John's New Results

John was assessed on Sept. 8, 2008 for entry into the START program. I recently received his results. At the time of the assessment, John was 34 months old. There have been 3 assessments where I can compare his progress. You'll see the May 2008 scores, which were the Regional Center's. Second, you will see his Casa Colina July 2008 update scores. Finally, you'll see his latest Sept. 2008 scores.

---------- May (30 mths ) / July (32 mths ) / Sept. (34 months)
Gross Motor --- 26 months / 26 months / 16 months (??)
Fine Motor --- 21 months / 23 months / 31 months
Cognitive ---- 21 months / 24 months / 28 months
Language Receptive ---- 6 months / 17 months / 33 months
Language Expressive ---- 9 months / 17 months / 31 months
Socialization ---- 10-17 months / 10-17 months / 29 months
Self Help ---- 23 months / 23 months / 24 months

Other than Gross Motor, John improved since July and dramatically since May.

During the time from June-Sept., he attended Early Start Preschool at Casa Colina, had Speech Therapy two times a week, 5 hours a week of in-home, and 40 sessions of Neurofeedback. He began OT/SI the first week of September.

It is worth noting here: Neurofeedback claims training can make a child with autism attentive, calm, and sociable. We have seen certain behaviors disappear and have watched John become calm. John is a different person today than he was 6 months ago when all of this started. It is hard to say what specifically helped John because we've been doing so much. However, the Neurofeedback seems to show us some patterns that are worth looking into. First, when we changed his protocals (the location of the EEG monitor, training a specific part of the brain), he began to have accidents in the seat and aggressive behavior seemed to manifest. We removed those protocals and went back to the old ones and there were no more accidents in the seat during the sessions and his aggressive behvaior seemed to go away.
Secondly, for the last 4 weeks, John has not attended Neurofeedback (he went 3 times over the last 4 weeks, as opposed to 5 days a week that we were doing before)--- first, due a family vacation and then, due to a death in the family. Over the last week-to-week-and-a-half, Bill and I have noticed that typical Autistic behavior (and some sensory issues) that had seemed to disappear has returned.

Things like:
Biting & chewing on shirt
Biting own skin
Chewing on objects
Frustration level is awful
Cries inconsolable again
Angry - bangs hands on table or objects when upset
Has been hard to take out in public - clingy, whiney, cranky, tantrums
Cries when I leave him in class

Tomorrow, John will begin a normal schedule of Neurofeedback training of 5 days a week. I'll report back to see if these disappear once we resume it. The goal of Neurofeedback is to train the brain to self regulate. After a repeated number of sessions, the brain will "remember" its training and be able to self regulate on its own.

He also has developed a cold. I notice that everything seems to be magnified when he's sick.

This week is a big week. Tomorrow, we go back to Neurofeedback. Tuesday, we see Dr. Baumen, an autistic specialist. Wednesday is John's assessment with the public school system and Friday is Halloween!

A little this...a little that

Catching up from the weekend....
Katie has developed into a wonderful swimmer over the last 4 days! Once she felt in control under the water, she has excelled rapidly. She glides both on her stomach and her back across the pool. She swims underwater and comes up for breaths. She is learning how to use her arms to stroke. She jumps in without someone catching her and actually loves it now.

John's last day of Early Start is tomorrow! He will move into the START program next week.

On Friday, John has an evaluation with Foothill Presbyterian Hospital for Occupational Therapy/Sensory Integration (finally!!!)

Now for today...

John had speech today, but instead, they began his START evaluation. Step One is to evaluate his play to see at what level he is "playing' at. The idea here is that autistic children tend to take everyday objects and use them in different ways, instead of the intended use.

So, Tonyia gave John a baby doll, hair brush, bar of soap, bottle, and toothbrush. He started by brushing her teeth. Although, at first, he picked up the bottle and the toothbrush, which looked odd, but then he used the bottle as the toothpaste and then proceeded to brush her teeth. He then grabbed the brush and brushed her hair. Tonyia asked John to give her a bath and he used the soap on her legs. She then took off the babies clothes and put foam soap on the baby's tummy and John grabbed a tissue and cleaned the baby. Tonyia then assisted John in dressing the baby and John brushed her hair again, pretty hard. Tonyia told John the baby was crying and gave him the tissue to wipe her eyes. John wiped away the tears and picked up a cup out of Tonyia's bin. He grabbed the bottle and "poured" something in the cup and took a drink himself and then gave some to the baby.

Tonyia set up a house with a bed, sofa, TV with DVD player, table, chairs, and a slide with a ladder. She then gave John a boy, girl, and later, a mom. He laid the mom on the ground. He had the girl sit on the couch. He then took the TV into his hands and played with it for a long time... there was a "pretend" DVD that went in and out of a hole in the TV and he kept putting it in. Tonyia eventually took it away from him. He then took the boy and had him climb the stairs and slide down the slide. Then he asked for bubbles.

He played with cars, play dough, and bubbles and it was time to go home.

John had another session of Neurofeedback today. We are on session number 20. The first 20 minutes is spent on the part of the brain that controls sleep and impulse control. John was so quiet and calm. The next 20 minutes made John a little agitated, as it has the last few sessions. They added an element that helps with motivation. Today, we decided that it may be too much for John. We are going to eliminate that protocol from the training and add 10 minutes to each of the other protocols. The last protocol is training the part of the brain that deals with social/emotional responses.

Things I've noticed since beginning Neurofeedback:

• biting of skin stopped
  
• chewing of shirt stopped
• doesn't drag his toes anymore while walking
• Achieving goals rapidly at Casa Colina
• Speech improving
  
• Falls asleep easier
  

Now, I'm not saying Neurofeedback alone has contributed to these things. John is working hard and there are a lot of PEOPLE helping John, but I am beginning to believe that Neurofeedback is enabling him to be present for learning and helping with behavior. The goal of Neurofeedback is to calm the brain down enough to teach it how to self-regulate itself. Through brain self regulation, the nervous system no longer feels under threat. The body is able to think beyond itself and begin to "take the blinders off", seeing the world around them. When we feel under threat, we naturally get "tunnel vision". When our brains cannot self regulate, we will operate as if we are "under attack", manifesting itself in ADD, ADHD, migraine headaches, some Autistic behavior, sensory issues, pain in the body, etc. Through self-regulation, the brain is able to calm itself and the outward symptoms disappear.

John will enter S.T.A.R.T.

S.T.A.R.T. stands for Specialized Team for Autism Related Therapies

There is an opening for John in the Casa Colina START program beginning in September!

The program is one-on-one therapy through all areas of development. It concentrates on building social, sensory-motor, play, communication, adaption, and cognitive skills.

He will go through an in home evaluation in all areas to determine his Individualized therapy plan in each area.

There will be 4 kids in the class with 4 therapists -- they have some group activities like circle time, snack time, and project, but then each kid rotates through speech therapy, occupational therapy, imaginary play, etc. He will receive the Occupation Therapy/SI through this program, although he is still schedule at the end of the month to have an OT screening through Foothill Presbyterian Hospital.

This will replace the Early START program he is in now, which is the "mommy and me" preschool. It has a similar format, but is more structured with less kids, one-on-one, and no parent participation in the class. Parents watch in the observation room. He will attend, I believe two times a week. We are awaiting Regional Center's approvals to go through.