Moving into the second round of Neuro training

TRex has completed 3 of the 5 sessions for the new round of 25 session neurofeedback.  The protocols were selected from his QEEG.  All three have gone well and he is enjoying going back to the routine from this summer.  Lynsey asked me what I had thought of the results.

These two pictures show the QEEG prior to the first 25 sessions and the QEEG after.  Raw data is taken and then normalized for a "normal" person of the same age.  Green is ideal - the brain waves are not too fast and not too slow.  Red is very fast - which isn't good (think hyperactivity and having too much data to handle.).  Yellow is in between red and green.  On the other side, dark blue is a lot slower processing and light blue is in between.  Notice how many different frequencies have gone mostly green.  Also the two bright red maps have cooled, they still have some red but have shown tremendous improvement.  There has been some degradation in  the three top middle frequencies but overall I was impressed and it matches what we are seeing at home as well as at school.  I am looking forward to seeing the QEEG in January.

I told her that I was elated to have data to show that there had been a big improvement but that also shows there is still more improvement to go.  Prior to the results, I was afraid that they were going to say we were done and basically tell us to move along.

TRex has been doing amazing work with his letters, his numbers, and drawing.  He does NOT like to color AT ALL.  He attends worship with his grandmother after bible class on Sunday mornings.  She brought home the following drawing that he did on his own (without her encouraging him).

I asked him who it was a picture of and he said "It's Dot and her cat".  I asked him what is Dot's cat's name and he said "Mit." HAHAHAHA.  We have been reading the BOB books.  Or rather he has been reading them to me.

We worked on the "at", "it", and "id" word families and he can now read them.  I love how he sounds out the parts and then we say put it together and he uses his hands like he is squishing the letters together and says the word.

We also worked on simple addition.  I write the equation such as 1 + 1 =.  Then I have him put the appropriate number of dots under each and then he gives me a total and then writes it in the proper place.  He was so proud when he showed his Poppa all that he had done today.  I have to say that this Momma is proud too.

And the results are...

This week was a tough one for this specific mother.  My hope is that TRex will not be limited by any of his past issues.  I am thrilled that we can talk about things, he can tell me about his feelings, he can tell me what he did in school, etc.  However, underneath I know he is still not totally like other children yet.  The doctor had asked me to talk to  his teacher for feedback on how she thinks he is doing.
So I asked her "In your opinion, does he still struggle compared with his peers in understanding verbal instructions, staying on task, or in his ability to relate to his peers/make friends?"  In my heart of hearts I already knew the answer but still the answer was depressing anyway.

“I have concerns in the areas that you mentioned.  TRex is struggling with understanding verbal instructions, I usually do not give him more than two commands to follow, I do have to give him lots of prompts.  He is also struggling in his ability to relate to his peers.  I do not have any concerns regarding his academics – one on one he is great and he knows his stuff. “

On a very positive side, he is very bright and he DOES know his academics.  I had also had correspondence with the school’s educational lab leader.  She had attended the meeting with the public school teachers who had set his goals and objectives the previous 18 months.  I reviewed with her that TRex had completed the PPCD program and if he was going to proceed in public school he would have been discharged to general population kindergarten with only one hour of speech therapy support.  I had made the decision to continue with private school so that he could delay kindergarten by a year.

After the email exchange with his current teacher, I emailed his PPCD teachers to see if they had input.  They both said that TRex continues to be a visual learner and can master anything as long as it is visually modeled.  He will struggle for a while verbal instructions only.

Anyway, with all of the inputs, I was not really looking forward to the meeting with the doctor.  I have seen the improvements but I wonder sometimes  if I am finding more encouragement in it than is warranted.  However, even the educational lab leader said that he has made much progress.
I was very happy to see the results of the comparison of the two QEEGs.  There was remarked improvement but there are still some red areas – areas that effect verbal processing and logic.  This matches up with everybody’s observations.  I was so worried that the doctor was going to say – everything’s great now, move along.   We are moving out targeting the areas that still need help with 25 more training sessions.  And I am very happy to do so.  I am very thankful that they haven't given up on TRex.

Waiting on the results

TRex had his follow up QEEG a week ago Friday.  I am eagerly anticipating the results at the appointment Thursday.  I don't think I will be surprised by the results as I could see it going either way.  He still has some focus issues so I wouldn't be adverse to continuing therapy but he does stay on point much of the time now - and I need to stress that he takes NO MEDICATION.

As I write this entry, I can hear him in the kitchen with his grandmother making pies to take to church.  He loves cooking with her and follows instructions.  He now reminds me if I don't read him a book at night because he likes the stories.  He picks out the words he knows as sight words.  He likes the weekly drawing for the letter of the week.

C is for Crab

S is for Shrimp

TRex has no issues communicating.  I think he goes into jargon to irritate me and he thinks that is fun. This week he came home from school laughing saying that one of his girl classmates was on the frowny face board at school and she was saying "Please don't call my mommy."  I let him laugh a while and then told him that if his teacher called me to tell me TRex was on the frowny face board, TRex would not be able to go to karate that week - and that got his attention.  I love that he tells me about his day and understands what I am saying in the conversation and can apply it to himself.

This week was a review of the 5 letters of the week thus far in the school year.  As per our bedtime routine, I asked TRex if he wanted to brush his teeth in the bathroom or in his bedroom.  He said "Momma, B B, bedroom and bathroom both start with B."  I was pretty excited about this and thought I would carry on the conversation by pointing out he was carrying a book so I asked him "That's right, what do you have in your arm that starts with a B?"  He replied "Bones, Momma, I have bones in my arm!"

His teacher told the class that Mrs. Owens was going to substitute the next day and TRex said "Mrs. Owens loves me!" HAHAHA!  I guess he was excited about seeing her.