Tinsley House Support Thread

[IndigoBell]

An awful lot of us are now doing Tinsley House, either by going there, or by following the recommendations in The Brain Food Plan

So this is just a general support (and hopefully good news) thread.

Stage 1 of the TH therapy consists of:

1. Multivitamins

• Omega
• Zinc & Magnesium
• Multivitamin

1. Healthy eating diet

• High protein, low sugar, no artificial sweeteners, additives etc.

1. Specific exercises done 3 times a day

Prob will continue the tooth brushing exercise...ds1 still does it 7 months down the line! He just hasn't stopped! :)
I would think that you will be given vt if needed...it's a bind at first no doubt but it soon goes down to 5-7 mins per day.
He may also be given where's wally to do...we did where's stig!
Ds1 s convergence is sorted - thanks to the vt. just need to work in his tracking now which is sweat the other software is for.
Very exciting! :)

Can't wait for the next bit. Ds loves where's wally anyway so that should go down well

I think he'll need to continue with stairs and tooth brushing.

And you will be given either vision therapy or Where's Wally.

But probably you'll get vision therapy this visit and Where's Wally next visit.

Indigo bell, as he likes where's wally anyway is there any point in starting it sooner and 'getting ahead' or do you think each activity needs to be done in a set order?

I think he'll be doing Where's Wally every day for 4 months. So I wouldn't bother starting it early.

Plus it's not just Where's Wally, there's something else you have to do at the same time.... :)

But I do think each activity has to be done in the right order.

Thanks will be patient

We had a brilliant appointment with Robin on Sunday. He says ds has improved much more than he would have expected in the first 8 weeks. His retained reflex has gone from the soles of his feet. He was able to keep his arms almost in line when turning his palms up and down ( was really noticeable, they were really wild before). He is able to touch his nose much more accurately than before too.
So convergence - ds is a really good reader. His reading age was 8.4 to actual age of 6.3 last time it was tested. Apparently his convergence is massively below average though. On one thing is score was only 6 and needs to be 40. So Robin reckons it is his intelligence and one eye that is getting him so far but it must be exhausting. We have bought the visual tracking programme and will start it in the morning. My only concerns about it is the reading is the one area we have no concerns about for ds. We still have big behavioural issues that we want to change. So is the theory that if his eyes work better he will be less frustrated and therefore behave better at school or does the VT make a bit of his brain better too?
Should have asked Robin all this but at the time was too busy being delighted with the progress we have made so far.

TH is slow. It'll take at least a year to get through the whole program.

Fixing his vision might not help his behaviour at school - but it's necessary to fix that bit of his brain before you can fix the bit of his brain which deals with emotions and stuff.

(Although if reading was tiring or painful, then fixing that will help with his behaviour at school.)

Robin says you have to get the foundations of the house down before the walls, and you have to get the walls down before the roof.

Unfortunately the real Aspie problems are in the pre-frontal cortex which is the last thing to be fixed (I think)

We've been going since Nov, and are still up to exercises for balancing the left and right hemisphere. We have not got up to fine motor skills, memory, slow processing, or social / emotional problems, which are the bits I'm desperate to get up to.

Although the VT does fix a little bit of the brain. Did you get HTS with the red/blue glasses? Or eye tracking?

We have been going since jan.
Ds1 is now doing a tracking exercise everyday and that's it!
Am hoping when we go back it will show an improvement...
But we have been so pleased with the results tbh that I am willing to wait to see what's next :)

We have the glasses. Going to start in the morning. Am expecting resistance but bribery is my friend
Must be patient, I know, I know. Just want it all fixed now

Bum. Got ds all ready to start, put disk in machine and message came up that the disk cannot be read by our computer. Is a Mac but Robin said it was Mac compatible. Anyone had this?
Dh will have a look later but is notorious for putting off anything IT related that I need help with.

Sounds like it's not Mac compatible :(

Does the box say it works on a Mac?

I think you'll have to contact HTS support, not Robin.

I had problems installing (on a PC) and they were very helpful.... Fire off an email to them now, because they're in the US.

Box and Robin said was compatible. Dh is the computer buff, I am clueless. Will wait to be sure it isn't something obvious before I email

Day 3 of VT (is working now) and Lord does ds hate it! Did you find the same? Today I've had to read a story between each activity and he still whinges throughout. Any top tips for making it more fun?

Yes, my ds loathed it too until the time dropped significantly and even then, it was an irritation!

We had snacks at the same time and worked out that distraction whilst doing it was the best thing - which, I know sounds bizarre but didn't seem to affect his scores. Ds had my undivided attention for the length of the program and would talk at to me about Pokemon [yawn]. If he messed around I wouldn't sit with him the following day and that threat was usually enough to get him through it!

At one point, the vt made his eyes ache, so we had to really encourage him to persevere. Ds also had the promise of an England shirt once he had completed his stars.

The next (tracking) program is much better but ds still gets upset if he gets a bloop/error sound.

Good luck. Reassure him that the time will soon shorten and it will become easier. The more regularly he does it, the quicker it will finish. we are all cheering him on!

Thanks for the cheers. Was a bit better today when we decided the spaceship belonged to Luke skywalker and we were blasting imperial tie fighters (yawn). He is way off the targets though so think it will be a while before we get some stars.

Robin wants us to do it daily btw so hopefully we will through it quite quickly

Yes, we did it daily (apart from when ds was on a school residential trip).

Keep thinking of ideas like Luke Skywalker. Bloomin tiring for us but works a treat!

have somewhat fallen off the wagon whilst on holiday (am hoping ice cream counts as protein!) and we ran out of vegepa whilst away. Also stayed in a bungalow so no steps available!

Arrived home today to find ds's proposed statement has arrived it is very badly written and i am now frantically trying to figure it all out as it arrived a week ago and you only get 15 days from arrival to respond. On the upside ds had a fab holiday

Forgot to ask the other day - have you guys reduced the vegepa dose after 3 months or carried on with 4 capsules? Am happy to continue high dose if you all think it's worth it

Ds has always had two swallowed capsules per day. Not sure whether the dosage in them is different from the chewable tablets.

VT update. We are now moan free. I have discovered ds can do the tests while I read Harry Potter aloud, he is a happy boy. We are still taking a little break between the 3rd and 4th activity but i think that's ok? He is getting stars and for the first time in his life is delighted with the stars for stars sake rather than them meaning a greater reward iyswim. That in itself is huge progress for us. :)

Well done!

That does sound like progress.

It's fine to have a break. It really does hurt their eyes.

Yes he complains about eye ache a lot. It makes my eyes hurt when I'm sitting keeping him company.

Brilliant!