School boy

This September we have started school-and started it in the regular class, with regular kids. A year later than regular kids do, but still pretty much within the expected range. Of course, in order to make it work we had to get an assistant who will be with him all the time and keep him engaged on class work.
Lucky for me (and him), he is not that problematic when it comes to functioning in the society/the group. Also, he doesn't have problem with new situations, new people and new environment. He likes going to school and his school buddies like him as well. And what is very important, he manages given tasks easily-well, at least most of them- hand control is still a problem when it comes to coloring and writing. But he excels when it comes to reading :)
Lucky for us, his younger brother is a real motivator..it helps that a younger one is a real chatter box and truly devoted to his older brother. He really gets him into socializing and closer emotional contacts and I am sure that this is one of the most important reasons why he is so open for new situations and new interactions.

Back to basics

Bring it back to basics, you and I..i..i will make it right
Take it back, erase it, you and I will make it right
Bring it back to basics, you and I..i..i will make it right
Let's get back to basics, back, back to basics

My older has, no doubt about it, learned so much in his 6 years and 4 months. This learning has been visible particularly in a last year or so, from the time he started talking.

Nevertheless, it seems that some things that seem so simple-at least from my point of view-he misses, or at least misses the point in them. And I am kind of at lost how to deal with it.

For example, he just can't understand why he should not take something from the dirty, dusty pavement he is walking over-some candy he acidentally dropped- and put in his mouth. No matter how many times I have already told him that this is dirty and can cause him to get sick,..it just seems that me still can't grasp it.

I than try another approach-simply to forbid him to take stuff from dirty ground, end of story.

Yeah, he has short memory span when it comes to stuff he is not interested in. On the contrary, when he is interested in something he has memory like an elephant!

So, I guess I should make him interesed in accepting basics of hygiene and health, right?!

Well, right now, I am out of ideas...any and every is very welcomed...

Some new choices

As I have written sometime ago, this spring was the time when I had to make a choice weather my older baby should start the school or not. Most of the children start primary school here at age of six, actually it is mandatory except in cases when there is necessity to postpone school for one year.
For few months I was weighting pro and contra of both choices: starting school with his peers, and postponing it for next year.
From one side, it is not like he would learn anything major in this first year, so he would not be that much behind his colleagues in the learning department. On the other hand, obviously, his attention is still very big problem. He has real trouble to focus on anything that doesn't interest him, and I think that this will be quite a problem even next year-so not to mention how problematic it is at this point!
Talking is still big issue, so another contra, and of course, there was the matter of therapeutic work, which was the main reason why I in the end decided that he will wait with school another year.
If he would start school this year, he would loose every possibility for expert work, as only preschoolers are included in programs that we attend at this point-and for what I have fought so hard to get him in. Instead, he would have therapyst only once or twice a week in school.
I think that expert work is really important for him, especially at this point, when he is finally really showing interest in learning, and actually giving us feedback during this process. I can't tell you how much this means to me!
So, here we go further on the same path. It is good to see and experience that his condition is continuously progressing.

Birthday boy

Two days ago my older baby turned 6. I guess I shouldn't be calling him baby anymore, but call it mom's thing-just can't help it. I believe he will be my baby even when he turnes 30 or more :P
Anyway, as I was mentioning before, this year we should enroll to school, as in our country 6 years of age is legally determined as age for school start. However, in certain circumstances it is allowed to postpone school start-and that is exactly what I have decided to do.
I have been thinking about this long and hard-I have mentioned that too in the last post.
I was considering benefits from starting the school this year in relation to benefits to postponing school, and have come to conclusion that later ones are more substantial.
He now has enough of the expert work-finally. It took me more then 2 years to achieve that. When we start the school, he will loose all that and I think that at this point it is important to continue with expert therapy to achieve the most out of it.
I went to the school yesterday to check the situation officially. The lady in charge of the enrollment process was nice enough to explain everything to me about the process of postponing the school-and luckily enough it takes only one document. That was a pleasant surprise as it usually takes numerous papers to finish any procedure.
So, my plan is to get that paper-recommendation from his psychologist that he will benefit from the postponing school start-and we shall leave school start for the next year.
I am kind of releaved that I can tick off that "task" of my "to-do" list for this year :)

