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

Bochead
Ds1 was 8.5 when we began the TH therapy -although he had also had a course of AIT and RRT prior to that (which I would also recommend)
I can't beleive where we are now to where we were 12 months ago.
:)

Bochead - certainly the earlier you can do TH the better. Ideally you want it finished before they reach puberty.

We won't achieve that with DS, but at least he's done most of it before then.

We're just using travel-eeze, because DS won't swallow medicine. It's a sweetie type one - and unfortunately it contains artificial sweeteners.

Try any brand....

Ah Robin left ds a well done message on VT this morning! He was really pleased :)

And ds rode his two wheeler for the first time this afternoon! Life is good :)

:)

am new to mn. i recently took my 4yr old ds to th who has language delays and lots of ASD traits no formal dx. currently doing the chair and stairs exercise- a bit of progress so far. my ds is starting reception this sept am so worried about him coping in school am not sure what else i should be doing. please help

NeedToAct - does he start school any day now?

What part of school do you think he'll struggle with?

Have you told his teacher your concerns?

TH will help your DS. Stick with it.

How is the diet and supplements going?

Thanks indigo for responding.

He is starting school next week.

We had a a meeting last term with his new teacher to let her know our concerns and his needs.

He needs help making friends and especially understanding instuctions.

Has serious seperation anxiety.

He can feed himself but will not feed himself unless promted and given lots of encouragement.

Needtoactmum-you need to ask for a statutory assessment of your son to get a statement so he can get support in school. Ask to meet with the teacher at the end of the first week and see how he has been and also ask to meet with the school Senco to discuss his support needs. The school should take the lead on applying for the statement.

Thanks dietstartstmoz-At his Nursery, the Educational psycologist saw him last term and said he was not bad enough for a statment.

I spoke with the ed Psy last week and he said we should wait and see how he gets on this term.

He gets 30mins a week of speech therapy we have done this for 2years now. I can't say this has had a massive impact.

Just because he has ASD does not mean he needs a statement.

Hopefully he won't need a statement because he'll be able to cope.

And hopefully he'll get better day by day and will need less and less help.

You really do need to let him start school and see how it goes.

He doesn't need to make friends this term.

The teacher or TA should be able to help with instructions - they'll have to or he won't know how to do anything.

The feeding is slightly more of an issue, but just make sure school are aware of it, and you are told how much he eats each day so that you can raise it with school if it is a problem.

The separation anxiety is a problem - but a statement won't help with that. However it is something schools are used to and hopefully they'll know how to handle it.

Thanks all for your responses
@Indigo your words have given me more hope than you can imagine.
Now I can focus better

Just wanted to share with you all ds1s first week back at school....
On his first day he finally got his bronze times tables certificate :)
He has been moved up 3 reading levels :)
He bring home some writing he needed to finish - a spoof newspaper report - and it was brilliant...small, neat even spaced cursive writing.
I know that some of you will think...and?...but compared to this time last year it's quite simply unbelievable.
If someone had shown me his writing I would not have known it was my sons...
:)

You could ask the school to keep a food diary?
Also ask the school to provide a home/school diary.
I have 2 dc...one with sn, one nt....both had separation anxiety. Nothing to do with sn IMHO.
It does get better...by half term he should it be so distressed.
Very best of luck x

Hi TH thread. I am new to all this. Have DS ( 6.5) who had no problems at nursery and reception but then fell apart in yr 1. Came home from school saying brain was in upside down and how stupid he is. Has taken a while to get my head around all this. Started RRT with hemispheres in June ( he has retained pretty much everything to some extent but seems his major issues are dyslexia, dyspraxia )but then discovered this thread and decided to switch to TH ( having read Robin's book and read IndigoBell's comments ) Have been following TH plan since 31/7/12. Using Vegepa ( 2 a day- so double dose) and both Floridix products. Doing stair exercise and teeth cleaning. Robin had a quick look at DD (8- yr 4) at DS's appointment and agreed with my concern about attention issues and so she too is following the diet, minerals and doing stairs and teeth. DS and DD settling in to it now and Robin will do full assessment on DD when go for next appointment at end September. First few weeks very hard going and some major behavioural problems. Still can't quite believe that my DS who his reception teacher had said was amazing and exceptional is now angry, frustrated and has developed a facial tic.

