This last weekend has been pretty busy with Fox-related events but surprisingly. Each day could probably be a post in itself but I've been lax enough; if I put it off anymore, it's likely this blog will never get updated. Let's recap, shall we?
Saturday:
We attended the second session of the "Before the School Bell Rings" series at Kidsability. This series is for parents of special needs children that will be entering the school system. The first session was apparently cancelled due to lack of registration, which was very frustrating.
This session consisted mainly of a panel of parents whose children had started school in the fall, and they related their experiences, obstacles and generally helped to give an idea of just what we should be expecting going forward. I don't know if we picked up any new critical information, but it was still useful to reiterate things that are important to keep in mind. Also, it would probably have been more important to attend if we hadn't gotten into the Kidsability school and were faced with the prospect of sending Fox to our home school instead.
Sunday:
We went to a presentation at the Integrated Centre for Optimal Learning, (or ICOL). This one basically gave us more information on what they do at the centre, their approaches and philosophies. They advocate a more holistic approach and forward thinking techniques such as working movement into the learning, and utilizing neurofeedback. This last is something I don't fully understand yet so I'll have to come back to it in a future post. But the basic idea is that the subject is hooked up to a machine, which monitors their brainwaves, and provides visual and audio feedback, in an attempt to reknit the neural pathways in the brain into a more connected whole. I have to admit that I'm not totally sold on some of the more radical things they discuss, like "crystal children" and what-not, but it's non-invasive and the educational bits actually seem pretty solid (reminds me of the Montessori approach, for one), that we're willing to give it a try. I especially like that they work on an individualized plan for everyone of their patients.
Monday:
We went to a seminar about Oral Motor Therapy put on jointly by the Waterloo Region Family Network (WFRN) and Waterloo Region Down Syndrome Society. This one shows some promise. The speaker, Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson, is a speech and language therapist and founder of SRJ Therapies and creator of TalkTools Therapy products. She's been doing this for a long time and it shows; she was quite adept at explaining the technical ideas behind her therapy in an accessible way that was easy to understand. I really like it when I can make sense of a particular therapy or technique because then I understand the importance of it (a point she herself makes). She covers the basics, such as the difference between speech and language (speech is the production of sounds whereas language is the ability to express and receive ideas, more or less). Speech is generated from the movements of your mouth. Specifically, your jaw, tongue and lips. Some special needs children, particularly those born with low muscle tone, will in turn have weak jaw and tongue muscles. So right off the bat, this shows why speech would be difficult for these individuals - it would be like expecting someone with weak arms to lift a heavy weight: even if they know exactly what to do, they just don't have the strength to do it. Another big issue is tongue placement. A lot of children basically train themselves to put their tongue forward, which is really bad for speech - most of the sounds we produce involve the tongue being anchored in the mouth properly, and so forward tongue placement makes it pretty much impossible to do.
Sunday:
We went to a presentation at the Integrated Centre for Optimal Learning, (or ICOL). This one basically gave us more information on what they do at the centre, their approaches and philosophies. They advocate a more holistic approach and forward thinking techniques such as working movement into the learning, and utilizing neurofeedback. This last is something I don't fully understand yet so I'll have to come back to it in a future post. But the basic idea is that the subject is hooked up to a machine, which monitors their brainwaves, and provides visual and audio feedback, in an attempt to reknit the neural pathways in the brain into a more connected whole. I have to admit that I'm not totally sold on some of the more radical things they discuss, like "crystal children" and what-not, but it's non-invasive and the educational bits actually seem pretty solid (reminds me of the Montessori approach, for one), that we're willing to give it a try. I especially like that they work on an individualized plan for everyone of their patients.
Monday:
We went to a seminar about Oral Motor Therapy put on jointly by the Waterloo Region Family Network (WFRN) and Waterloo Region Down Syndrome Society. This one shows some promise. The speaker, Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson, is a speech and language therapist and founder of SRJ Therapies and creator of TalkTools Therapy products. She's been doing this for a long time and it shows; she was quite adept at explaining the technical ideas behind her therapy in an accessible way that was easy to understand. I really like it when I can make sense of a particular therapy or technique because then I understand the importance of it (a point she herself makes). She covers the basics, such as the difference between speech and language (speech is the production of sounds whereas language is the ability to express and receive ideas, more or less). Speech is generated from the movements of your mouth. Specifically, your jaw, tongue and lips. Some special needs children, particularly those born with low muscle tone, will in turn have weak jaw and tongue muscles. So right off the bat, this shows why speech would be difficult for these individuals - it would be like expecting someone with weak arms to lift a heavy weight: even if they know exactly what to do, they just don't have the strength to do it. Another big issue is tongue placement. A lot of children basically train themselves to put their tongue forward, which is really bad for speech - most of the sounds we produce involve the tongue being anchored in the mouth properly, and so forward tongue placement makes it pretty much impossible to do.
So then, the therapy attempts to strengthen all these muscles and correct the tongue placement so that the subject is physically capable of efficiently moving their mouth to produce speech. This is accomplished by doing exercises with the use of specially designed straws, chew toys and horns.
Anyway, we saw enough of Fox's issues reflected in what she said to be hopeful that this therapy might work, so we've ordered the kit. We'll give it a try and report back on how it goes.
Tuesday:
We went to ICOL for Fox's first session on the Zengar neurofeedback machine. It seemed to go well: Fox was quite calm and relaxed in the environment and seemed quite happy to sit there and stare at the screen for the whole appointment. They also seemed really impressed with his readings, but since I don't understand this neurofeedback stuff well at all, I'm not quite certain of the significance. We're going to give it a try weekly for about ten sessions and see if it's working.
Tuesday:
We went to ICOL for Fox's first session on the Zengar neurofeedback machine. It seemed to go well: Fox was quite calm and relaxed in the environment and seemed quite happy to sit there and stare at the screen for the whole appointment. They also seemed really impressed with his readings, but since I don't understand this neurofeedback stuff well at all, I'm not quite certain of the significance. We're going to give it a try weekly for about ten sessions and see if it's working.
So as you can see, we've got a lot on the go, and this doesn't include the fact that Fox still sees an SLP on Thursdays and that we are still doing RDI. The work is never over.
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