Big decisions, important choices

This year will be important for us.
We must decide weather we'll start the school or not.
I am already dreading of having to make this decision. I am trying to find comfort in the fact that I will not have to make this decision alone, as experts will be included in the procedure of testing for admitance in school. However, I am aware that primarily I will have to make that decision, not anyone else.
One of our therapysts told me that he thinks that my older baby will be ready to start school with his peers this fall. He says that my older baby has good understanding of given tasks and that he is very intelligent. His only problem  basically, is attention deficit. If that coudl be taken care of, or better said, improved (significantly) by the September, he would be able to follow the classes like other kids.
Of course, with help of personal assitant, but that part doesn't bother me.
I am worried that he will bw marked from the beginning because he is "different". Kids are good at recognizing difference, adn the next step after the recognizing is usually picking on.
I am so scared that my baby will be hurt that I would like to keep him at home forver, not just this one year longer, but all together.
I guess that I am over protective, but I believe that most of the mothers are.
On the other hand, I am perfectly aware that he is supposed to become part of the society, and that it is in his best interest to get into that inclusion process as soon as possible.
After all, preschool went generally fine, we don't have problems with bullying or anything similar.
On the other hand-even if I postpone school start for one year, who can guarantee that problem will disappear, or better said, be less apparent by the next year?
However, I am also having in mind the fact that all of his therapies, that have helped him to advance this much in last 6 months, will have to end if he starts the school. So, I am wondering how will that affect his progress-and I have worked so hard to get him all the therapysts that we have at this point!
There are so many questions in my head, and not even half of them have adequate-and single!-answer. I do hpe that things will become more clear in next few months before the time for deciding comes.

Importance of (proper) diet

As any mother would, I have always tried to take best possible care about what my babies eat. Of course, I am not with them all the time during the day-part of the day they spend in kindergarten, where they can eat both healthy and not so healthy foods, then, some time they spend with their grandparents-who enjoy in giving them candy and thus make a bit of disorder in my food plan, but what the heck! this is all something that should be expected-and accepted.
Now, since my older baby is the one who has a problem-developmental one-of course I have come across the bunch of articles that underline importance of proper diet. Mostly in the terms of "gluten free/kasein free diet".
With above mentioned "disturbance factors", I have never been completely able to conduct diet strictly. Nor did I try-I just did my best to avoid gluten foods, and kasein, as much as I can, with the foods I give him.
Also, as I have noticed through practice, since he didn't react well to chocolate-he would become totally restless, and couldn't concentrate on anything at all-at least for some period of time, until chocolate effects would "evaporate" from his system-I didn't give him chocolate and similar candies.
Now, it is obvious that he has made significant progress in last 6 months. However, I can't tell for sure what to attribute it to-to proper diet? We didn't follow it 100%. To omega oil additions? We used it for few months, and then stopped. To therapy? Surely, that one is significant, as for the last 6-9 months we finally have regular weekly therapies.
I believe that all this is important to some degree, but nothing exclusively can be attributed with sole credit for improvement in my baby's progress. Only through hard, regular work, and with good foods, as well as omega oil, progress can be made-and definitely more quickly then if nothing has been done at all.

Dental visit

I am sure that anyone who has a child with any type of developmental delays/difficulties..or when it comes to this matter-anyone who HAS  a child :P-has dreaded visit to dentist, as same as I have, for quite some time.
Although my older baby didn't have any problems with his teeth so far, the though of dentist's office and how this adventure might go, has been dancing somewhere i the back of my mind it's dance for quite some time.
And now, that time has come.
First, about month and half ago, his upper lip has swell, and at that point it just looked like he has burned himself while drinking hot tea. Those were really the circumstances, so I disregarded this as soon as his lip turned back to normal size next day.
This previous week, however, he started to get bad breath. So, I was preparing myself for necessity of going to dentist, actually not only going to him, but finding the right one.
And when yesterday all the hell broke out-his lip was swollen again (like he put a botox in it), his gums were swollen-above his upper first tooth-and not only swollen but darker, like purple-ish, there was no way around it. We just had to go to dentist, right away.
Now, you all know how problematic any type of medical exam can be with our babies. My older baby dreads from all kinds and types of doctors after geting few stitches on the skull 2 winters ago. I didn't know any dentist in our town who is good in working with kids. And I didn't know if any of those, who work with kids, will accept working with kid who has developmental issues. You know, while reading online and trying to find info about good child dentists here, I also stumbled across info that children with PDDs usually do all kind of dental procedures under total anesthesia. In order to go through this, first we have to get all kinds of tests done which should prove that he can undergo anesthetic procedure, and of course, we have to book dental appointment/procedure in hospital...which by my opinion, all would last at least 2-3 weeks. And situation in his mouth was mess!
So, I decided to go to "regular" dentist. I thought-let's at least do exam in order to determine what has to be done-weather the tooth has to go out, or has to repaired, or first his gums must be treated with some medications, before working on tooth...And if this exam turns to be unbearable, then there will be no other way but to go to hospital and do all this under anesthesia.
It turned out, after all, that I have feared too much. He opened mouth and let dentist check his teeth, then he let her puncture a hole in sick tooth-but didn't want to let her put a needle in the hole. However, dentist said that this second part of the procedure can wait for few days. Tooth itself is dead, can't be repaired, but, he will stay where he is until he decides to fall out. This is important because he saves places for permanent one, his inheritor :)
So,to conclude-there was no big drama, screaming and kicking, although I have spend entire day thinking about that scenario! I can't describe my relief afterwards!
Of course, we have to go again in a week time. Who knows how that other part of the procedure will go?
And dentist also said that he has 2 other teeth who need to be repaired. And that one will probably be much more difficult. But for now, first things first-first visit to dentist has been success! And I will worry about all these other things tomorrow...