OT eval results

Owen recently had 2 more sensory assessments done, to help us understand more of his sensory needs. These are the results (in shortened form, there's obviously a LOT more to it).

The first set of results are from the School Companion. The score puts the child in one of 5 sections- "much less", "less", "similar", "more" and "much more". Obviously the goal is to have all "similar" sections.

Registration- measuring the student's awareness of all types of sensation available (ie. runs or bumps into things, doesn't seem to notice when hands or face is soiled). Owen scored a 56, which is in the "more" section.

Seeking- Measuring the student's interest in and pleasure with all types of sensation (ie. hums, whistles, sings or makes other noises through the day). Owen scored a 33, which is in the "much more" section.

Sensitivity- Measuring the student's ability to notice all types of sensation (ie. has difficulty participating in group activities where there is a lot of talking, wants to wipe hands quickly when completing messing tasks). Owen scored a 61, which is in the "similar" section.

Avoiding- Measuring the student's need for controlling the amount and type of sensations available at any time (ie. holds hands over ears to protect from sound, intentionally withdraws from active environments). Owen scored a 40, which is in the "much more" section.

School Factor 1- Measures the students need for external supports to participate in learning. For example, the student may have trouble keeping materials organized or miss oral instructions in class more than others in the classroom. Owen scored a 61, which is in the "much more" section.

School Factor 2- Measures the students awareness and attention within the learning environment. For example, the student may tell others to be quiet, the student may look away from tasks to notice all other activity in the room. Owen scored a 49, which is in the "similar" section.

School Factor 3- Measures the students tolerance within the learning environment. The student may have difficulty tolerating changes in routines, plans and expectations. The student may be easily upset by minor injuries. Owen scored a 50, which is in the "much more" section.

School Factor 4- Measures the students availability for learning within the learning environment. The student may withdraw from activities or appear inactive. Owen scored a 30, which is in the "much more" section.

Auditory- Measures the students response to things heard. The student may seem oblivious within an active environment or may be overly bothered by loud or unexpected noises. Owen scored a 40, which is in the "similar" section (barely- a 37 would have landed him in the "more" section).

Visual- Measures the students repsonse to things seen. The student may notice even small changes in the room or desk organization. The student may avoid eye contact. Owen scored a 37, which is in the "more" section.

Movement- Measures the students responses to the sensations of movement. The student may slouch, slump or sprawl in their chair. They may get up and move around more than other students. Owen scored a 44, which is in the "much more" section.

Touch- Measures the students response to stimuli that touch the skin. The student may be fidgety or disruptive when standing in line or close to other people. They may flinch when you get in close proximity or touch their body. Owen scored a 33, which is in the "much more" section.

Behavior- The behavior section provides a group of items that is associated with sensory responses. For example, the student is frustrated easily or is inefficient in doing things. Owen scored a 36, which is in the "much more" section.

13 sections for a total of 3 "similar", 2 "more" and 8 "much more".

Results of the Sensory Processing Measure-

Vision- score of 59, typical
Hearing- score of 69, some problems
Touch- score of 78, definite dysfunction
Body Awareness- score of 57, typical
Balance and Motion- score of 56, typical
Planning and Ideas- score of 60, some problems
Social Participation- score of 70, definite dysfunction
Total- score of 64, some problems

To sum it up.... Owen has a lot of sensory issues. Surprise!

Pictures!

Meet Sam. Sam is a duck that Owen won at Gattitown last weekend. Sam, the duck, does not quack, as I was quickly told. He speaks English. Betcha never knew a duck who spoke English!

Sam also likes fries and ketchup. He's very lucky that Owen likes to share.

The following pictures were taken at Owen's OT therapy today. I thought it might be fun to get some pictures :)

Loving the swing... (they have TONS of different kinds of swings- this one was today's favorite)

(I swear his OT wasn't upset, but she sure does look like it in all the pictures. She's a very nice woman though!)

The next few pictures are of Owen playing a game with the OT student. He had to blow so that the fish swam around, and then use the net to catch them. He had a blast!

And then he got to be Tarzan, which he LOVED! He tried to make it to 100 swings, but only lasted to 18. Maybe next time!

Getting the royal treatment (AKA- deep pressure) after swinging.

Now it's time for feeding...

