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

Bribery.
:)

Ds1 came home very proud again yesterday....
He got a head teacher award for some phonics work he did :)
Have been very very bad this week...what with dh being away and parties etc he hasn't done hemi p or hemi t since Monday!
Really must get back on track next week!
Have to start his space project this week

Neuro work and Space project- poor Badvoc!

DS came home today with "Star of the week" for using speech marks and comma's. Also managed to do all the VT tonight without too much squawking. Won't be long now until pursuits is a thing of the past. I won't be sad to say goodbye to that whizzing E!

DD also seems less "zoned out"- definately think Where's Wally is helping her attention.

Bought a 2013 calender today and thinking this will all be over by this time next year and my kids will be free to fulfil their true potential!

:)

We saw Robin yesterday. I stupidly let ds have a fanta on the way in the car - he was sooo hyper - oops!

Ds has to continue with the original HemiStim and now adds in the second one. He is also starting the tracking programme with words but hopefully, that won't be for long.

Robin thinks we have about 4 more sessions to go and it sounds as though we wil be getting onto the stuff that he really needs soon!

Sounds like good progress :)
How lovely to hear 4 sessions left. The end is in sight :)

Daft- That's great news. Hopefully you will be through by the summer holidays. Do you still do stairs and teeth?

Good news daft.
Am hoping we will be done by spring/ Easter.
Very exciting!
Dc off school today...yet another virus! Viral load seems bad this winter :( on the plus side they are will enough to squabble so should be back tomorrow! :)
Ds1 has just finished book a of apples and pears (a spelling and punctuation workbook for dyslexic kids) and I am so happy :) he is making such good progress...only 3 more books to go! :$

Such brilliant news Daft and you too Badvoc - it must be wonderful and liberating and very exciting to know that the end is in sight. I love reading about your progress.

We're off for our first appointment on Thursday and I'm feeling very excited and anxious all at once! I've read both of his books and am amazed at the stories and case studies that he talks about - can it really be as magical as he says? I really hope that it works for our ds - in fact I have my fingers and toes crossed that we're not the exception. Reading the book made me feel quite sad - so much of what he talks about was my childhood - dyslexic, disorganised, totally hyper active and always in trouble at school. My dh can't believe this when I tell him as he thinks I'm a very calm person

I've got tons of questions about the programme! Have started ds on his supplements which he has taken to like a duck to water. I'm interested to hear how you get on with the discipline of doing the same exercises again and again. My ds is just and 4 - he's very suspicious of new things, then loves them and then equally quickly becomes bored and wants to move on. How do you all manage it?

Also, what should we expect at our consultation - does Robin ask lots about their behaviour / challenges now or when they were little. Is it ok to talk openly in front of ds? Anything we should ask? It sounds awful, but I'm not very good at remembering at what age he crawled or whether he rolled first..

We started on the diet plan over the weekend and so far its been fine. I make everything from scratch already as ds is allergic to eggs, nuts and sesame. The biggest change for us is dropping Weetabix / toast (cue lots of gnashing and grumbles this morning) and introducing much more fish and variety. What does everyone do for breakfast? Most of the ideas involve eggs. So far we've done beans on a slice of toast and porridge with fruit - but is that enough protein?

Sorry for such a long post - I feel as if I've stumbled across something and a group of people who can make the most enormous difference to us, which is incredible.

PS - poor you with the bugs. We seem to rock from one virus to another and heard at nursery today that the winter vomiting bug has arrived early...

Hi ruggles.
Ugh. My two had a sickness bug 3 weeks ago. Hoping that's it til after Xmas....
Wrt to the appt, I had already e mailed robin a pretty long document detailing ds1s issues and health history from birth.
He then asked us questions re: pg, birth, diet, illnesses, vaccines etc.
What we felt his main problems were and how it affects him.
He also asked about school and I took some of his work with me to show him.
We have always been very open with our ds wrt his problems and why we are seeking help but he is older than your ds and can therefore understand most of what we say and why we are doing what we are doing iyswim?
I am always at pains to make ds1 understand he isn't the only one, lots of people have these problems but sadly lots of them don't get help.
It also helps that 2 of his friends from school are also dyslexic and go to the same phonics and handwriting groups etc.
Great that he is taking he supplements already and you are starting to alter his diet.
Ds1 had a pretty healthy diet - or so we thought! - but we have reduced carbs a lot and make him have veg with his dinner now.
Wrt breakfast...ds1 either has an omelette, beans on toast or what we call "posh" cheese on toast...an English muffin lightly toasted, then spread with tomato topping/passata/pizza topping and mozerella cheese and baked in the oven for 10 mins. He loves them! For a treat I sometimes do pancakes. He doesn't eat porridge anymore :(
He takes a wholemeal sandwich with butter on (!) to school, with a fruit purée desert (only way he will eat fruit) and flapjacks/rice cakes usually.
He only drinks water.
Try and write down as much as you can prior to the appt....if you are anything like me I tend to forget everything the minute I sit down for a consultation!
Make bullet points if it helps...
When did you first become worried about your ds?
Why?
What triggered the concern?
Has it got worse?
Has anything helped? (In our case ait and rrt)
How do his problems affect him and his do they affect you as a family?
School reports are good, as are samples of work if you have any?
What do you hope to gain by going to TH?
What are you worried about (if anything?)
Good luck x

Tbh wrt what to expect I would say that, going by the experiences in this thread, you will be told to continue the supplementation and diet.
You will probably also be given the stair exercise and tooth brushing exercise to do.
Dint panic if your ds really struggles with it at first...ds was terrible! I really dint think he would get there BUT within 3 months was going. And down stairs with his eyes closed carrying a tray of water filled cups!! :)
Just takes time....and your ds is only 4. I wish I had done this when my ds was 4 :(

