It's been way too long since I've blogged about the boys and their progress. Documenting this journey while simultaneously living it is proving a difficult task indeed! I just had a progress report and Dylan and Preston are both doing AMAZING! I'll save all the official stuff to blog about after their reassessment, which is coming up quickly. YIKES!! I did want to give an update on some of the things we as parents have noticed the past couple months.
- Preston is super inquisitive. He is always asking a million questions. It's like his brain is on fire! A phrase I hear OFTEN is "Mom, I need to tell you something." He is
constantly asking or telling me something that he is thinking, has
learned, or has questions about.
- He is not nearly as shy and nervous as he used to be. He's still a little nervous around adults at first, but when it's just kids, he jumps right in there and makes friends.
- He's also more in the mix when he plays with friends and less of a total follower than he used to be.
- Preston is overly loving to everyone!! He wants to hug and kiss his baby brother constantly and even his friends. Thankfully he's a pretty loveable kid so most of them seem to tolerate his affection, even if they themselves are not used to that kind of thing. It's like he can't help himself. He cares so much about them, that he HAS to hug and kiss them.
- He is learning to take a stand. He used to just go along with everything anyone suggested, but now he is saying no or suggesting alternatives when he has an idea.
- He also has started fighting back when Dylan is mean to him. He used to be the younger sibling and very much the underdog, but now when he feels like Dylan is picking on him, he will try to fight back. Both good and bad, but overall a skill he needed to develop.
- Preston's communication skills are INCREDIBLE! He came up from the basement one day and was explaining a board game they had been playing. My mother-in-law heard him talking and she looked at me in shock. I hadn't realized how far he had come with his communication skills, but it was very obvious to someone who doesn't see and talk to him every day.
- Dylan was telling a story one day and Preston stopped him and said, "No, that's not the whole story. Let me tell you what really happened." He proceeded to tell me the entire story in great detail. That is not something that ever would have happened a few months ago.
- His creativity is amazing! The way he looks at the world is so different than others and that makes for creative conversations and fascinating questions. He's also very creative with art and even when playing with legos.
- Dylan writes creative essays as part of his cognitive work at Brain Balance. Preston's skills are not high enough to be able to write essays yet, but he started wanting to write essays like Dylan. He dictates his essays to his coach and she writes them down for him. It's pretty awesome that he WANTS to do something he can't do yet and I love that they accommodated his desire to do more and found a way to allow him to do higher level work. The program director showed me a few of his essays at his progress report last week and he really does have a great imagination. It's a mixture of truth and fiction, but ends up being a real story that is actually interesting. That fact alone shocks me! He could not do anything like that a couple months ago.
- His awareness of himself and the world around him have increased dramatically. He notices so many things now that would have been difficult for him to see even with someone pointing it out to him. He is constantly thinking.
- Because he is more aware of the world around him, we started dealing with some pretty big fears he'd never had in the past. He is now afraid of death, space, and the dark. He is also afraid of strange things like caterpillars, the smiley face on one of my toddler's toys, and several lullaby songs. So one of the negative things we've been dealing with is both normal fears (age appropriate) and irrational fears.
- Another interesting thing was that he started lying. That isn't something we have had to deal with much as parents, but Preston had a couple weeks where he would look me in the eye and flat out lie. Even when I told him he was lying and it was clear he'd been caught, he denied it. Apparently that's developmentally appropriate around 4 or 5 years old so most likely it was just a phase he was passing through, but it was very strange dealing with it.
- He is getting so strong! He has slimmed down a bit, but his physical abilities have really increased the past several months. He can do sit-ups, push-ups, and loves the monkey bars and balance beam. He is also a very fast runner now.
- Preston is much more independent than he used to be. We used to help him with quite a few self-help skills, but he is getting to the point where we can just say, "Go brush your teeth" and it happens. We often have to follow up because he gets distracted, but he is capable of doing much more than he was before and will usually follow through.
- Along those same lines, he often doesn't want help on projects he still needs help with. This is both good and bad, but I am glad the desire to be able to do things on his own is there.
- He takes FOREVER to accomplish some tasks. It isn't because he
can't do it, but usually because he gets distracted or spends lots of
time complaining instead of doing. That happens the most with unloading
the dishwasher and making his bed, his least favorite chores.
- His ability to follow multi-step directions is incredible. When he was 4, we could not even give him one step directions. We could not say, "Go get your shoes" and expect him to complete the task. Now I can say things like, "Go downstairs and get me a new bottle of dish soap. It is down in the basement with the food storage on the shelf with the bleach and other cleaners. I also need a roll of paper towels, which is on the shelf above the soap." At first I was careful because I didn't think he could do something that complex, but sure enough he is able to follow what I am saying and come back with both items within a minute or two...without even getting distracted and forgetting what he was supposed to do.
- We've been dealing with lots of new sensory issues that come and go. That's all part of the brain developing and changing. Some things I have seen in all three of my children who are doing the home program and others are unique to Preston. One thing EVERYONE has experienced is the desire to hang upside down. They do headstands or hang off the couch CONSTANTLY! I'm not exactly sure why, but it is probably a sensory seeking thing. Most likely it is related to proprioception (sensing your body in space). They want more proprioceptive sensory input so they do things that seem a little crazy at times. For months, they were ALWAYS hanging upside down. Everywhere and anywhere. That stage literally lasted close to three months, but now it is slowing down and I think they are doing headstands once in awhile for fun now and not as much because they need the extra sensory stimulation.
- The other sensory issue that has come and gone a couple times has to do with the rooting reflex. Preston used to lick things all the time. He was sensory seeking with all things related to the mouth and tongue. This turned into his biting his shirt a few months ago (during the program) and then seemed to go away. He did start licking things and biting his shirt for a couple weeks again recently, but that seems to be fading away once again. Hopefully that means his rooting reflex is getting closer to being integrated. Fingers crossed!!
- Preston's eating habits have changed a lot. He used to want ketchup on EVERYTHING! Within a few weeks of started Brain Balance, he started telling everyone he was allergic to ketchup and wouldn't touch it. All of a sudden, he wanted mustard on everything. Now he will eat mustard sometimes, has tried ketchup again a couple times and often just eats his food plain. It's interesting to watch his taste buds change, but it seems it is usually temporary if kids are continuing to progress. Otherwise I think they can get stuck in a picky eater phase for a very long time. Preston is definitely my pickiest eater right now, but isn't bad compared to many kids with a brain imbalance. Some textures really bother him, but there are plenty of foods I can find that he will eat so I don't worry too much about the evolution of food likes and dislikes in this child.
I'm sure there are so many things I am forgetting, but these are the ones that stick out to me the most as being the noticeable changes in Preston the past couple months.
