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

Daftmaul, I may be a bit late, sounds like you've found some music but the sound track to Star Wars has some really beautiful pieces of instrumental music. We got it quite cheaply on amazon and ds loves it.

I use a classical album.
I think it's called classical chill out?
It's classical music used in movies the piano and jean de floret.
Yy to str wars! :)
Ds1s middle name is Luke (after you know who!)
Daft has a very valid point...I did ait and rrt before TH. I would not have done both together tbh.

Star Wars sounds great! Thanks for the advice - going to stop reading other stuff and focus on TH.

I thought about star wars but worried that it might be too distracting with the need to 'sing along'

I am setting it all up today so will report back how we get on with it all!

Have checked and ds1 is currently listening to adagio for strings by barber.

Hi ladies. I spoke to DS1's teacher for over an hour last week. She really is lovely, and has put some things in place in school, not sure if they are going to help, but I do know that so far, she is following through on her promises. I am seeing the GP on Friday. I have written down all the things that worry me so I don't forget to mention something. The HT at school is also the SENCo and she has suggested I get an DS1 referred to an OT. I don;t think she would have done so unless I had gone to her though The thing is they have no issues with him at school. He is on the 'middle table' for literacy, but surely this has no actual meaning - it just reflects the childs ability within the range of the whole class. If they were all G&T he would be on the 'bottom' table and if they were ALL SEN he would be higher. ..and there are some real problems in his year group.

The issue I am facing right now with DS1 is that at age 9, he is cottoning on to the fact that i have been speaking to his teacher a lot recently. He is very alert to the fact that there may be something 'wrong', and is asking lots of questions. I know some of your kids are younger, so may not be quite so alert to your anxieties.

I don't know what to say to him about my worries.. Do I come clean and tell him I am worried about him?? or do I gloss over it and pretend to him that everything is OK?

Tricky one.
My son is also 9.
We have always been very open with him about his problems. He knows that he is dyslexic (btw there is a great website...if you google famous dyslexics- that cheered him up no end!) and he says its not fair :( and we agree. But we also make it clear that we are helping him and that he is making amazing progress.
Kids have pretty accurate bullshit-o-meters ime :) and I am sure your son is e same.
Just be honest.
Perhaps it may lead to a frank discussion and him telling you how he feels and what he feels he struggles with?

Willyou, my ds is 11yrs and is also VERY aware of things going on - it is a sign that they are bright, IMHO

I would probably explain it in terms of you know he is very clever and want to find ways to help his brain work even better than it does at the moment.

I'm not sure that my ds' issues would have been picked up if he had been in mainstream. He is in a selective school, so we know how he was doing when he started and it became clear nearly a year ago that he was not fulfilling his expected potential, iykwim. We had been asking questions of school before this because of behaviour issues starting at home.

What concerns do you have?

Really interested to hear that there is a music element to one of the Hemi Stim's. I have wondered what Robin does on that front as many other practioners use the Listening Programme or similar.

My son is nearly 7 yrs and doesn't know he has dyspraxia and dyslexia. I hope he never will He is making such gains and I hope he will catch up with the NT children in year 3.

DS has now finished Accomodation Rock, Pursuits and Saccades so we are down to 14 minutes VT....much better though still a tricky part of our day!

Ruggles- there are so many things out there and I too would warn tagainst overdoing it. I looked at many other neuro systems, INPP, Handle, Fountain House, Hemispheres, SLC and investigated Cranial- Sacral, homeopathy and more ..Robin too warned against doing too much. My advice is to pick a system ( my first recommendation would of course be TH) and go with it. If you are not happy at the end ( but I think you will be ) then look for something else.

I know I spent hours and hours getting my head around all this stuff. You are on the right path Ruggles, I am sure of that. I know it's hard but in 2 or 3 months your DS will be so much calmer and you will feel better.

Ds has gone up another reading level which means the next time he gets 100% in a test he will become an "independent reader" :)
This time 2 years ago he was struggling with some cvc words!

Daftmaul. Emotional outbursts, little or no empathy, difficulties with social interaction, controlling behaviour with family, obsessions/crippling perfectionism, very short attention span, Makes sudden loud noises, inability to focus on a task, has big problems understanding the meaning in text, although he can read the words, monotone or 'silly voice' reading out loud no self esteem, no self confidence, agression.

I detailed it all in writing, with examples, and took it with me when I saw the GP about my son today, because I knew I was probably going to be tearful and didn't want anything to be forgotten. She agrees he needs help and is going to research the best place to refer us to for an initlal assesment. I was going to mention TH, but think I will wait until we see whoever does the assessment. She had 'heard of' vision therapy, but as a GP her job is basically triage for things like this, I guess.

I think it is likely we will see a child psycologist. How on earth am I going to explain this visit to him in terms that won't further dent his self esteem?

My ds is younger so it's easier and he hasn't noticed he is any different to his peers (actually there is hardly any difference anyway now we've been doing TH) but we explained the visits to TH as ' our right and left sides of our brain need to work together. Your left side is amazing and that's why you are so good at XYZ. Your right side needs extra help and that's why you get angry, frustrated etc. the exercises will help to get your right side stronger'. He was happy with that although when furious about having to do VT he would often have a moan about his right brain.

shoping Out of interest, what are the things that your DS is amazing at? My DS has huge musical talent, great at sports, great, infact AMAZING at mental arithmetic.

