Motor Planning/Apraxia

A lot of people tend to ask me what is "wrong" with Isaiah.  Below I have attached several links.  The first link is regarding Apraxia which is linked to Isaiah's speech delay.  Apraxia or motor planning is genetic.  I feel bad because sometimes Mark says "It's my fault...it's in my genes."  That's just silly of him to feel that way and I tell him that all the time.  While it's genetic....the severity of Apraxia or motor planning varies.  The second link is regarding Sensory Processing Disorder.  This is a very confusing and very wide spectrum issue.  Isaiah only fits into a small part of this and has some high functioning and low functioning attributes of SPD.  In the long run I don't look at any of these as a label for Isaiah...that's not what I set out to do.  I look at Isaiah as himself...my favorite 2 1/2 year old.  And I'm blessed that I know how to help him manage his day.  And I'm pretty sure he knows how to manage mine!

I should note that Apraxia and motor planning are something that he will grow out of....he will talk it will just be a slow process.  And the sensory nervous system keeps maturing until the age of 12 so the fact that we are giving him the tools that he needs now will only bode positive tools and results in the future!
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/apraxia.aspx
http://www.sinetwork.org/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html

6 Month Review

Today we had Isaiah's six month review marking six months since he was first evaluated for the Early Intervention program here in Illinois.  The meeting was great.  I felt so much love in our tiny living room.  Isaiah's coordinator, our social worker/behavior expert, our Speech Therapist, and our Occupational Therapist were all present for our meeting (our Developmental Therapist was on vacation).  I looked around the room several times and I remember thinking to myself that I almost don't feel worthy of the amazing team of experts that are all focused on Isaiah succeeding.  Each therapist talked a bit about Isaiah and it was nothing new ..... Isaiah's speech therapist talked about Isaiah's motor planning and Apraxia and how it would be a slooooooow progress with him with talking.  What really got me in tears was Isaiah's Occupational Therapist.  She is an amazing woman with years of experience and she talked about how well behaved Isaiah is and how he wants to please adults.  She talked about how far he had come and then spent a few minutes telling me what a good Mom I was to him and how I have "figured out" how to best help him with his day to day activities.  Both she and our social worker praised my efforts to follow through on everything all of his therapists have told me to do.  Also for instance...I have figured out Isaiah's sensory issues and how to best help him deal with them.  For instance Isaiah is an EXTREMELY picky eater BUT he craves movement activities.  So before dinner I take him to the park, or to an indoor bounce house...etc.   Or we will sing songs while he jumps on Mark and mine's bed.  I guess most parents in the program don't get that part of it.  I don't really know why....I only want my little man to succeed.  But it helps him to focus.  I'm getting off track.  Shelly (Isaiah's OT) spoke about how much effort I've put into helping Isaiah out with his sensory issues as well as how good of a boy Isaiah is.  She spoke about how Isaiah always hold the door for her when she comes for her sessions, how he knows it's time to work when she arrives, and how he is willing to learn.  We talked about his frustrations when it comes to his lack of language/sensory issues..etc.  I had to tell myself not to cry several times during the meeting because it's an indescribable feeling having such qualified people recognize your efforts as a mom and to care so much for your son.   It was good for Mark to be able to sit in on this meeting with minimal interruptions from work to see what amazing people we have working with us (he is usually working during Isaiah's therapy sessions), and I think it really solidified his realization of what an amazing program Isaiah is in.  In the mean time I still to this day cannot comprehend why God chose me to be Isaiah's Mom.  I feel so undeserving of such an amazing little boy.

11 Months Down...Even More to Go?

Well today marks eleven months in Chicago.  Next month marks one year in Chicago for those of you who couldn't do to math.   Anyway Chicago is in the running to be the city that Mark and I have lived in the longest.  We will either be moving at the end of August or the end of September into hopefully a larger rental house.  Although I've become quite fond of our neighbors in our current neighborhood and will be sad to leave them...especially the kindergarten aged boy who lives across the street and now comes over daily to ask if Isaiah can come outside to play. 

