Paging Dr. Conklin

Spencer diagnosed me with an "ear injection" this morning. "I have an ear injection?" I asked. "Yes," he said, "because your diaphragm isn't working." Guess during all our anatomy talks I forgot to mention that your ear is nowhere near your diaphragm. Sigh...

Our Not So Simple Lives

How do you teach children not to take what they have for granted when we live in a society where most people have so much more than they need? I feel as though most of the children I know have a sense of entitlement about things. I understand our inner desires to be comfortable and be entertained, and I see how our society feeds into this. From within and without we are pushed to have more and live better. There are children all over the world who live with so much less and aren't any less happy. Our children place far too much value on things: video games, computers, television, toys, etc. I wish I could make my own kids understand that we don't need stuff to lead happy and fulfilled lives. I'm influenced by the same forces as everyone else, but I long to live a more simple life, both for myself and as an example to my children.

Growing Sentences

A few days ago when I asked Alex why he was upset he tearfully replied, in a spontaneous five-word sentence, "The Leapster TV is gone." Just yesterday he uttered a spontaneous ten-word sentence: "I want to get into the van and go home." Only problem . . . we were already there!

Out of the mouths of babes

Spencer: "Work, go to school, AND take care of us? That's a lot!"

I Love FREEdom

We took Alex and Spencer to their first movie at the theater today. We saw "Ponyo." It was cute. Alex made it about halfway through, and probably ate his weight in popcorn. I wish we had one of those theaters that does the sensory friendly film showings around here. Then Alex could have stayed for the whole thing and we wouldn't have had to worry about him disturbing anyone.

On the way home we found free wooden bunk beds for the boys. Score! Spencer is so excited!

Best Indoor Therapeutic Device Ever!

Vestibular input really helps Alex get focused when he's scattered. We hung a chin-up bar from their bedroom door and added an ordinary swing. Voila! Vestibular input whenever he needs it. He's very happy!

New Developments

We took Alex to see a new developmental pediatrician on Friday. She is local and comes highly recommended by many parents and professionals. She said she sees so many wonderful things in Alex that she just wants to pull out of him. She feels strongly that Alex would benefit more from being in a dedicated classroom at the Annex. Apparently they are better equipped to draw out children like him and get them to interact socially. I believe that if he were more aware of other people and more interested in interacting his language would blossom. It's all in there, but he needs motivation to use it. I was considering checking out the Annex for kindergarten, and now I definitely will be looking into it.

I received a message on Facebook from a woman who has developed a discrete video modeling system for teaching children on the spectrum things such as social skills, spatial relationships, and reading. Her own children have benefited from it, as well as others. I had never heard of DVM before, but now I'm doing some research on video modeling for children with autism and it looks promising. At any rate, it can't hurt. I'd be happy to share the link to her video with anyone who wants it, she just asked me not to post it on a public site.