Ds is amazing at reading (he is 3 yrs ahead of his actual age despite having convergence and eye tracking problems- Robin was astounded he could read as well as he does with the problems he had), he has a fabulous imagination and freaky musical skill ( you name a tv show or film and he can hum the soundtrack instantly and can 'name that tune in one'!). I think as his concentration continues to improve we can look at him learning an instrument. He is also rather lovely :)
Our big problems were concentration, control and non compliance. Concentration is now at normal levels for his age I think, he is compliant at school now (and better at home) and is slightly less controlling. We still have quite a way to go on control though I think.

Btw your list of your ds' difficulties are a classic example of the kind of children Robin has helped. Ds had an aspergers diagnosis but when I read Robin's book I realised he also had problems associated with dyspraxia and ADD with the control part of OCD thrown in for good measure, as does your ds by the looks of it. On reading Robin's book it made perfect sense to me that ds was misdiagnosed as aspergers and actually had Development Delay.

I read the book, on Badvoc's recommendation, and I was stunned by how much of it applied to DS. I don't THINK he has any dyspraxic issues, in fact his hand/eye co-ordination is very good, he is great at sports, doesn;t appear clumsy or drop stuff.

Were any of you guys referred to TH by another health professional ? DH is very sceptical, just saying that most of these symptoms can be applied to most school age kids and he thinks whoever comes to them they are not going to turn away your money, which is why I have not gone direct to Robin, but to my GP first.

btw, My DS sounds like yours in that he can sing ANY song or theme tune you care to name beautifully, and while listening to music will hum along , but in a harmony he has made up, or will hum along to the -say - cellos only in an orchestral piece. He is learning the piano and is getting on quite well. (When I can get him to sit and practice)

Willyou...
I went the NHS route first.
It led to an appt with the most disinterested, useless paediatrician I have ever - or hope to ever - come across.
"Yes your ds does have asd traits but a dx won't do him any good"
?
In a way it was good.
It made me realise that I needed a specialist to help my son, not someone whose only concern is meeting targets and budgetary constraints.
I find your Dhs comments very odd and I can assure most kids do not have these symptoms.
How many school age children does your dh know?

.... that being said, most men do seem to have a hard time accepting their child is not "normal", mine included.

My son has am amazing memory for historical facts and is fantastic at mental arithmetic too :)

Hello all TH-ers, just wanted to add our latest. DS, 3.8 (hfa, dyspraxia) has been seeing Robin since spring this year and has been doing great. His expressive language is now age appropriate, he's so much more sociable with us and other adults, has a real sense of humour suddenly, and he's improving physically too (learned to scoot, walking much less stumbly etc). He's still very delayed when it comes to interacting with other kids but six months ago he wasn't fussed about playing with anyone.

We've seen so many positive changes in a very short space of time, and it all started when we began TH. Ds is very young so we do stairs, spinning, megastim and right hemi t (I think!) plus diet.

At the minute ds still has lots of obvious asd traits but TH has given us so much hope for the future.

Random recent example of progress - last year ds screamed his head off when we tried to coax him into a Halloween costume for his nursery party and utterly ignored all my efforts to interest him in pumpkins etc.

This year, he ASKED to wear a costume, happily had his whole face painted AND even went trick or treating!!

Oh and Will, my dh was sceptical about TH (hates "quackery" of any kind) but was very quickly convinced it really works. He is now very good at supervising "stair game" and "robin's game" (the computer stuff)

Will you, this is why on this thread we tend to all suggest people just try the exercises that are free for six weeks or so. We saw a clear improvement just from this and that felt like enough evidence for us to 'risk' our money on TH. The NHS line on autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADD, Tourette's etc is always that these are incurable syndromes that can be managed or coped with. I found this so depressing and was consumed with anxiety about ds' future. Indigobell got in trouble talking about 'curing' her dd's dyslexia on here but I will hand on heart say we are 'curing' ds' symptoms.

Worrier...fantastic. So pleased of you and ds :)
Willyou...what shopping said. Getting the book and starting the programme will cost you abut £15 and some time.
It's what most of us did prior to seeing robin.

Evening

Worrier - I am so pleased for you, the progress you are making with DS sounds incredible and so exciting. Fancy dress, face painting and t&t!!! The challenges sound familiar and you must be glowing with hope and pride.

Will - my husband was a bit sarcastic about my 'latest research' - I am one of life's research junkies . I very gently pointed out that I did the family care and that if he wanted to research, evaluate and organise something to help our ds, I was more than happy for him to take charge of it, but that if its down to me, this is what we're doing... I haven't heard a squeak since and he's now very positive and supportive about it all.

We went to see Robin on Thursday for our assessment. We were so impressed and all really enjoyed our day. I know you all told me, but I was pleasantly surprised with Robin - he was really good with ds - engaging, positive, matter-of-fact and knowledgeable all at once. DS1 has dd but I feel really upbeat about it all now. We know what's up and I feel that the programme will make a huge difference to us. Wednesday was I think, officially, my worst day as lots of stressie stuff happened at home and then nursery asked me in for another chat (our second in 3 weeks). When we got home the greedy dog ate dcs tea and I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown!

Fast forward to tonight and the whole family are on fish oils, doing the exercises together and following the diet. We're feeling hopeful about the future. This afternoon I saw a family in town on their way back from school - this is where ds is due to start next September and for the first time in ages I felt as it might happen and all be ok. Fingers crossed. I am seeing nursery on Mon and feel quite confident about what I am going to say, that we're being proactive etc.

Some diet questions - are any baked beans better than others? We normally have Heinz low salt and sugar ones, but is there a better brand? How much do you avoid the Enumbers? Ketchup? Mustard? Do you make your own or use sparingly?

Thanks for encouraging us to go and see TH, I am so pleased we did.