TINSLEY HOUSE SUPPORT THREAD - PART 3!!!! :)

[Badvoc]

Well, here is the shiny new thread for all of us either doing the TH programme, doing part of it, or thinking about doing it! :)
A brief synopsis of stage 1 of the programme can be found in the books "is that my child?" Or "the brain food plan" by robin pauc;

Stage 1 of the TH therapy consists of:

1. Daily Multivitamins

• Omega
• Zinc & Magnesium

1. Healthy eating

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

1. Specific neuro development exercises done 3 times a day

• Takes about 4-5 mins

And that's it :)

Stage 2 involves computer programmes to sort out eye tracking and convergence which over 80% of children with reading/writing problems have.

• www.engagingeyes.co.uk

We are coming to the end of our time doing TH I reckon...certainly by the end of the summer I think. It has been in many ways much easier than I thought at the beginning but of course takes commitment and time.

I am so glad we "took the plunge". It has made such a difference to ds and to our lives :)

Evening all!

Badvoc, great to see you on here and glad that dcs have had a good start back at school. I'm feeling a bit like Harriet and Daft - we start tomorrow and its DS first time in uniform. He's been excited about it all summer when we've talked about it or had a trying on session, but this morning he had a major wobble about it. I feel like the coming storm after the calm of summer. I keep reminding myself that it is the teacher who has to get used to DS.... . DD is doing well with SALT but has made very little progress on the stairs since she began in January. I don't know how she is going to cope with a nursery group of 20...

Had a hectic couple of weeks. A couple of health things for me and then being submerged back into Au Pair World (a dispiriting place) after our girl fell through, my wisdom tooth out this week and settling in the new Au Pair too! I have had a smile plastered to my face and really looking forward to a morning on my own.

I read a couple of posts about doing a couple of things at once. We did brushing for 8 months with DS whilst he's doing TH. It was ok at the beginning, but as TH exercises increased and we started on a long school run it became almost too much to fit into one day. DS loved it though and I think its really helped. I am very interested in doing AIT but will wait until we are done / nearing the end of TH. Would love to hear how you all do and what you think etc.

PS - Daft, thanks for the tip about watching threads - I keep losing this one too!

Hi all,

AIT update for anyone considering it.

We are on day 8 out of 10 with DS.

Differences so far- DS seems a lot calmer and happier with being himself. Less meltdowns (though a few in the first couple of days).
No moaning when getting sorted for school (previously quite stressful). More cuddly. More interested in sharing books. Better at finding things (on the floor in front of him). Talked (a little bit) about school (first time ever). Walking past dogs less traumatic for him. I asked him how he was coping in the hall at lunchtime and he said it didn't seem as noisy as before.

All in all, it's definitely helped DS, though I believe it doesn't work for everyone.

I'm going to give robin a call in a couple of weeks to discuss DS.

Exciting times!

That's great news, you must be really pleased.

This sounds like something that might be good for DD in due course, as she struggles with noisy spaces. What specific issues does the AIT aim to deal with, or is it in fact a whole brain thing?

That is good to hear Mango. What does AIT involve each day?

Mango - that all sounds so positive and def something I should do with DS. I would love to hear more too. Esp if compatible with TH. We have a two week half term this autumn....

Picked DS up from first day in Reception - he fell out of the class room and on to the ground, then wouldn't get up, then rugby tackled DD so they were both down there - the new teacher sighed and said he'd fallen over a lot... DS has much better balance now and doesn't fall over nearly so much, so I hope this was just tiredness.

AIT aims to 'reprogram' how the brain perceives certain frequencies. DS always struggled with noisy, busy places- mega stressed at parties, scared of loud music on TV.

AIT clinic arranged an audiogram which showed he was hyper sensitive to a couple of frequencies in one ear. Clinic also look at detailed questionnaire to check suitability.

It can take several months to see improvements, for others things change straight away.

Clinic sent us iPod with specially made music (20 different half hour sessions). DS has to listen to 2 sessions a day (separated by 3 hours min) for 10 days. We did ours at home (rather than going to a clinic for 10 days on the spin). Not too stressful as they can talk/ play quietly when the headphones are on.

I believe it helps with audio perception and possibly rebalances the brain, stopping overload. Don't think anyone really understands how it works though can apparently impact dyslexia, aspergers etc.

DS did get v tired so really pleased got most of it done during the hols. Also a few v emotional flip outs day 2-3.

Only downside is that I will prob have to wait a couple of months still starting anything else so AIT can 'settle'

Ruggles,

Not sure if compatible with TH. AIT Clinic did say we were OK to carry on with "engaging eyes". Anything involving headphones could be problematic though.

This is who I used
auditoryintegrationtraining.co.uk

Kind of off thread, but has anyone found a good way to learn times tables? Know DS is going to struggle

That's really interesting, thank you. I think we'll leave it until we've been through TH, then but if there are still noise issues, then we might give it a go.

The best thing we've found for times tables is Squeebles, if you've got anything that can run an app. It makes the endless repetition fun. DD sees it as a treat!

Tom had his first lesson at school on electric guitar today :)

We did ait prior to TH.
Was very happy with the result.

Again, it's been an age since I've been on. Just had a big catch up on the thread. Nice to read everyone's updates. Welcome Mango!