This whole preschool thing has been a huge deciding factor on which suburbs we are considering.  I really can't believe that Isaiah starts preschool in 6 months.  The school district that we are currently considering has an amazing preschool campus with awesome speech assistance for Isaiah as well as having OT's on their staff as well.  The school offers busing as well for the preschoolers, to which my immediate thought was 'Are you crazy?!?'  I'm not going to put my three year old on a bus wondering where Mommy is and where he is going.  No matter where we live I'm planning on driving him to and from school.  It looks like he will have school Monday-Thursday and every other Friday for 2 1/2 hours.  I'm not sure if I'm ready for this.  I do have to give lots of credit for the poor lady whoever she is who answered the phone today and sat through my millions of questions regarding curriculum and speech services offered etc.  Anyway I can't believe that I'm about to be a parent of a preschooler soon. 

In other news Noah who turns 10 months old (really 10 months!?!?!?!?!!) tomorrow is trying so hard to walk!  He will take a step or two and then fall down.  It won't be long!  I will be excited when this biting stage goes away.  I've never had a "biter" before and I don't much care for it!  My Mom cracked me up when she said that Noah needed to come with a warning label.  She was right...it should read CAUTION...will bite, scratch, claw, or pull hair without warning....interact with caution.  All kidding aside these boys are the biggest blessing in our lives and I can't imagine our lives without them.   Children really do bind a family and even though parenting is the hardest job in the world it truly is the BEST JOB in the world.

Ready...Set...Preschool!

So I thought I had about a year before I needed to think about preschool for Isaiah.  With his lack of language creating in the potty training department we don't plan on trying until Isaiah is three, and you have to be potty trained to go to preschool.  This is true for private preschools but not for the local school systems.  It's actually quite interesting how Isaiah's transition from Early Intervention into preschool will be.  In two weeks we have Isaiah's six month evaluation.  It's kind of a check in since it has been six months since he has been initially evaluated to qualify for the program.  We will discuss what they call "transition" at this time.  It turns out that in December or beginning of January Isaiah will be evaluated by the school district in order to qualify him for a certain amount of "speech minutes" each week in the preschool program.  Here is where it gets tricky.  Different school systems are better than others (this is obvious not matter what grade your child is in) and each school district will qualify Isaiah for a different set of minutes each week.  Isaiah's speech therapist is going to push for Isaiah to receive 120 minutes a week of speech assistance however that doesn't guarantee us anything.  With all the budget cuts in the schools there are some schools that are only offering as little as 30 minutes a week!  Yikes!  Fortunately we are renting and we can seek out the better school districts and move to that suburb so that Isaiah can receive services (of course better schools are in the three most expensive suburbs in south Chicago more property taxes!).  So I'm starting to feel the crunch!  We move to a new rental house in two months, three months later Isaiah gets evaluated by the schools, and two months after that we start preschool!  It is nice that EI helps with the transition into preschool and our social worker says she will help me find summer speech programs for Isaiah for when he is done with his first year of preschool.  This is all the plan of action if we stay in Chicago.  Who knows with Mark's work!  In the meantime we feel blessed to have such a wonderful support system for our favorite two year old!

Family Fun

Monday I traveled to Lafayette, IN to meet up with my mom and three youngest siblings at a life long friend's (of my mom's) house.   While the 2 1/2 hour turned three hour drive with two babies was not easy or peaceful I'm delighted to be within driving distance to friends and family!  I can't help but feel like I'm home again every time I cross from Illinois to Indiana.  It's very refreshing seeing small towns and TREES! 

Being a life long Ohio State fan (and being from Ohio) I thought that my skin might boil and fall off as I drove past Purdue University but luckily that didn't happen and I did appreciate the small town feel of Lafayette/West Lafayette.  Isaiah had a ball with his uncles and aunt.  He jumped on a big trampoline, played in a tree house, and "swam" in a delightfully warm pool!  Uncle Robby even showed him how to drive his remote control car.  It was so nice to visit with the Lake family as well.  The three girls that I used to babysit in high school are now three beautiful Godly young women who were such a help with my boys!  I was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Lake Family and I look forward to many visits to come in the future!