- The most recent change came during church yesterday. Preston was asked to give a prayer in front of a big group of children. In general, even talking in front of people makes him nervous. He has a very unique voice he uses when he is nervous or anxious. He either talks in a deeper kind of quiet voice or mumbles with his teeth shut so you can't really hear what he's saying. He even does this at home when he's saying a prayer. He just feels shy or nervous in certain circumstances and then the awkwardness emerges. Today my husband texted me to tell me about Preston's incredible prayer (I was home with a baby who had thrown up all over me at church. Yeah...good times right there!) Apparently Preston spoke in a CLEAR voice and used his own words, not repetitive phrases he often relies on when he's nervous. He asked that everyone would be reverent, obedient, and would listen to their teachers. I know this may not seem like much, but it is HUGE for this little man.
- As part of the exercises the boys do three times a day, they perform push-ups and sit-ups. Dylan was able to do quite a few push-ups so we are working on perfecting his form rather than increasing the number of push-ups he can do. Preston, however, could not do any. I tried teaching him on his knees and that didn't work so we went to the wall for wall push-ups. Even with that modification, he complained and didn't perform them well. We finally decided to do a modified knee push-up where he was more in crawling position during his push-ups. He was still getting more than I felt he was on the wall. A week ago today something clicked and he WANTED to do push-ups on his toes. His form was awkward, but he was determined. He did two or three push-ups moving about an inch up and down, but he was on his toes. A week later (yesterday) he is now doing 5-6 push-ups on his toes and is able to go about halfway down each time. It's incredible how quickly it went from not even being able to do wall push-ups to doing several decent push-ups in a row. He's got a long way to go to perfect his form and add a few more, but he's well on his way.
- The other main change we have noticed so far (that happened practically from the beginning) was how his expressive language has increased. He was already doing okay in this area as he has made lots of progress with this the past several years. But this is a NOTICEABLE change. He is using big words, very grown-up phrases, and wants to talk non-stop. His brain is AWAKE! We are thrilled! It is so fun listening to him and knowing what is in that incredible brain of his. He tells me the details of what he did in school, what happened on the playground, or in his Brain Balance session. There is a store at Brain Balance. The kids earn brain bucks for different things, and can save up to buy items from the store. The other day when we were driving to his session he said, "Mom, when we get there, I think I want to tell them that I would be interested in minion stuff that I can buy at the store." I'm not sure he's EVER used the phrase "I would be interested in..." It was AWESOME and I couldn't help but smile and even chuckle a bit to myself.
- Dylan's running speed h][p[p[:p[and his confidence in running and soccer has increased dramatically. He's always enjoyed sports, but if he's not the best at something, he tends to shy away from it. I guess that's a curse of being good right away at so many things. But he is willing to work hard and seeing the fruits of his labor. He scored a goal in soccer last week. And he had an assist in another goal this week. That isn't completely unusual, but he was just as happy with the assist or even playing sweeper as he was scoring a goal. That need to be the one to score or being upset if he doesn't was not there the same way it usually is. This is going to take time, but we can see an improvement.
- Also, he has been better able to stop himself from getting upset when we remind him to do chores or homework before he can go outside or have another privilege. Again, it's a work in progress, but there is a noticeable difference many times in his stopping himself from getting upset or snapping when something happens.
- Forming a routine to make all the changes flow is proving EXTREMELY helpful. Knowing they get screen time on Friday unless they lose it, is helpful. Knowing when we do exercises, what we eat, etc. helps. It just gets to be the way we live. But those changes were very difficult the first couple of weeks, especially the diet.
Negative Changes
- During a program that changes so much, and in particular changes the brain, some dips in behavior are to be expected. We went into this already knowing that, but it's worth mentioning that in addition to positives, we are definitely experiencing the negatives. Our boys are very different so it tends to look different for each of them. For Preston, he has been whiney, complained and dragged his feet on many of his responsibilities. For Dylan, he tends to get upset and try to say something to get under our skin. The other day when I told Dylan no to something he wanted to do, his response was, "You're so mean! No wonder you don't have any friends." He was clearly looking for a reaction from me. I'll be honest, it's all I can do NOT to react to these behaviors some of the time. This program is going to prove to be a huge growing experience for me as a parent as well. Calm, patient, consistent, but firm. Smile to myself and know that "this too shall pass."
- Preston's negatives are sometimes quite amusing to me. He isn't an angry person by nature so when he is mad and tries to show you he's angry, it often makes me smile. He really wanted macaroni and cheese on week 2 and I didn't have the replacement stuff to allow him to eat this favorite meal of his. I told him we couldn't have it for lunch, but I would try to get some or make a recipe so we could have it another time. I told him the kind he wanted has gluten in it and we can't have gluten. He looked at me and said, "No it doesn't have gluten in it! Gluten isn't even a real word! You just made that up!"
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