And the best part.... LOOK AT WHAT HE'S WEARING!!!! Yes, the boy who just 3 weeks ago flipped out when faced with any clothing other than pj's is wearing KHAKI PANTS AND A LONG SLEEVE SHIRT!!! Amazing progress. He still fought me when it was time to get dressed, but not for long (once I get him buckled in the carseat he generally stops any fighting). The deal we have is he wears clothes until he gets out of school (at 2:30) and then he can change into pj's for daycare (which is from 3-6). Today he got dressed at 9am, went to therapy and then to school. After school I forgot his pj's. CRAP! I thought for sure I'd hear the mother of all meltdowns. But when I told him I forgot his pj's and was sorry his response was "Oh, okay. We can get them after daycare". WHAT?!? Where did this child come from?! LOL! So he ended up wearing clothes from 9am to almost 7pm without flipping out!! That's the longest he's worn clothes in probably 4 months!

Stuff

First the school stuff- everything went great. They agreed to everything I asked for (which is shocking in and of itself since schools generally do NOT like to spend more money). They even agreed to one test/assessment (Allison- it's the SIPT), which surprised me because his OT at the school is not qualified to give it, which means they need to find another OT who is qualified. But, they agreed to it!

We have another meeting on April 7th, after all the testing is done.

We will then have another meeting in May to transition him to Kindergarten. We talked a little about it today and everyone agrees that there is no doubt he needs an aide still for next year. At the end the principal took us up to the Kindergarten rooms to take a peek. We'll go again for a longer length in April before we decide which teacher we want for him. As of now there are 4 rooms for Kindergarten. We ruled out one right away because that one has a back door in it that leads to some corridor that leads to where the delivery trucks deliver food to the kitchen. If he escapes out that door he will certainly be in a dangerous situation. So that one is not going to be an option. The other 3 rooms do not have a back door, but are within feet of the door in the hallway leading to the outside. ARGH! So, the plan we talked about, and the situation we would like the most, is to have Owen's aide from this year move up to Kindergarten with him next year. That way he has someone who is familiar with him to help with the transition. The principal would also like the teacher assistant to be this particular assistant who has been with the school for a long time. We are crossing our fingers that this will happen.

As for the car insurance crap.... we finally got all of it figured out. Apparently what had happened was there was someone with my same first name, same middle initial and a slightly different last name who had the exact same drivers license number as me but licensed in a different state. She was in an accident in a 2003 Dodge Durango in March 2007 while in Michigan. Apparently someone, somewhere, made a mistake and put that her license was from Michigan (since that was where the accident was, I guess). Which linked it back to my license instead of hers. But, all is better now. Phew! Although the State Farm rep we talked to thinks it's very possible that for the last 18 months Allstate has been making me pay higher premiums than I should have been because of this accident. Grrr. I'll have to call them and see, but I'm not sure there's anything I could do about it anyway.

For the WONDERFUL news! Owen wore a shirt AND pants (with no pj's) for about 4 hours today!!!! This is HUGE news and is something that hasn't happened in... ohh... 6 months? It started because he said he wanted to "go fishing". So I played along and told him that he can't fish in his pj's- he has to wear fishing clothes. So he put on a pair of grey sweatpants and a blue t-shirt. We went outside to go fishing (took a bowl of water and put some of his little plastic fish in there for him to fish out). After a little while he decided he wanted to go for a run around the block (with his endless energy). Then he decided he wanted to go to the mall playplace. He was there for a little bit, then we got lunch and went to work/daycare. He stayed in his clothes until about 4:30, when he accidently got a drop of pee on them while going potty (which, ya know, means we have to change the entire outfit). He switched into pj's at that time.

And now for the crappy news. While at the mall playplace Owen climbed on one of the structures and tried to jump to another one. He didn't make it and his (shoeless) foot hit the second structure. He fell to the ground and screamed out in pain. I picked him up and sat down on a bench with him. His foot wasn't obviously injured and he said he wanted to keep playing. I figured he'd shake it off so I let him. He crawled (yes, didn't walk) to the structure, climbed back up and jumped off again.... only to land in a heap of screaming crying mess. So I picked him up and brought him to the car, where I called the dr. Dr said since it wasn't swelling much then it's probably not a break and to just watch it for a few hours. It was about time to go to work so we went there. By the time I got off work he was limping around on it. After we got home he wanted to play on the computer. Jason told him if his foot hurt he needed to go to the dr and couldn't play on the computer. If his foot was okay then he could play on the computer. He suddenly was hopping (although gingerly) on that foot. LOL! That ruled out that trip for an x-ray! Before he went to sleep he was still favoring the other foot and was limping a little, but hopefully by morning he'll be fine.

