Tinsley House Support Thread Part 4!!!

[Mangomanila]

This thread is for anyone interested in the Tinsley House programme. All welcome!

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 smile

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

Posting to mark my place, thanks Mango

Well done Mango! A shiny new thread.

It is worth saying, for those who are planning to try TH, that there are other steps after EE.

Well, dd is in plaster. They still can't see any break but say it could be ligament damage as it still hurts her.

Well done Mango :)
Hope both your kids get out of plaster soon!
And Mango - we'll have been doing TH for 6 months next week. Robin initially said he reckoned 9 months but EE has taken this long so I imagine it'll be a good year/year and a half till we're done but so far so good. Keep on with GF be good to hear how it goes.

Hi everyone,
Just checking in. All good here. DD is settling well at school. Much better than she did in nursery this time last year.
She is still wetting herself most days which is disappointing but I am trying not to dwell.

We are currently doing:
Spinning chair
Stairs
Hemi P
Hemi T

She hates Hemi T and we are really struggling getting her to engage with it at all.

We are 9 months in and I think we will be doing it till she's 18!

Mango - DD is gluten free. She just seems better with it. :)

How do you get your kids to take multi-vitamins? Is Effalex one of those?

hemi p which is all we're on so far seems really weird! How hard do they need to focus on finding Wally. DS wants to keep playing past the time out ( which is a nice change from EE) but I find it a bit crazy that the annoying flashign lights are doing their magic. I understand the theory though - and hope it does work to dull down his 'I must look at that distraction' reflex. Time will tell! He's been kept in twice at school in break time for not doing enough maths in set time. :(

Yesterday I picked DD up from school (reception) and the TA took me aside to tell me how well she had done in phonics. I know they are doing S a t p i n so I figured she could do them. I was pleased that they were so pleased.
Today when I picked her up they gave me the pictures. So an Ant for a and tennis for t etc. They gave me the whole alphabet.

I showed them to her and she knows them ALL. I am actually quite blown away. I am not sure if she would know the letters with the sounds, but she knows the pictures with the sounds.

And then we went to the hairdresser and she asked if DD was at special school. So, you know. Brought back down to earth with a bang.

But I will ignore that and focus on the positive.

Prince that's amazing, good for DD - that's really, really good for just 5 weeks into term and if you haven't done any of those pictures with her at home then it means she's LEARNING at school. Good for you and DS. And stupid hairdresser.

I don't really mind the hairdresser. It's not an insult as such. It's more that I hope that she is as every other 4 year old and then when I see her through the eyes of someone else I realise she isn't.

However she gets to surprise people in a way that others can't - which is great fun I have to say.

I have to admit that she has done some sound work with her SALT. So she is used to seeing pictures representing sounds, but I am still surprised with how quickly she has picked them all up. Also shows how important early intervention actually is. We paid for all this SALT and it has made such a difference to DD. It makes me mad that so many other children miss out because their parents can't access it.

Prince- that's fantastic! My DS was still struggling with satpin at Christmas in Year 1. You have done really well to get cracking with her so early. Hairdressers Smairdressers!

Hi everyone.
Thread 4! Fantastic!
Well, ds continues to enjoy college and we have a tutor meeting on Thursday to discuss how he has settled in.
I have his recent assessment levels for science and English and he has gone up already :)
He is now a 4b for science and English :) which is the govt target for end of year 6 :)
I think he can achieve level 5s by end of year 6....he is certainly capable of that now :)
Which is amazing when you consider that only 2 years ago when the EP assessed him he wrote:
"Lion ar gud"
For "lions are good" :(
As prince says...early intervention is key.

hi aciddrops - we do the floradix vitamins which are liquid (kindervital and saludynum) so don't require swallowing pills. Weirdly DS likes the taste. DS2 who I also give the vits to takes it with a splash of apple juice. Others have hidden in smoothie/yoghurt. We snip the vegepa capsules and put it in the floradix. hth!

Thanks harriet. Where could I get floradix? Also, I looked online at engagingeyes. It looks very interesting. Have people on here found that it works?

I have 3 dyslexic kids and I will give almost anything a go!

mango - thanks for the lovely new thread. They always feel so full of promise when there are another 39 pages stretching out ahead of us!

harriet we've been doing hemi p for a few months and we noticed that Ds's visual stims got worse for a bit. It happened very quickly after starting the hemi p. We emailed Robin who said it would settle down and it did. He doesn't have any tics so it maybe doesn't help you but thought I'd mention.

prince Well done your DD! That's really great progress. Well done mini-prince! Completely agree with your rage at SALT. We've just had the report from the SLT who observed DS in nursery. We've been offered 4 sessions with a support worker who will come to the house and give me tips on encouraging his communication. Then after that, he'll be discharged. Because obviously he'll be fixed then. Grrr. It makes me so . You'd think there was nothing that could be done when actually there are loads of programmes and things that they know help, but they don't have the money for it. Like you, if it wasn't for us paying for private salt, he'd be so much further behind. I don't really like thinking about what he'd be like if we hadn't.

aciddrops Hello! We buy the floradix from amazon on their subscribe and save. I think this is the cheapest way. We don't have any experience of engaging eyes though.

daft DS broke his arm at 18 months and they could only see the actual break on the second X-ray when they took the plaster off. They could see where the new bone had grown. They only plastered it because he was only using the arm when he'd had calpol. Hope she gets on ok with the plaster!

badvoc That's lovely to hear. Glad things are going so well!

