Tapping on the Shell

I was able to speak to one of my son’s therapists at school yesterday when I picked him up for his vision therapy. They’re using sentence strips with him, to encourage language use, and reading. He seems to have a lot of fun with the strips and his use of phrases starting with the words, “I want…” is increasing.

She told me he was on the computer, and he left his seat to go to his box where all the sentence strips are kept. He rummaged around the box, looking for the right strip. Then went to the work table with the strip in hand and waited for one of the aides to come by.

The strip said, “I want a walk,” which means he wants to take a little break, a stroll in the school hallway. So he got his walk.

To get him off the computer with no fuss is a major accomplishment in itself. For him to leave it voluntarily is huge.

Another important thing to come out of this is that we know he can read.

His vision therapy is going very well also. His therapist said he works well on a slant board and was doing a fantastic job at connecting dots, with the prism lenses on. With the prism lenses off, he did not do so well. She asked me if I would ask his teacher if he can use the lenses in class for a few minutes each day. I asked his teacher last night and she agreed. He’s not going to be wearing them during recess or anything, but when he’s working at a table, on writing skills.

These are positive steps. He is much calmer these days. Whether or not it's his age, being back at school or the sensory learning that started back in June is not really relevant. He's adapting, slowly, but noticably. His sleeping has also improved, even though he was up at 5AM on Tuesday morning. Toilet training though, is another issue entirely.