Attention, Attention

So, it turns out (much to our not surprise), that we're a family full of neurological variation. Took the girl to a neurologist, and she's been diagnosed with ADHD and a reading disability.  We're not at all surprised with the news, since both of these things have been something we've suspected for a while.

We decided that we'd go ahead and give medication a try. Right now we're trying Daytrana. We gave it a weekend trial, and it went as we had hoped. She was the same girl, same personality, just a bit better focused. We don't want a zombie. We don't want an anxious worry wart. We want just a bit more focus in school, and when we've got the reading issues more under control, we'll give it a shot without the meds.

Another bright spot - she didn't have any problems eating, and she went to bed on time.  

Here's to hoping this will work for us.

Happy 4th

So we took the kiddos for a long day of fun having. One of the firecracker stands near us has camel rides. Go figure. Anyway, took the kids there. I suppose a less paranoid mom would have just let both kids ride at the same time, but I was concerned that the boy would not keep his hands on the handlebar. It's a long drop. Didn't feel like risking it. Plus? Camel ride. ;-)

\Then we were off to the downtown activities, including a bouncy castle, a carnival ride type thingy with suspended chairs that twirled around, and a bouncy obstacle course.

Guess who absolutely loved each and every ride or event and absolutely melted down with each turn waiting in line and each time his turn ended? Uh, yeah. But our boy tends to have short meltdowns that make it possible to go to something, say sorry about the crying, and go on to the next thing. I figure eventually he'll catch on to how it all works.

Then we ate fried oysters, went home to take a nap for the big event. We got the boy to shout "Boom!" at the fireworks. He, of course, loved them. Loved the colors, loved the loud noises, loved the whole thing. The girl did, too. I was a bit concerned that she'd be upset at the loud booms, but she was fine with them. It's interesting what sets her off and what doesn't. Don't even try to flush the toilet before she gets her ears plugged.

Anyway, the kids came home very tired and very happy. The girl wanted to make sure we'd get to do this again next year. I think we will.

Busy in Thought

So, for those wanting to know about the girl's IEP. They told us that further evaluation was probably warranted, since there were quite a few things we all agreed on that tended to make them think we might be looking at autism with her, too. 

Yeah, not thrilled to hear it, but I do think they have a few points. They made it clear that her school services would not change. They are already integrating some social therapies into her speech therapy (teaching her to recognize nonverbal cues.)  And since she's high functioning, she wouldn't be eligible for any outside funding for therapies, either. 

Because of all that, it makes little sense to get her evaluated right now. Perhaps we'll tackle that when the insurance company won't charge us several hundred dollars for a "covered" service. Or perhaps we'll tackle that if it ever comes to the point where she isn't coping well in school in spite of supports. 

Sewing anxiety

Princess is good at sewing. I mean, she's seven, so she's not making prom dresses or anything yet, but she's very good at sewing for her age. She stopped sewing for a while, and she kept telling me that "sewing was boring." She'd get exited about wanting to sew something, but would most likely not start the project, would ask me to do it, or would declare it to be "boring" the first time she ran into any snags. 

Yesterday we finally got over some of that hump. Really what was going on was that she was worrying too much about making mistakes or poking herself with a pin, and it would distract her to the point where she couldn't actually do any work. I also suspect she's like her mom and gets bothered when the project seems overwhelmingly big. 

Anyway, she wanted to sew a fairy dress for a book report. I traced off the simplest pattern I could - basically  a long T-shirt, so there were only four pieces to sew, and I hemmed the collar for her. She struggled with it at first, but when she finally got into sewing, she decided that "sewing makes my brain calm down!"  When she'd start to worry about the next step, she decided that "my brain is too worried - I need to sew to make my brain calm down." And she did. And she finished her project and asked if she could sew some more tonight. 

Another Thing to Obsess About

So, my husband is a stay at home dad, and sometimes I get things through the "man" filter. The man filter is busy paying attention to getting kids dressed, fed, and picked up from school and doesn't always catch those buzz words people say to him in meetings. The man filter sometimes misunderstands things the special ed teacher says, and the man filter doesn't remember every single detail so his Google-obsessed wife can go look them all up. 

He's not as obsessed about details and devouring special ed books, but he's a loving dad and the kids are cared for and clean plus they have a roof over their heads from my job. It's a compromise. Anyway, when the hubby told me last month that they wanted to test Princess for Asperger Syndrome, I had him recall the conversation he had to the best of his ability, and it sounded like they'd said they wanted to "evaluate her more" and he'd suggested AS, and they'd just responded with "... or something."  

I'd taken it to mean they wanted to find out if she had other LDs, they wanted to see if she were maybe ADHD (something I've suspected)... or something. 

Well, no, they're evaluating her for AS.  I'm really not sure how to feel about it.  Should I get indignant and insist that this isn't her problem? I don't think it is, but then again, exactly which subset of typically developing seven year olds am I comparing her against? I'm not a child development expert. How do I know what impaired social skills are? I swear she knows how to read emotions, makes eye contact, communicates her emotions clearly, and has imaginative play out the wazoo, but then...  there are the doubts.