Our miracles in progress: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Our 3 little Texans!

Enjoy these pictures of the kids on GO TEXAN DAY!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

A miracle that is slowly coming true ...

You know, many of Duchis' therapists at NTS and also Miss Wyche at Silverlake are saying that if Duchis continues progressing at the current rate, she could go to school next year to kindergarten in the standard class. Can you imagine that????!!!! We still need to work a lot to start bringing kids to the playroom to play with her, but only the fact that people are starting to visualize Duchis at school with other kids is kind of surreal ... For now, let's keep showing her in loving ways how to be more flexible and how to play more things with you. She has come a LOOOONG way!! Let's keep inspiring her to grow even more!!!!!

Here are pictures of our Kindergarten boy, Tony, he is doing great!!! He loves going to school, which is so fantastic to see!!! This is at his Chinese New Year Parade!

Summary of Group meeting (February 13, 2011)

Hi everybody,

This was the first group meeting in which I had videos ready of several of you playing with the kids. This time we watched videos of Cari, Jordan, and Shelby with Liam. I think it was a good experience to see each other and see yourselves playing with the kids. Just today I also showed Erin and Maddie videos of themselves. I will keep doing it as much as I can with the time that I have because I know it will help you all to be more effective with the kids.

In addition to the videos, we talked about Liam and Duch and brainstormed ideas. Here is what we came up with:

- We talked about Yulene's exercises and how important they are for the kids. Please scroll down to other posts to see all the videos I took of Yulene's exercises.
- About Liam's potty accidents, the reality is there are many theories why they are happening. Every person I talk to has a different idea. So, we are working on it at different fronts. The important thing is to not react negatively to any accident. We can be loving even when we try don't understand why he is doing something. This too shall pass and all the things we are doing will get him to use the potty again. We know that. For now, remind him to go and he usually just goes. If you don't remind him, he may wait until you leave the room and he will go on the tile. So, please remind him during your session and before you leave the room. Everytime he goes, he gets a little snack (blue chips on the shelf) as a little reward. Also, celebrate him and congratulate him. Don't get frustrated. He is adorable and he will go back to his potty ways in no time.

- Also about Liam, Megan recommended to play with water a bit since he may be liking right now the sound of water. Some ideas:
Barbie pool
Blue pool
Use the sink
Use the bathtup
Use spray bottles
Bring sponges

- About the drawing, feel free to draw all Liam wants. Just remember to be enthusiastic, to really love sharing that moment with him, to mixed it up, to celebrate his talking, to encourage his looking. Several of the videos we had with the team with Megan and durign the meeting were about Liam's drawing with you guys and several of you said that they looked kind of boring. Enjoy the moment and keep showing him new says.

- About Duchis we talked about pushing her in terms of children's games. She can get bored if we always do the same things. Use all the characters she has (little people, sesame street, Barbies, Mickey Mouse, princesses, etc) to play games such as:
Simon Says
Musical Chairs
Hot Potato
Board Games

- With Liam, please DON'T READ HIS MIND. We don't want to be difficult, but he needs to get the message that we don't know what he wants unless he tells us. He may get a bit frustrated at the beginning when he sees that he is not gettign his things without saying much, but he will soon realize that WHEN HE TALKS, WE MOVE! He can do it, that's for sure!!!

- About Duch, she is sometimes getting stuck when having to put things away or when finishing activities. She may start with: "let's put music away, music is away, music is over, music goes to the closet, etc, etc" In those cases, we agreed that instead of repeating to her: "yes, it is away, yes, look it is in teh closet, etc ...." it is better to just moved on and not say anything that she is saying. Just tell her: "YES, now we are doing to have lunch" Or "sure, now we will play with the Barbies, it is so much fun to play with Barbies, etc" Just move on, and she will move on.

- Also about Duch, sometimes she starts telling us "Are you done screaming?" when she thinks we will correct her about something. We agreed to avoid the word SCREAMING and also to answer literally to what she is saying. If she says "are you done screaming?" We can say: "I am using my happy voice and I" and just move on. Don't use the words screaming or whining or crying. Be loving and be patient and help her to move on. All this will help with her flexibility.

Here is another picture!

Video Dusya and Yulene 3/3 (arching exercise)

Hi everybody, I just finished uploading Dusya's videos with Yulene here. Please scroll down and watch them. This is a huge investment Antonio and I are making in time and money to help the kids catch up in many developmental stages they skipped, so we really need your help doing these exercises daily as part of your job in the team. The videos are short and easy, so please memorize the exercises, take notes, bring your notes and do the exercises as part of your sessions. The more we do them, the faster the kids will progress. The feet exercises for Liam also apply to Dusya. And the balancing exercise for Dusya also applies to Liam. Thanks!