1 step forward, 2 steps back

I'll update on the school stuff a little later (but I will say it went great!).

The steps backwards....

I switched my car insurance earlier this month to State Farm. Got a great quote online (over $200 less every 6 months than I was paying with Allstate). So I started it and paid for 6 months. I got a phone call the next week from a person from State Farm saying that they did some more checking and found I had an accident that was going to affect my insurance. I asked for more details because I have NEVER been in an accident. My car was hit one time but I was nowhere near it, it was totally the other persons fault and their insurance paid for it. Anyway, when pressed for further details they said that there is a claim by someone with the same first name, same middle initial and a slightly different last name as me, in Michigan, with the SAME EXACT drivers license number.

Now, that's not possible, of course. Drivers license numbers are unique and nobody can have the same one. So it had to have been a man made error (writing down the wrong number when taking an accident report or whatever).

So I tried to get it cleared up. I had my insurance company in Michigan fax State Farm a record saying that I wasn't in any accidents.

Apparently that wasn't enough. I got a letter in the mail saying that my insurance was canceled as of Feb 26th, because of this accident that I was apparently in. So I called the local State Farm rep, again, to get more information about how the heck to clear my name. She said I had to call a different number to get it sorted out. Fine. She also said the accident was in March of 2007 and involved a 2003 Dodge Durango. Now, I've never in my life driven a Dodge Durango. I've never in my life gotten a ticket. I've never been in any accidents. I have a perfect driving record, dang it! (knocking on wood!)

So I called this number, and then Jason helped find a different one because this one was not helpful at all. In the end, the person at that number is saying my record is clean. Uhhh.... okay. They are going to fax a copy of it tomorrow saying my record is clean.

So we called State Farm back and they said that it's not clean, there's a record on it of an accident.

Uhhhhh....

K.

Jason and I are doing conference calls with all sorts of fun people today trying to clear this mess up.

Wish us luck!

I called for an emergency ARC meeting today. They tried to make the meeting next month, and then when I said no they tried for 3 weeks. Again, I said no and pushed further. We have a meeting bright and early (7:30) tomorrow morning. Some of the issues we will be discussing...

-clothing. Obvious issue. To go with this would be OT.
-his aide. He has an aide. It's written into his IEP. So why, when I drop him off today, am I told the aide is out so it's just the teacher and assistant? Not acceptable.
-gym/recess time. Apparently Owen was kept out of gym AND recess time today because his teacher couldn't get his socks/shoes on him. Not okay to keep any child inside during recess/gym time.
-behavior assessment. None have been done on him. Enough said.

There are other things too, but these are the biggies.

Wish us luck!

It just keeps getting better.

So I picked Owen up from school today only to have the teacher tell me he had something in his nose. Huh. What could it be, you ask? A Hershey's kiss wrapper. What? That's not normal?!? LOL! He gets a Hershey's kiss in his lunch everyday. Today, apparently, the wrapper ended up in his nose. How, you ask? I asked too. Here's the answer I got.

"Well, mama, Oobi and Kako put it in there."

(Oobi and Kako are his hands)

"Why in the world would Oobi and Kako put a wrapper in your nose?!?"

"Ummm.... because my nose was hungry."

Ah. Okay. That makes sense. Sure.

Dr's office said don't even bother coming in because they didn't have the tools to get it out. Instead, go to the ER (it was pretty darn far up in there... apparently Oobi and Kako wanted to make sure the nose really ate it). Argh. They did say if I waited a few hours it would be fine (I was on my way to work). I got to work and was talking to my boss about leaving to go to the ER when a co-worker overheard. Her daughter has stuck many many things up her nose. I gave her the go-ahead to try and she had it out within 10 seconds. Woo-hoo!

That's a new one on me though.

Just need to have a good cry.

