NEW Tinsley house support thread -part 2!!

[Badvoc]

Hello everyone!
Thought I should start a new thread as we were nearing 1000 posts! :)
Indigo is no longer posting as you all know, but I think it would be such a shame for the support thread to go too.
I know I find reading about all the ups and downs we all experience very helpful and it's so great to hear all the progress :)
So.
We go back to TH next month and can't wait. So interested to see of the tracking programme has worked. I think ds1s reading speed has improved and he is now reading proper chapter books!
He continues to show less anxiety, OCD behaviour and stress.
He is eating better and is generally a much happier chap.
Looking forward to hearing from you all over the next few weeks/months...X

Great news ruggles.
Onward and upward! :)
Re beans I use Heinz low salt and sugar too.
I use whatever brand ketchup...co op ATM.
I use Heinz cream of tomato soup.
I don't worry too much re ketchup tbh...it's more the E numbers in fizzy drinks, squashes, sweets etc that are really damaging.

Heinz low sugar ketchup has no artificial sweeteners etc and is considerably lower in sugar. Ds didn't notice any difference when we swapped.

Ruggles- So pleased you are feeling better after seeing Robin. You have 10 months until your DS starts school. He will be so different by then. You are on top of all of this really early and should be really proud of yourself. Your DS will be fine as he has you as his mother.

Shopping- We are a month or so behing you ( started TH in August) but I too, believe my son's Developmental Delay is going and will go completely in 2013.

I too had horrendous anxiety when my DS fell apart in year 1 when the pressure of formal learning began. I now feel remarkably relaxed- just have to deliver Robin's plan every day and wait. DS now only has Base In and Base Out on his daily VT program. He has got 2 stars for Base Out - just need the breakthrough in Base In now.

PS- Ruggles. Your DH sounds like mine. Interestingly, my DH has gone from being totally cynical to saying that " this all makes perfect sense" Knowing him he will rewrite history in due course and say it was his idea to go to TH.
Many men don't get this to start with and it does make it hard. Luckily, we are right and they get there eventually!

Ds is being assessed again soon at school (well, all the children are!) so I will let you know how he does when I find out.
Dh has jetted off again today for work..only for 3 days this time so not so bad.
But just found out that there is - another! - sick bug going around pre school :(
So just a matter of time I guess .:( it's only just over a month since the last one!

I was very brave today and risked being thought an alternative therapy wacko and discussed TH with a friend whose son has ASD. He is suffering terribly with similar problems to your ds Badvoc - high anxiety, some OCD type symptoms and awful bowel problems. I have wanted to tell her all about it for ages but she isn't a close friend and I was nervous about appearing nuts.
Anyway have had a long conversation this morning. She cried when I told her about your ds' progress Badvoc and I've sent her details of Robin's book and TH. I so so hope she gives it a go as her family's life is pretty much dictated by ASD like ours used to be. I think he is definitely someone Robin could really help.

Shopping...poor woman :( that was me last year :(
Please tell her that if she checks out the TH website under feedback that my son is "Tom" and she can read about his issues and progress in there :)
I really hope she gives it a go.

Me too. I'll tell her what you said, thanks so much. They literally can't leave the house some days as the poor boy goes from hideous constipation to diahorrea (sp?) with little warning.

Hi Guys - I'm back!

I have too much good news to share to stay away. :)

My 3 DCs are all doing brilliantly. We saw Robin on Sun and DS1 and DD have finally been given a game to help their memory and processing speed.

DS1 has settled into secondary school brilliantly. He has joined rugby and debating and is in the school play and is a school councillor..... I'm so proud of him.

DD is really coming right now. Her brain just works. She shows this in hundreds of ways - but it is most evident when she talks to DS2 who is 13 months younger than her. They were never really equal before, but now they are. In fact lots of times now I've caught DD teaching DS2 stuff - which is absolutely unheard of.

Anyway, my really good news is how well the school intervention is going. Last term 10 Y5 boys did the stairs exercise 3 times a day. This term those kids (who are now Y6) are continuing the stairs exercise and have started Engaging Eyes. After 6 weeks of Engaging Eyes 9 of them have improved their reading (speed or accuracy)!!!!!

The school is now expanding the intervention and doing the stairs exercise with 30 more kids.

Starting another trial of this intervention at 2 more schools next week. I'm so excited.............