This video I had to upload in VIMEO, so please click here to see it:

http://vimeo.com/20126758

Friday, February 18, 2011

Video Dusya and Yulene 2/3 (the basis of crawling) + one application

This are the exercises to teach Dusya to crawl. It seemes crawling is an important step in kids' development but my kids kind of skip that step:

Here is the application after doing the crawling exercises:

Video Dusya and Yulene 1/3 (feet and legs bending and stretching) + two applications of the exercise

Once she does this exercise, she is much better balancing on one foot or stepping on Yulene's frog toy:

Please review Liam's videos with Yulene

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Group meeting: Sunday Feb 13 (4pm-6pm)

Ladies, see you on Sunday for the group meeting! We will set up our action plan for the next month. Since the meeting is the day before Valentine's day, here is a picture of Duchis' Valentine's tree. It is really Maddie's tree, but we are borrowing it during February :) Look at all the great decorations many of you have made with Duch. See you at the meeting.

Tomorrow, a new week starts

Last week felt kind of "hard" in this house with Liam and his potty accidents, the three kids with runny noses, Dusya with her five days of low-grade fever, Dusya crying a lot, Liam wanting people to draw for him all the time, Tony jumping around the house, Dusya waking up at night, cold weather, last minute changes in the schedule, etc, etc.

There are times when I look at my kids and they may look like they are going backwards -- specially when we are doing some strong clearings in their bodies ... In those moments, I choose to believe that Liam's accidents, Dusya's crying, Tony's jumping are all TEMPORARY. They will go away. I think the Universe and God sometimes want to remind us that this is a journey and that we need to live in the PRESENT. Antonion and I tend to project in the future that day when the kids are ready to go to school and Antonio and I will have an empty house from 8am to 3pm like all other parents have. Can you imagine that day? All kids having friends and enjoying their time at school. The silence in the house :) And then 3 kids coming back to school at 3pm.

The reality is that we are not there, YET, so it is more helpful to focus on the PRESENT and to tell myself: "Today, I will draw for Liam and share that love he has for all the fascinating vehicles in the world". "Today, I will relax when Duch cries and will show her that she can get so many more things done when she chooses to be happy." "Today, I will admire Tony's energy as he jumps around the house considering that this is the boy who had a shorter leg and that leg is actually growing and catching up the longer leg."

The key is also to sleep as much as I can. The more I sleep, the calmer I am :) All this to say that there will always be some days when the kids don't look too happy to play. On those days, and really every day, renew your intention of going to the playroom with them: "Today, I will have as much fun as possible" and then go into the playroom, and have fun :)

Speaking about balloons!

Take a look at this video and posting from Son-Rise about how to use toys in the most creative ways!

http://blog.autismtreatmentcenter.org/2011/01/balloons-away.html

Notes from my last consultation with Megan on Feb 3rd

I talked to Megan last week. I told her that Liam was really focused on people drawing to him. Here is what Megan said:

1) If Liam wakes up at 5:30am and the first thing he asks for is a marker for me to draw, that really means that he needs the drawing for whatever reason it is. It may feel safe for him. It is predictable. He is in control. It feels good. He is taking care of himself. He likes the visual stimulation. For whatever reason it is, he wants us to share the drawing with him, so Megan said to do whatever he wants us to do. She reminded me that he will be flexible again and then we can try variations and new games, but she said that when he looks inflexible, we should not fight it, but embrace it. If he needs it, we give it to him because we love his drawing interests. So, ladies, let's continue embracing this drawing phase that Liam is in. The more he gets teh drawing the way HE wants it, the more he will be ready to let go and change the game the way WE want it. But first, he needs to feel in control and be sure that we like what he likes.

2) About the throwing things from the balcony, Megan said, we should not react in an alarming way, but just tell him: "hey, remember, we don't throw things over the balcony". We can also explain to him that it is not safe and that there is a difference between a hard toy and a soft toy. She said we should throw lots of soft toys in teh playroom with him.

3) Megan thinks that right now Liam is interested in "visual stimulation" and that may be why he likes the drawing and the throwing. Some ideas he gave us are:
- hang party streamers from teh cealing
- play with pompoms and batons
- maybe a remote control helicopter
- water guns
- spray bottles
- balloons flying like rockets or like balls
- bubbles

I did get balloons and a helium tank and Liam had a lot of fun with Ashley blowing balloons and letting them go. Also, when we ran out of helium, we just blew the balloons ourselves and he loves when teh balloons fly away. We also put stickers on balloons. I want to hang balloons upside down from the cealing, so I am hoping some of you can help me with that project this week. I also have party streamers to hang from his cealing. And, I have bottles of bubbles, too. Keep thinking of visual things that Liam could like. I know he loved to play with teh colored scarves with Kenia, too.

Here are some pictures of Liam throwing leaves in the backyard!