Intensive Home Therapy Update

I realized I haven't done an update on the Intensive Home Therapy we have been doing with Issac. We started right before Thanksgiving and are going into our 5th month. We saw a few inklings of better behavior and working on coping skills, but that seems to not have lasted. Around Christmas we took off two weeks for the holiday and then my aunt passed away, so we ended up with a third week out of school. The small improvement that we had seen haven't grown much since then. We are better in the sense that we don't have multiple meltdowns every day that can last for hours. That is huge, but we haven't seen the grand improvements that everyone thought we would :( We have had someone in the house anywhere from three to five days a week for between one and two hours a day. That has been a HUGE adjustment for us with our school life as well as everything else.

We were recently told that Issac isn't going to be approved for anymore Intensive Home Therapy. They believe that he's been taught the coping skills, but isn't necessarily able to use them. They feel that is related to his IDD, Intellectual Developmental Disability. When I heard that I thought to myself, does he have an IDD? I don't know and the truth is that is something we have been trying to find out for a long time. He understands lots of things and can have VERY intellectual conversations with you. Then he can want to get "huggies", climb into bed with us, sit on my lap and act about 3 years old. Part of me wants to be done with this entire thing, but part of me feels that MAYBE we are FINALLY getting to a person that can truly help us. For years I have said that Issac understands certain things and not others. His Developmental Pediatrician thinks all his "tantrums" come from the inability to problem solve. All the testing that has been done has had some large gaps in areas that she feels is the cause. What is the solution then?? We were told it was going back to Occupational Therapy, but they didn't really address any of those issues I felt. It seems to be a never ending cycle of going from here to there, but I feel I have to try for Issac's sake. I want him to be the best he can be as he grows older.

Thankful Tuesday 1/16/2018

Today was a good day here at the house.  I actually had lots of things that I could think of to be thankful for today. This may seem strange, but today I chose balloons (LOL) My kids can have the most fun with a $1.00 pack of balloons. The other evening I picked up a few things at Family Dollar to have on hand to do a few little activities with Issac. His therapist made coping balls with him a few weeks ago. They rolled tiny balls of playdough and dropped them into balloons. They then tied them and you could squeeze on them if you were upset. He misplaced his, so I decided today we'd make a few more. He was actually having a rough moment and making these took his mine off it and basically reset him. You could easily fill these with rice or sand as well. I like the playdough because it's a firmer texture and won't make a mess like some of the other items could.

From there Issac started blowing up balloons and we hit them back and forth.  He also blew them up and just let the air blow back in his face. Something so simple, but could make an afternoon so enjoyable :) It may seem strange to some, but today I am thankful for balloons :)