It's been too long

I know, it's been WAY too long since my last post.

Here's what's been happening with Benjamin this last month. He made HUGE improvements during the first couple sessions with Pat. It was unbelievable. But lately the changes have started to become much more subtle. At first the changes were most notable by his teachers at school but now it's mostly me who is noticing things. And it's little things. Things like longer sentences, clearer annunciation, more enthusiasm for completing tasks.

The past couple of weeks Pat has let him ride a plasma car

He really loves riding it and has become an expert at maneuvering around the obstacles she sets up. 

We work a lot on playing catch and having him work on his aim. She has told me that the part of the brain that is responsible for speech is also responsible for accurate aim. So, it seems to me that a very fun way to help a child improve their speech is to play catch with them.

Of course, he's always standing on the balance board while we play. A way of helping to improve his focus. 

He still loves to go see Miss Pat more than anything else. It's the only time he'll actually get in the car and buckle up without a single word of whining or protest :)

First session

2 weeks of waiting nearly killed me but the day for Benjamin's first real Brainlinking appointment did finally arrive.
I don't have a whole lot to say about the appointment itself this time. It was fun and very interesting to watch. I love that I get to see a side of Benjamin, that just doesn't come out very often, when he's working with Miss Pat. I'm still impressed by her manner with him, most notably her patience.

What I really want to be writing about, or screaming from the rooftops, is what's happened since that appointment. We saw Miss Pat in the morning and Benjamin goes to Kindergarten in the afternoon. That day (yesterday) when I picked him up from school his teacher had a big smile on her face and was happy to report to me that he had had a great day. At school they use a reward system with him of smiley faces. At the start of each day they put a clean little piece of paper with 6 squares on his desk and throughout the day as he completes assignments, or stays put for carpet time, or just does other tasks that he's asked to complete he gets a smiley drawn on his paper. Since they started that system he typically has earned 3 or 4 of the 6 possible smileys everyday. Some days, if it's been really rough, they just don't even send the paper home.

2 days in a row now, yesterday and today, he's come home with all 6 smileys on his paper! Today he was so happy about it that he wouldn't put the paper down for hours after I picked him up.

I should mention that part of the Brainlinking program is to do exercises at home at least 3 times per week. I did those exercises with him this morning before sending him off to school. I don't know how he would do if I didn't do that. There's a small part of me that wants to test it and see what happens but, seeing my little guy so proud of his accomplishments the past 2 days has made me shed tears of joy that I'm not willing to give up. I just want him to continue to feel this good about himself. So, it's just not worth the risk. I plan to do the exercises everyday. I want him to not only improve his focus and concentration at school but also, and even more importantly, I want him to build confidence in himself. These past 2 days he's known he's been doing well and he is so proud of what he's accomplishing.
That's my Benjamin. He is a sweet and wonderful little boy in every way. He just needs a little help controlling and channeling his energy and his focus.

I can't wait to see what we get to do next week!

Initial assessment

I had mixed emotions as I tried to pull myself out of bed a little early this morning. I wanted to be showered and ready before the kids got up since there wouldn't be much time to feed them and get them out the door. As I drove to my friends home to drop off the two little ones I felt waves of excitement, nervousness, and a little anxiety. After getting back in the car the emotions intensified as Benjamin and I drove to Sandy.
I had told him we were going somewhere where we would be able to play games. I wasn't sure what else to say so I left it at that but that was enough to get him pretty excited to go.
When we arrived I felt a warmth from Pat but was still a little nervous about how Benjamin would react to her. He tends to only like certain people and is easily put off by the wrong personality type.
She stood back and allowed him to explore and get comfortable with the setting. A good sign!
Then, we went into a room with a couple computers and she set him up playing I Spy! so she and I could talk for a few minutes.
I was really impressed by how well Benjamin was responding to her. He sat in a chair in front of her to talk to her when she asked him to (something not everyone is able to get him to do), answered all of her questions and even followed her instructions without much protesting at all. Then, she wanted to do the visagraph test on him. That test involves putting on a pair of goggles. Benjamin does NOT like things on his head or face so I was expecting him to adamantly refuse to allow them to be put on him. To my amazement it only took a little bribery (a piece of candy) to get him to cooperate. What the test told us is that his eyes are not working together. His left eye, although needing a little training, is not too bad. His right eye on the other hand, was way off. That eye was focusing clear on the other side of the page from where it was supposed to be. We also learned that it took his right eye 5 times as long to go back and forth between the two "x"'s we had asked him to look at as it did his left eye.

But, what he really wanted was to go back into the gym to play so I Spy! became boring fairly quickly.
Pat then asked me to go sit in the waiting room while she and Benjamin went into the gym so she could assess his strengths and weaknesses and decide what areas she was going to need to focus on with him.
I got a little jealous at not being able to be in there with him since I could hear lots of laughter and excitement from Benjamin. He has the greatest belly laugh I've ever heard.
When they came back into the waiting room Benjamin seemed a bit calmer than usual. More relaxed. Pat and I discussed what she learned about him.
She told me that he is very right side dominant. She had done a couple of exercises to see which eye and which ear were dominant and in both cases it was the right. She also said that he always leads with his right foot and seems to be right handed. Then, she told me she was pretty sure that he is also right brained which was the only thing she said that surprised me. Benjamin is a math/numbers type of kid and I always thought those types of people were left brained. He has a strength of being able to recognize symbols which she explained was a characteristic of a lot of people who are able to integrate both sides of the brain. A good sign really, that maybe he can be trained to be able to do that.

We thanked Pat, made our next appointment and went on our way. As we left I felt like crying. I feel like Pat sees my son the way I see him. For so long I've had to listen to his teachers and others tell me all the negative things about him but none of them ever offered any real hope that things could change and improve. She gave me hope. She was able to see him for who he really is and she focused on his strengths. She was able to see his weaknesses as areas that need training to improve. Training to improve, IMPROVE! It's not a sad situation anymore, it's become a hopeful situation.

While we were sitting at the dinner table this evening I asked Benjamin what he thought about Pat and the games they played together. His eyes lit up as he told me that he had fun and wanted to go back.

Too bad next week is Thanksgiving. I want to get started NOW.