Good but super busy time here. We had 2 weeks between returning from holiday and DS starting nursery so had a real good go trying to get him out of nappies. Failed. He's definitely physically able to hold but the communication side lets him down. Over 4 days, he didn't tell me in advance once, and I caught nothing just taking him to the toilet every now and then. So we've given up until the October holiday.

He has been a real star at nursery and I'm so proud of him! Week 1 he was a bit wobbly and cried when I left. But this week, I was lucky if I got a kiss before he ran off to play. The nursery are great too. He isn't quite doing the full session yet but they want him to get used to the routine slowly. Very pleased!

I think we're finally cracking the stairs too. Someone up thread (Ruggles?) said something about their DC not improving at this. We've been doing it since the end of February and he can finally do one foot per step on the way up. Really slow progress but getting there. I did kind of "help" him by sort of pushing his foot onto the next step instead of the same one. But he's doing it himself now. He also seems to be eating LOADS. And he's finally doing the cooked breakfast as long as he gets his porridge after!

Finally, things seem to be falling into place. Don't get me wrong, we still have loads to work on but we are definitely moving in the right direction!

Hi ladies,

A quick question about TH vitamins. How much zinc do you give your DC?

We are on multi vitamin I am quite happy with. It has 7.5mg zinc. Do you think that's enough? Thanks.

Metran- thanks for the tip about squeebles- will look into it

Hi mango. We use kindervital saludynam, which is the one Robin suggests. The bottle suggests different doses depending on age:

3-4yrs, 15mls = 1.76mg
5-12yrs, 20mls = 2.34mg
12yrs onwards, 40mls = 4.68mg

That did involve a small amount of maths on my part so hopefully these numbers are correct!

Hi Mango, I'll try to find the piece of paper with the amount of zinc Robin recommends. I don't think they need a huge amount.

Ds seems to be improving on Lumosity again and has reached his target of 1000 points in one area (flexibility), very nearly there!

I have a NBF!

Ds was invited over to 'you know who's' house yesterday with another classmate and we met the mum. Oh, how the other half live! They went to the cinema and out for pizza. Valet parking, the posh seats at the cinema and left on their own to get on with it. Ds thought it was fabulous!

The mum of the other friend and I were not squeaking down the phone to each other about it. Oh no, not at all

Haha!! That's really funny Daft! And pretty speedy work on behalf of DS!! ;)

You'll have to just treat it as an education on how the 'normal' half live when you return the invite!

DS has had a good first couple of days at school. Am gearing myself up for the 'can I have a meeting to talk about DS' conversation which I need to have to talk about his audiotory processing report and to try and be a bit proactive this time, telling new teacher who DS is, and how he ticks rather than waiting till parents evening only be told the same old stuff. But on the first day she commented he'd been really polite which I was delighted about. He's perfectly able to be polite and is very polite at home but usually is so terrified of new adults that he goes almost mute and comes across as very rude :( So he must've spoken at least to have been vaguely polite!

He's def a bit more on egg shells, over reactive, but no big blow outs yet so I think he's handling the stress of all the change (and going into Y3 there is a lot) really well.

Let's hope it lasts. And that he's paying attention just a little bit!!

Hmmm my ds has taken a bravery pill and I found him yesterday doing the stairs on his own. I told him it wasn't safe ...... We will see today if it sunk in !

Quick question - son is loving the target game and wants to do it more than once - can you do this or am I better rationing it ?

good for your DS! mine hates it! but we're on C now so the end is near! can't see it would harm - it's all practising making the muscles work better so it should be good. what scores is he getting? suppose it's probably worth a mail to EE or robin to be sure?

Hi Turnip - welcome to the thread. Just had to jump in and say my very novice but rapidly learning self would say it sounds to me like there are some low magnesium symptoms there - my DS used to complain of sore legs all the time and his compulsive/tic behaviour were also signs for us. Since starting vitamins the legs are very rarely mentioned.

The way I see the diet thing (my DS too used to eat 4 weetabix and a bowl of porridge each morning, nothing else and his diet was very restricted, carb heavy, only veg he would eat was broccoli ) is that the status quo isn't partic healthy, and going to people's houses/out to eat etc is an enormous stress when you don't like most things. These kids of ours can be insanely stubborn (mine is) but what I discovered is once I'd decided and made a rule (and I did it gradually, it was cooked breakfast first, followed by no additives) he accepted it. If you really mean it, they sense it.

You just need to find one cooked breakfast he'll eat (and for the first few weeks maybe do it as a 'if you eat four mouthfuls you can have a bowl of cereal' deal. Bread soaked in an egg, with strawberries and a teaspoon of honey was a good starter for us. Banana pancakes made with bananas and eggs only, mine has a sweet tooth so I bribed with that. And gradually it becomes easier and easeir. Greek yoghurt with honey and a banana sliced into it?

Also the Floridax vitamin liquid mine actually likes, by chance. It's quite sweet, could be added to a smoothie?

Don't know if this is helpful - just wanted to say I too could never have imagined getting mine of his cereal but it was possible! Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

Hi Turnip,

I'm a bit of a novice on here too, and I'm sure others are better placed to offer advice (like Harriet).

The thing about breakfasts is they don't have to be breakfasts. So you could give DS a piece of chicken, then his cereals. Or a chicken wrap. Or chicken 'fishcakes'. And build up slowly as Harriet said.

You could always try it for a week or so. Nothing to lose. Apart from a few tantrums and food chucked on the floor!

Stay in touch

Looks like rain- many thanks for the zinc advice. Given me one less thing to worry about!