Badvoc has said it all really. Robin is great with children and will make your ds feel at ease. Ds sat and looked at Robin's where's wally books while I talked at our first appointment. I've never really worried about talking in front of him as he switches off when he concentrates on something else.
Breakfast we do fish fingers (waitrose do nice quality jumbo ones with lots of fish), cheese on wholemeal toast, scrambled egg or just bread and butter and ham, cheese or salami. I still let ds have Rice Krispies once in a while as long as he has eaten his protein breakfast first.
Exercises just become part of your morning routine and the dcs no longer notice them ime. We started stairs with me sitting in stair 4 with my eyes shut waiting for a 'surprise' kiss. Made ds laugh. VT is tough but achievable. We now do eye tracking which ds enjoys. I think he will like where's wally when we get there.
So pleased for you that you are beginning this process. Really hope (and believe) you'll see some great changes.

Hello
Thanks for the replies and advice, I've started writing it all down with bullet points as yes, I always seem to forget things until I"m in the car on the way home!! Your list is a really good starting point ;) Posh Cheese on toast sounds delicious and fish fingers too - the boys love them. I may try and cook everything the night before and just re-heat it in the morning until I get a bit more with it!

I love the idea of the 'surprise' kiss too!
I've been reading back over old threads and see that a lot of you have done AIT as well. Would you recommend this too? Does Robin talk to you about what (if anything) else one should do?

It is so comforting to 'be in action'. DS came home today saying that no one wanted to play with him today as he had hit them all. A week ago that would have had me in tears, but I felt much more able to just give him a cuddle and look forward to our appointment.

It's a tough one.
I rate ait and rrt but robin would say that after TH they won't be necessary...ds did them before TH so I will never know! :)
My ds was - and always had been - hyper sensitive to noise. Badly so.
The ait cured him.
He had lots of retained reflexes.
The rrt cured them.
The TH neuro exercises are similar to rrt in that they stimulate the brain to work in different ways and get rid of troublesome symptoms like dyspraxia.
I also think that ds was so used to doing 4-5 mins of exercises every day that the TH ones weren't really so different.
I thoroughly recommend inpp in Chester. There is an online questionnaire you can fill in to see if they think they can help. MIght be worth filling in?
I am not sure I would recommend ait unless your ds had long standing and on going hyper sensitivity to noise.

Ruggles-don't worry that you don't remember when/if DS rolled etc. I didn't either. DS had been such a terrible baby and I had horrendous PND because he didn't sleep for more than 20 minutes for the first 16 months that everything was a blur. He was also a FTT baby dropping from 91st percentile weight to 2nd.

My DS had been through a dyslexia test, neuro assessment by Hemispheres and BO before seeing Robin and I was really worried about putting him through any more. Like many other kids on this thread he is a very clever/ sensitive little boy and was in overload. Robin was really great. He doesn't mention dyslexia etc but shows the children a brain - he jokes with them but also explains very carefully what is up but in a very matter of fact way. My DS was absolutely fine and you and DS will be too.

It is a lot to take in. Robin will be fine if you need to call him to clarify anything or recap over anything you have missed. He recognises that some of us have DDS too! Please don't feel intimidated by him. He is a genius- it's true but he is also a father of 4 and a kind man. He wants to help you and your DS.

My DD has a combination of Fish fingers, baked beans, bacon, egg and 97% meat sausages for breakfast. DS has sausages and omelete and sometimes some porridge if he has eaten his protein.

The exercises can be tough- especially for the first few weeks. They have to be tough to work as well as they do. You have to expect some emotional reactions but remember they all do it, it is normal...

DS has now only got one more star to go for pursuits and 2 more for saccades and getting close to getting a star for BO. VT has been very tricky for us but at last we are making some progress.

Can someone tell me haow to use the Smileys. My posts are so dull :(

BP...your first few months with your ds sound like. Mine :(
But we are still here and our kids are amazing :)
(For a smiley face do a colon and a right hand bracket!)

:) Thanks.

DS announced that his brain was feeling different and weird today. He was full of beans so take it as a good thing

Also got his final star for pursuits.

Well done on all those starts! Beautifulpossum - that's interesting about your ds - good that he's full of beans too! Maybe he's having an endorphine rush. Thanks ladies for all the fab advice - it's really good to know what to expect and to feel confident about it all. I'm going to look into INPP and AIT too, but don't think I will do anything until after Thursday. Your first few months after c/b sound like right blur .

I would be wary at overloading him with doing more than one approach at a time.

Trying out my new Xmas nickname :)

:-) Badvocsanta

Do you have a particular music you use BV for Hemi T? Just about to look for something suitable on iTunes - cant think of anything instrumental, it may have to be classical.

Just heard from Indigo. Sounds as though her dcs are still doing really well which is great news.

Think you may be right DaftMaul - have been mulling / reading this afternoon and there is so much out there, I suppose its easy to get a bit carried away and grab at anything that sounds as if it may help ds. What kind of music do you need to find? Not sure what BV or Hemi T is but do quite like classical music, if I can help. So pleased to hear that all going well with Indigo and dcs!

Sorry, BV = Badvoc

I need to find some instrumental music for ds to listen to whilst doing his new HemiStim. I have searched on YouTube and found some stuff that will last long enough for what we need. Thankyou though Ruggles.

I know what you mean about wanting to do everything to get results. Before starting TH, I had an appointment booked a INPP. After asking for recommendations on here, I felt TH was the way to go. I'm not sure we (or ds) could have coped with keeping on top of too many more things to do. I would also worry about one approach impeding another - although have absolutely no idea I that woud happen. Not to mention the cost!