Psycho-educational Assessment

Today, I took Theo to Watchdog Central for a psycho-educational assessment so I may apply him into learning support at schools that offers learning support. We met with Judy Chow Fairhall a clinical psychologist. I spoke to her about Theo as she asked me questions about him.

Speech delay has always been a problem. But after her assessment, she feels that he is dyslexic in the phonetic aspect of language and not able to mimic sounds which would lead to poor reading skills. And also the fact that he is not well verse with his alphabets and numbers that would cause for even more concern at his age level. She addressed that his expressive language and skills are between age 3 and 4.

A year behind may not be a big deal to me because a child can catch up at different rate. But if he really has dyslexia then I can see those symptom surfacing because of him not interested in writing which would led to the disinterest in reading because everything is just too hard with letters, words and writing in general.

Theo does need a lot of visual cue to help him along with verbal direction repeated at least 3 times. If more than 2 steps direction is given then it is hard for him to decide which to do first. It is usually best to tell him to do one thing first and have him complete the task then add on to the directions. He also tends to be unsure by asking back if what he just did is correct or just asking for an approval that what he did is done correctly.

I do not know if any of this could be over done by a psychologist. Because one thing leads to the other. His fidgeting fingers could be ADD or SPD or because of his speech delay. Any disorder can cross over. But at the end Theo needs help in the language area.

Autism in the news

It is Friday and Theo went to his speech therapy session. I picked up a copy of The Standard and there was this article about an autistic teenager whose parents didn't know if her condition and led to a 5 years shopping spree of LV bags. The teen girl's parents purchased for her 1000 bags and even purchased a flat for her to store her LV bags.
This girl is 17 and the obsession started at age 12. Really who in the right mind would have a 12 year old lead to such indulgence of getting bags that is worth USD 1000 a pop.
Until her behavior turned bad that her parents had the sense to take her to see a psychiatrist.
Are the parents to blame? Maybe as a society we should promote child developmental awareness. If the window of opening to heal the child is at birth to age 7. We as caretaker of our future generation should be to look at the problem and solve it before if gets worst.
Maybe this article should be a warning to those instinctive feeling we have with our own children. And do not take those lightly.

Plan B

Dr. Ross Greene has looked into why a child is explosive. His approach to solving the explosive child problem is to investigate and find out what the child problems are and solve them. If you can't solve it yourself you can get help. All children has the motivation to do well, but lack the skills to meet expectation of you or any adults creates the challenge that makes them defiant. It is very challenging if a child lack the skills. And lack skills means frustrations and explosive behaviors.

I think it is all common sense, but sometimes we are hooked to get an easy way out by using authoritative voice instead of really looking for the problem and how to solve it.

My son is has speech delay and both my son and daughter has sensory processing disorder. It is due to the help of many people that we as parents were able to figure out what skills my children are lacking and how to help them. It is not a one day process. My son has been going to speech therapy for 2 plus years now and still going. He is improving gradually, but eventually there would be a breakthrough. My daughter is a very hyper child. I thought she was normal, but then she is wired differently. She is tactile defensive and she would scream and yell at the beach where any average child would enjoy sand under her feet, but not her. The water part she loves, but the sand part is unbearable. She will have the adults carry her across till her feet touches the water.

To keep priority is the key. It is not like I let them do whatever they want, but if I have to reason I would, but maybe when they are older. At age 3 and 5, you really don't have to go into extreme detail. And at this age they love to ask why. So keep the answer short and sweet. My son always ask why I always ask him to brush his teeth. Since he knows what germ is, I say to keep all the germs out and make your teeth clean, And sometimes the why can go forever. So I have books on brushing teeth and going to dentist or to doctors. And who doesn't likes stories.

The most fluffy buckwheat pancake recipe ... gluten free, wheat free, corn free, egg free, dairy free, soy free, nut free

This is adopted from Heidi from Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom!

http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2011/02/fluffy-buckwheat-pancakes-chia-egg-replacer-corn-free-baking-powder/

Dry Ingredients 

1 cup of buckwheat flour

1 cup of brown rice flour

1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon of arrowroot starch

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Wet Ingredients

1 egg replacer ( I used Ener-G)

2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil

4 tablespoons of agava nectar - light version

2 cups of rice milk 

I usually mixed all the dry ingredients together and all my wet ingredients together then mixed them both together. You really can't over mix this.

Food Allergies and SPD

Clemmie's test result came back today. The question is does the food allergies cause SPD or SPD cause allergies? or they are in a symbiotic relationship that they just irritates. Dr Sonal said on and on again with all the kids she has seen 80% resulted in the similar range of allergen.

Clemmie will go on a diet to eliminate the following:
corn
gluten
wheat
egg
cows milk
cashew nut
coconut
hazelnut
peanut
lemon
orange
grapefruit
pineapple
sesame seed
soya bean
and spinach

The blood test is done by York Test Laboratories in the UK. It test on food intolerance vs classic allergic reaction which is immediate. I remembered in high school my friend's friend is allergic to peanuts and someone accidentally threw a snicker bar and hit his forehead and the friend instantly hived with a red hump. The test result is not a 100%, but it is a good start. 

The diet will be for 3 months. It is going to be hard to eliminate all, but I am going to keep track of all she eats after we get back from Macau.

She is also on hyoscyamus which is used for basic therapy to treat strong emotions, behavior problems, spasms and jerks, silly laughing, jealousy, playing with genitals and exhibitionist.