I was really worried about DS going into year 2 and being able to cope but although he looks stressed at pick up time he seems to be coping better than at end of yr 1 and said his writing was better and he could stay on the line which he was very pleased about. Absolutely refuses to read at home and I am letting him off as he is doing his exercises.

I too have had Hair Analysis from foresight which showed loads of issues. Do you think I should add suggested minerals from them or leave for the time being?

Wanted to ask Indigo about Sacrocranial. Very interested in it but wondered if OK to do alongside TH or whether it would be overloading? Also wondered if anyone has any experience of Handle/ Fountain House in London.

Hi Possum,

Do you mean cranial osteopath? I did that with DS before TH. it was good.

I'm not sure whether you can do it at the same time as TH or not.

I don't know the London clinic you're talking about.

DS did the hair test a couple of years ago - however I didn't end up giving him the recommended supplements (can't remember why)

However I took DD to a nutritionist a few months ago - and she has made an enormous difference. She found out DD had candida and was dairy intolerant. Removing dairy has made an enormous difference.

She also found out she has too much lead so we're giving her bio-chelate

She also recommended loads of vitamins, including a mega dose of B6 and B12 and B5 and probiotics.

So, basically I do recommend you follow the hair analysis advice and give her more supplements. They've really helped DD.

Lots of good news here.

DS started secondary school yesterday - and was fine! I can't tell you how relieved I am.

I told secondary school DS didn't need any extra support, however the primary school said the opposite . And so the first day someone from the SEN dept took him out for a chat. Apparently this is going to be a regular occursnce although I'm sure DS will soon talk his way out of it

So, while I'm not pleased he's getting extra support, I'm blown away by how good the pastoral care is.

And DD has made enormous progress over the holidays. She's starting Y5 - and I finally think she can read.

The SENCO emailed me to say she'd arranged for someone to do Apples & Pears with her every day and for someone else to read with her every day - and I almost said she didn't need to! Then I decided I was silly and she might as well have all that extra support.

I really do think though she'll catch up by Christmas. In July she was still 2 years behind....

It's all working. Both DS and DD are now practically fine and are actually receiving more support from school than they need.

It sounds as though most of you have had very positive starts to the term. Very up and down here with ds starting Year 6. I have been dreading this next term with 11+ looming.

What is The Fountain Clinic? I have never heard of it either.

We are due to see Robin next week. Originally due to see him last week but went on holiday instead! ds has nearly completed the tracking programme, he is on the highest level and making very few errors - tends to just start over if he makes an error which I don't really mind about, not sure whether it messes with the stats though?

Badvoc and indigo, ,great to hear dcs doing so well. Daftmaul, ds is doing so well with tracking. We are getting on well with vision therapy. Still takes 20 mins (30 mins with a little break) so is a bit of a pain in the mornings but he is far too tired after school to do it. Do the sessions get shorter as time goes on? We've been doing it for a month.
Re difference between coping in reception and year 1 - that happened to ds too. He got a cracking reception report and in sept of year 1 school was talking about taking him off the sen register but then the curriculum got more formal and he started having melt downs about doing even the most basic work and by end of year 1 he was a mess. Moved to independent school now so am hoping year 2 will be better.

Sorry, last bit was for possum and her ds. I think that the transition from reception to year 1 is much bigger and more difficult than from pre school to reception. Ds is an angel if allowed to do free play all the time, our problems kick in when he has to stop playing and do work.

Shopping - the vision therapy sessions get shorter. They go from 20 minutes down to 6 minutes.

He just needs to get all those stars :)

Once he has all the stars for a game he doesn't need to do it anymore.

Then when he's completed the whole thing contact Robin, who will assign you 6 minutes of something.

Year 1 is generally when kids with sn-sen start to really struggle.
Most in this thread wil confirm that.
Ds1 had to have ine of his baby teeth out earlier...he was so brave..I was very proud :)

Ah poor ds but yay for bravery :)
6 mins will be great. He has completed base in and base out and now has something vergence to do instead. Accommodative rock nearly done (3 stars left to get but he gets a star every day now). We will never finish pursuits, he never gets a star, is too fast for him.
I am really enjoying twenty minutes of Harry Potter reading per day though. ( i read aloud while he does the bleepy stuff) Never got the hype pre kids but reading it to ds and seeing the wonder in his eyes makes me understand what people love about JK

He will get pursuits :)

I think DD found that one the hardest too.

One day he will just be fast enough to get a star.

Shopping, please tell him from us that he is doing BRILLIANTLY and well done for persevering with it.