's well. I've seen results, results I wouldn't expect from less than a month of spending time with my son. More importantly, though, I really feel this program pulled us all together as a family, and I'm proud of that. I've had so, so much support from our family it's been overwhelming.
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I can't wait to see the progress he makes in the days and weeks and months to come! It's exciting to know that we're holding our son's future in our hands, and we're going to make sure that he has everything he needs!!

Playdate Pictures

Here are some pictures from Timothy's playdate on Thursday. He had a great time playing with Maddy, and we'll certainly have to do it again!

Busy!

It's been a busy couple of days, to say the least! Timothy's cousins came out and played and swam with him on Wednesday, and then on Friday they went with him to Animal House parties. He had a great time!!

Our Star

Someone asked if we'd seen any more improvement. I certainly think so. We moved on to Stage 2 of the sound program because he passed his first stage. He now finds sounds from another room. This is working really well, especially with the radio. I'll turn on his favorite tape and then move the radio to another room, and he'll crawl and get it. Then we'll do that again and again and again. We'll do the same with a whistle or shaker or bell or anything else, also. We were outside and he turned to look when someone started a mower and then again when a big truck drove by, so that makes me really happy!!

We'll take any progress, regardless of how small - any progress is progress, indeed.

Twins - Ahhhhhh!!!

Science Museum

We went to the Science Museum on vacation and Timothy LOVED it! If we only lived closer...

Vacation Pictures

Seahorse

Granny reading Seahorse book to Timothy

Tissue

I went on ahead to try to get Timothy to follow me, and what did he do...?

Evaluation

Today at lunch, David prayed "Lord, let the evaluators have intelligence when they see Timothy..." I'm not sure this was an answered prayer.

They scored Timothy's language abilities at 4 months (over 6 months behind). I completely agree with this - he makes no consonant sound and does not string syllables together.

They don't know why he's not talking and it doesn't seem like they care why. We're going to do "therapy" 2x a month to try to get him to talk.

Right now, our "home program" (the basis of the program) is to try to get Timothy to talk (really? Yes, really). We are to talk to Timothy and say things like "Hi" and "Up" and "Down" and "On" and "Off" and "More". When the therapist comes, she'll say those words, too. We are to make animal sounds like "mooo" and "tweet, tweet" at least twice a day. They wrote this all down for me in case I couldn't remember it all.

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I told them we already talk to our child and they just looked at me.

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Our tax dollars at work.

Happy

Timothy has been very happy and very silly lately!! He's also been doing really well - trying to make the same sounds we make (still not consonants, though) and communicating with sign language.

Last night we were eating and he signed more, so we gave him more toast. Then he looked at us, disappointed, and signed "more CHEESE". It was just SO neat to have our baby talk to us!!

His ECI evaluation is at 3:30 today and then his "family planning meeting" follows it at 5:15...I'll tell you about it when I get a chance!

Timothy's MawMaw and PawPaw came out and crawled with him yesterday - he had a lot of fun and did a lot of crawling, too!!

He's in the towel because he just had a bath!