MNRI Conference, part the second

So I had originally planned to do a daily update but then I didn't. After six hours a day of therapy, I was feeling pretty ticketed out, even though I wasn't the one on the table. I had written some compiled thoughts over the 8 days originally, but then Ruby went ahead and deleted the software I was using to blog and thus the draft I had done up. So my update will be much shorter than originally planned.








So in the balance, it was a mostly positive experience. We learned a lot and Fox was really good on the table, which surprised even us. He's been pretty good on the table at home, but then we've never had 6 one-hour sessions for four days straight, a one day break and then another four days. We had some really good MNRI specialists and even got some personal attention from Dr. Masgutova herself.

Our issue really was that we hoped to make a lot more progress in our time at the camp. Oh, they assure us that we'll see changes and we've seen enough improvements in the past to trust that what they say is true, it just seems like we didn't see see any miraculous changes as pretty much everyone else we know has.

In any case, the conference was so intense that we were told not to do any reflex work for a week afterward. So we're coming to the end of that week, and have started to plot out our next steps and Fox's home program. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. Let's hope things go better from here on out!

Location:Karlsfeld Rd,Waterloo,Canada

MNRI Conference, Day 1

So we had a good, if somewhat long first day. We all got up at one in the morning and by 1:30 we were on the road. Drove to Buffalo Niagara airport, and the drive was pretty smooth. The flight from BUF to MSP was quick and uneventful, and we got to the hotel by 9:30 central time.

Unfortunately, our room wasn't actually ready until 1:30, so we spent the four hours in the hotel lobby, at the hotel restaurant, in the hotel games room and walking around the hotel grounds. We have a pretty good knowledge of the hotel layout.

Finally, we had our initial assessment with Dr. Masgatova herself. And here we saw why she was the master. She would just tap Fox here, stroke the back of a foot there, and could rattle off a bunch of symptoms that described Fox perfectly. It was really amazing, and we're glad they taped the whole thing because it was really fast and we probably missed a ton of information.

We had also signed up to be part of a study on the changes in reflex development over time and how MNRI affects it. That meant another assessment right after the initial one. This one was quicker, because it involved testing motions, a lot of which were difficult for Fox to do. We'll see how much improvement will happen by the end of the conference.

The final activity of the day was to go to the initial meet and greet/ introduction and get a run down of what we're going to be doing over the next 8 days. Of course, Fox fell asleep. It was only a matter of time, having slept for only an hour on the plane ride all day (since waking up at one in the morning, I'll remind you).

So we're hoping for some good changes to come out of this and can't wait to get started!

Location:Northland Dr N,Minneapolis,United States

Fourth Year On

And here we are, four years on and no update in a year.  Where are we this year?

An interesting question, as Fox is wrapping up his first year in school, at the Kidsability school.   Today we had a Transition meeting where a bunch of Fox’s current educators handed off information to his new ones, as we plan to send him into senior kindergarten at Edna Staebler Public School.  It was interesting, but Lisa felt that it seemed really early to be having the meeting, as there’s a lot to go through, and she’s worried they won’t be able to keep track of it all and remember the relevant bits when September comes around.  Maybe it’s my recent frustrations at work with having ill-defined requirements that change at the eleventh hour, but I actually don’t have reservations about that and am glad it’s out of the way now.  Hopefully this means that we’ll have an open dialogue back and forth for the next little while as things solidify.

No, my biggest worry is still whether or not Fox will be able to get anything positive out of the school experience at all, to be honest.  We observed him at the Kidsability school several times, and I have to say I’m not confident that he’s at the developmental level where he’ll be able to sit and attend on his own… yet we’re not sure if we’ll even get an educational assistant next year for him.  Now, there are some things going in our favour for this, though this is definitely a good news bad news sort of thing.  With his habit of putting just about anything in his mouth and his new behaviour of running away from the teachers in the halls, he’s more likely to get the support he pretty much requires.  Finding the right balance between instruction and socialization is going to be tough and it makes me anxious just thinking about it.

As you can imagine, there’s been a lot of changes over the last year.  Fox started at Kidsability school in September, and his IBI started up in October.  After some bumps in the road, we seem to have found a system that works for us with two junior therapists that we are happy with.

In December, Fox took some Audio Integration Therapy, which really seemed to calm him down at a time where he was really acting up.  It’s impossible to say for sure with all the variety of therapies that we do, but we think this was also around the time where he started to be more vocal again.

We have also been investigating the Musgatova method which works on integrating reflexes into the body as they are the basis of all development (according to this theory, in any case).  Lisa and I have both gone to a couple of workshops each, and this method seems so promising that we’re headed to a week long camp in the summer to get a crash course in it.

We’re continuing our work with Relationship Development Intervention and seeing some gains here as well.  When we look back at where he was at the beginning, we realize we’ve come a long way.  A long way yet to go to be sure, but I have to be grateful of how much farther ahead we’ve gotten.

Unfortunately, speech still eludes us.  I think I’m going to stop harping on it at this point, and just be happy when this hurdle is finally jumped!