Monday's are always crazy in the Cliff household. Just when Joey is getting used to our weekend routine Monday comes around and screws it all up;-)
We use something called the Visual Exchange Communication System (PECS) for Joey; this allows him to look at pictures of what his daily schedule looks like instead of just hearing us tell him; they also use the PECS in school for Joey and this seems to really work for him.
We have many exciting things coming up for Joey. He is going to start Skills training at the Fraser Center in Minneapolis; skills training will provide age-appropriate daily-living skills ,increase his adaptive functioning at home,strengthen interpersonal and family relationships, andincrease our understanding of his development. He will also do the feeding clinic at Fraser; Joey does not eat much do to his sensory integration he has a very hard time with any kind of texture and that makes it very difficult to eat what he should be. The feeding clinic will provide; comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluations with a psychologist, speech-language pathologist, and an occupational therapist. The feeding therapy program is based on the S.O.S (Sequential Oral Sensory) approach. This is all very exciting and we hope to start soon.
Cory and I are also looking into getting a portable hyperbaric chamber to rent monthly; the chamber is supposed to help lessen the affects of Autism. HBOT is an abbreviation for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a medical treatment which enhances the body’s natural healing process by delivering oxygen under pressure, increasing the oxygen content in the blood and in the cerebral spinal fluid, flooding the tissues with oxygen. It is thought that children with Autism have less oxygen flow to the brain. We are hoping that the chamber will help with the hand flapping, sleep insomnia and the total meltdowns that happen anytime there is a deviation in his schedule.
It seems as though lately Joey's symptoms are increasing, it is so hard being out in public and getting dirty looks from total strangers because Joey is on the floor having a total meltdown, or screaming that he wants to "get out of here". He has also started to wander away from us, if we take our eyes off of him for a second he will take off. My running skills have increased; that is one way to get my daily exercise in;-)
That's all I have for today; Joey's bus gets here at 3:04. I hope he had a good day, seeing him smile when he gets off of the bus makes it all worth while!!!
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