Hooray!

Josh had ST and OT today. Let me state again how much we LOVE our new ST. She is wonderful! The two of us had a nice little chat for the past 10 minutes of his session. I have mentioned numerous times how I felt that his speech eval was far from accurate. Jessica asked me how long ago he had the eval. I told her it has been 2 months at the most and she was shocked! She again said his sentences were fine and when she worked with him today she noted that his knowledge of how objects are used and being able to verbalize it is fine as well. These are both things Roni stated in the eval were huge weaknesses for him and that I argued but was ignored. Jessica told me she had read the chart and eval and when she met Joshua she was extremely surprised because she was really expecting him to be much worse. So, I do know what I'm talking about! Ha!

I asked her if she feels he really is a full year behind as Roni's eval placed him. She said he is behind, but she really doesn't think it is that far. Where he is behind is in the areas we already knew about and what has had me concerned - being able to answer "WH" questions being the biggest. So, she has decided we will work on getting him so he isn't as distracted as he usually is in the ST room, and then she will redo the evaluation to get a more accurate view of where he is and needs help at. I am so happy to hear that we finally have someone who is willing to listen to MY concerns and input and also seems to enjoy working with the kids. Yay for Jessica!!!

After ST we had an hour to waste. I hate when we have an hour in between sessions. It isn't enough time to go and do anything away from the clinic, and yet too much time to sit in the waiting area. So, I decided we would go upstairs one floor and go across the "Kid's Walk". This is a long bridge type hallway that connects the children's hospital and the children's clinic for pedestrians. It has a ship's steering wheel, art work, looking glasses and all sorts of things for the kids to look at as you walk the 1/4 mile hallway. Pretty cool! And Josh also was able to see the hospital's helicoptor go up, which totally made his day. :) We also ran into one of my cousin's (Carrie) MILs, so we chatted for a little bit.

After getting to the hospital we still had way too much time to waste. Luckily, on the bottom floor is an area for the kids to play in. Basically it is 3 huge steps with a column in the center of the room. Inside the column, there are some touchscreen type games. Pretty neat. It was Joshua, me, and another mom with her son. Joshua was in his own world jumping down from the top step, to the next, to the next. climbing and repeating. All of a sudden something caught his eye (I have NO idea what) and he decided to jump off the bottom step into the column. He looked just like one of those cartoon characters that jump and splat into a wall. After hitting the column with his entire body, he fell flat on his tush. After closing my mouth and realizing he was ok, I ran over to be sure he was ok. He looked stunned (I would too). Then he looked at the other mom and teared up a bit. He told her he needed to go home and get a bandaid. We both lost it then and I thought we would never stop laughing. He was absolutely fine....just shocked that however he had planned his leap in his head didn't quite work out that way. LOL He went right back to the steps and walked them from that point on. LOL

Finally it came time to head back to the clinic for OT. We got there and he was worn out. He started crying and said he didn't want to see Ms. Mindy. When she came out he completely burst into tears. She asked if he was tired and he told her yes he wanted a nap. She brought him some water and fruit snacks and he seemed to perk up a bit after that. He did some swinging and then we went over the sensory diet that I have been doing with Josh and she was happy with what I am doing currently.

After the swinging, she had him sit on a ball right in front of a mirror. She then put shaving cream on the mirror and drew shapes in it for him to trace. He was very reluctant to do the activity because of his tactile issues. Even with the towel in one hand ready to wipe his fingers, he still cried during the entire activity because he said it felt yucky. He did the same with the playdough last week at home. She told me to go ahead and push the messy stuff some, but he ust may not be ready for some of it still. She also gave us some theraputty to work with at home.

Oh! And Joshua COMPLETELY dressed himself today. Everything, including socks were put on by HIM. Yay Josh! We still have to remind him to keep watching what he is doing, and it took him half an hour to do it, but HE DID IT all by himself!!

Hooray!!!