Welcome back Indigo! Great news about your ds 1 and dd! How is dd's reading and writing? Is she flying now basic decoding/encoding has been established?

Her reading and writing are now flying. Her teacher commented just today about how much faster she is. :)

English is of course a very complicated language, so it will take her a bit of time to catch up to Y5 level - but her mistakes with reading and spelling are now typical of a child who is learning to read, rather than typical of a child with dyslexia.

She mostly spells phonetically, and is starting to spell some words correctly, whereas only a few months ago she wasn't spelling even phonetically and her work couldn't really be read.

She can now remember spellings if I teach her!

Her reading is almost fine, but there are so many long hard words in English that it takes all kids a while to fully learn to read. She is reading age appropriate chapter books, and only needs help on a few words per page.

And her reading speed has improved dramatically.

That's fabulous news. And it is fantastic that your kids are happy and successful at school, and that the junior school is trceptive to your methods. It sounds like a very good school, which after the horrors of your first school must be quite a relief. Well done to you and your dd. it is great to hear a success story.

I've followed your story, and I would say that given your dd's accelerated progress (free writing was still really at p levels in year 3, though was probably 1b with support) you should be very proud. Even if she is only on 3c/3b at end of year 5, that rate of progress should make you confident that she is ontrack (even though temporarily slightly behind) to do brilliantly overall.

Welcome back indigo.
You have been missed x

Welcome back indigo! It was reading your story that inspired us to take ds to TH - just having an alternative ending to the story of "your child has HFA, now go suck it up" was so heartening.

Fantastic to hear other kids are benefiting from such an easy (and free) intervention too.

Welcome back Indigo - soooo pleased to see you on here again and to hear all of your good news too. I just love good news and it cheers me up no end. As Worrier says, your attitude and take on all this is so inspiring and led us to TH too. Your dc are very lucky to have you at the helm.

Shoppingbags, well done for being so brave. I'm sure she will really appreciate your advice and the shared experience.

Badvocsanta - good luck with your school assessment. We were going to see our ds teacher yesterday but she is off with the dreaded wvb, so we'll probably see her next week...

So lovely to see you back Indigobell :)

Indigo- so glad you are back and wonderful to hear the progress your DC are making. So exciting to hear that stairs and Engaging Eyes are making such a big difference to so many children.

My DC are now 16 weeks into the TH programme. So much progress but still a long way for DS to go. DD is doing so well, at school assembly today she was able to deliver her lines with only a small inattention delay and was only slightly delayed in doing the actions in a song.( before TH she would either not do them or be doing something completely different to everyone else) Her ADD is definately improving and other children have stopped being mean to her so she is feeling happier and more confident.

On a less upbeat note had a very unhelpful conversation with school today who basically said that unless |I go down the ED. Psych route with recommendations for school I can't expect any help for DS. Hoping that by the time DS has finished with Robin he won't need any help so won't have to have the battle. School think I am a wacko crackpot

Yeah, my school do too, BP.
However, I am now in the B of Gov so I am aiming to conquer! :)
Good news about your dd :)

Possum - take the EP assessment / report if you can get one! They're like gold dust except not nearly as valuable

I know you're worried about how many assessments your DS has, but because this one will be done in school it's likely to be a lot less stressful / noticeable than the other ones he's had.

And no point in getting school cross with you, when they're actually acknowledging your DS has problems.

Who knows, there's even a tiny chance that the report could be helpful. :)

And yes, very good news about your DD - she's hardly been doing TH for any length of time at all.

The most help we ever got from an EP was a meeting between her, me and ds' pre school teacher. It went a little like this:
Me: have you seen ds?
EP: no I may not have time to see him
Me: how can you advise us on how to help ds when you haven't seen him?
EP: these children tend to present in the same way
Me: bugger off EP ( I was slightly more polite)
So I would say grab the offer of a proper assessment.

And ds' old school thought I was a whiny old bag, not sure if that's better or worse than wacko crackpot?

I think my school think I am all of the above... ..

Do you mind if I ask some more questions? We have a month off nursery coming up and I've been planning lots of things to do at home - I love doing all sorts with my dss but do very little formal stuff - i.e. lots of reading books, but no work on numbers or letters etc. He is in pre-school and I'm seeing them next, but know they are going to say that he is struggling with both of these. Can you recommend any system or programme which we could do at home over the holidays?

Shoppingbags - that is awful about your EP! No wonder you told her to bugger off.