Everything going well here. We're on half term and I think DS was ready for the break. We aren't even dressed yet today! We were at a birthday party at the weekend, and my friend commented that she thought he'd had another leap. He'd asked her a question, which in itself is amazing, she understood the question, and he understood her response! These kind of little things are happening more and more. It's lovely!

aciddrops I started doing engaging eyes before Tinsley House. DS age 6 with dyslexia probs (moving wordswords if block writing on white background), recognizing / remembering letters/ probs with phonics). I realised he had an eye tracking problem (v frustrated trying (failing) to catch a ball). That's when I got onto Engaging Eyes (as NHS routes useless). Have been doing it for 6 weeks and already big improvements with tracking (not losing place so much when reading etc). Also, words not moving 'as much' and able to focus on the board better.

Robin at Tinsley House thinks most of our dyslexia issues are really vision/ eye teaming problems. Engaging Eyes should rectify this. He also thinks 60-70% (I think!) Of kids he sees have significant vision probs (how the muscles behind the eyes work, rather than needing glasses). I would definitely recommend engaging eyes.

The other thing which has helped with phonics is 'Toe by Toe' (amazon). It looks really boring, but DS likes it as you get lots of ticks.

I'm also experimenting with gluten free which so far seems to have had a significant impact in reading more fluently etc. This happened in a couple of day- I just bought some gluten free bread for packed lunch and made sure it was rice or potatoes at dinner.

badvoc The progress Tom has made in incredible. You must be a very proud mummy! It also gives us all hope that the (alternative) truth is out there and that our DC can reach their full potential. Keep inspiring us!!

Thanks mango.
Yes, he has done so well, it's amazing really :)
With everything he has had to cope with over the past few months (family bereavement, new school...) he has coped marvellously.

Mangomanila Thanks for your advice. DS is really bad at reading and writing. I have tried Toe by Toe twice - once in January and once again recently. He goes nuts and cannot even read the first sounds. He is 7.5. He can read some real words though and is on green band books (if that means anything).

I hadn't considered a gluten free diet. I've ordered some 3D specs from Amazon and I'll get the engaging eyes thing.

All the best to everyone else too :)

Acid drops...I would really recommend apples and pears by sound foundations. - and I have tried me all inc toe by toe!
I got them from the website direct and spoke to the author.
Have been very very impressed - ds is on book 3 now. There are 4 books in total.

We also used write from the start - which I think I got from amazon - which is a system for helping with handwriting formation.

I'd second write from the start for visual perception/ handwriting. More fun than regular handwriting practice too! A good test for tracking is to get DC to 'follow' a pencil moving side to side and watch their pupils (head still). If jerky then tracking probs.

The gluten link is 'brain fog', so everything is harder.

You will find something to help DC. Different ch respond to different things. All ch with visual probs seem respond to Engaging Eyes though! Ch do find it quite hard (as eye muscles being worked hard). I find a bit of bribery with chocolate buttons works wonders!

DS moved up reading book band! And spoke to the dentist! Although did then have meltdown in waiting room when I was paying as his sister was playing with a toy he wanted...

Sounds positive mango!
I e mailed robin and told him that we won't be going back to see him (we cancelled our last appt after we lost dad) so I feel very strange...ds is doing so well which is wonderful, but we have been on this road for so long it feels so odd to be finally at the end.
It's hard to explain just what an effect TH has had on our life.
But the main thing - the important thing - is that ds is finally achieving his potential and that is all I care about.

Congratulations Badvoc. You must be delighted.

Do you think a time will come (maybe it has already) when you won't be 'checking' how he's doing? I was talking to DH the other day and I am realising that I 'see' DD and indeed sometimes our whole lives through the lense of her SN and I wonder/hope that one day this might change.

does that even made sense

Yes, it does make sense :)
It's an interesting question...
All I can tell you is that Tom has been at his new school now for 8 weeks and aside from helping him with his Homework I haven't really given any of it much thought! :)
And 2 years ago I was desperate. I could not imagine a time when I wouldn't need to have IEP meetings, meetings with the Senco, fight for non existent provision...
So, yes :)