I don't know how things got to where they are. And, even worse, I don't know how to fix it.

Owen has always had issues with clothes. A few months ago he started getting really bad- dropping clothing after clothing from the short list of acceptable things. In late November it got to where he would only wear pj pants and a plain white shirt or a compression shirt. In January he dropped the white shirts and the compression shirts and will now only wear pajama tops and bottoms. He will sometimes agree to a white undershirt under his top.

The whole time he was getting OT through a private OT. One he's been seeing for about 1 1/2 years. This OT advised us to let it go- to let him pick what he wants to wear because it was during a stressful time (holidays and such) and he needed to feel some control over his life. We believed her and let him wear whatever he wanted to. And he continued to drop items from the list of acceptable things. Now we're down to about 1/2 a dozen pairs of pajamas, no compression shirts, nothing other than those few pajamas.

About 4 weeks ago the OT said she was moving Owen down from 2 hours a week to 1 hour a week. I fought like h*ll and said no way. He NEEDS the 2 hours a week... look at the kid!! You get him wearing clothes again and I'll consider 1 hour a week.

Last week we went in for our 2 hours and was told that starting this week he would be getting 1 1/2 hours a week and there was no arguing. She said she believes Owen's more severe than she can handle. She said that her time would be better spent with a child who had a chance of making progress and that she advised we look elsewhere for services. Her only suggestion? North Carolina. We live in Kentucky. WTF?!

So, here we are with a 5 year old child who refuses to wear anything other than pajamas, an OT who has lead us into this mess and then gave up on him and has no idea how to help, and a school OT who believes Owen doesn't need more than 75 minutes a month of consultation.





So this morning I got Owen ready for school and tried to put his other clothes (a pair of athletic pants and a t-shirt) on top of his pajamas. We'll save the details but I got the sh*t kicked out of me and he went to school with only pajamas on.

Score 1 for Owen.

So I get him into school (which is another struggle because it's raining and we all know that if a drop of rain touches him than it's like acid or something). The teacher corners me to talk more about this pajama thing. I explained to her about the private OT. She didn't know that the OT had told us to do this.

She said the kids are starting to pick on Owen because he's always in pajamas Fortunately, I don't think Owen *gets* it. She also said she's had one parent ask if we had enough money or if we needed help If only it was that simple. If all I had to do was hold out my hands and accept donated clothes I would be overjoyed. But he has a freaking closet full of clothes, enough to outfit half his class, half of them still with tags on, that he won't even freaking touch.

So.... what the h*ll do we do? We're trying to find another OT so we can take him out of this private one. I've talked to 2, neither accept his insurance, but one gave me the name/number of someone who does. She's been a pediatric OT for over 20 years Unfortunately, it's a drive away. But if she can help us, it'll be worth it. His teacher is going to talk to the school OT and see if she has any more names for us.

We're going to call an emergency ARC meeting to get more OT time. Right now at school he's only getting 75 minutes a month of CONSULTATION (that's right... not even real OT).

But... what do we do? We can't put him in time-out. He would love that. We can't take things away from him- even the things he loves the most (computer, movies, and trains) he would gladly give up if he didn't have to wear clothes. We can't tell him if he doesn't wear clothes he can't go anywhere- that would be his dream come true to stay home all day, every day. We've tried a sticker chart with other things and it worked once, he got the reward (he got to pick a new movie) and then that was it. He lost interest in it and had no motivation to continue (and earn another reward).

Cute boy, ice pictures

"This is my happy face"

Happy with Gremlin. Yes, Owen has a doll. A doll he "borrowed" from my work/daycare. He claims it's his favorite baby EVER. And it's name is Gremlin. And he HAD to come home with us a couple days ago and now comes everywhere with us. Looks like I'll be going to the store to buy a replacement baby for the daycare this weekend! LOL!

Playing with trains.

Awwww....

The rest are a bunch of ice pictures, taken last weekend when the sun came out and started to melt everything.

This is a cute little tree that survived, somehow. The next 4 pictures are of trees that were RIGHT next to this tree that were destroyed.

Row of trees

Look how thick the ice is! And this is after quite a bit of melting!

Snow!!

Poor little tree in front of our house.

And a cute video of Owen tonight. Who can guess the movie first?