I cannot believe that we are 9 days away from 2010! Everybody always said once you have children, the years just fly by and that is so true for 2009.
2009 started with a lot of questions and worries...and is ending with a lot of answers, yet still many worries!
We made many good decisions over the last year that has allowed our financial stress to be eased tremendously! We moved to a cheaper apartment, paid off our Explorer, and I started with a job that pays well and allows me to work from home which saves on babysitters!
Even though we worked hard at easing our financial stress, our worries about Brycen's health and well being increased as the year went on. The year started with him regressing faster than we could keep up with...and is ending with a slow turn towards progress. I keep comparing his progress to losing weight...if you lose the weight too fast, you take the chance of it creeping back slowly. I am afraid if he starts to progress so fast, that we will take it for granted and expect it to continue and then he may "lose" it...and when you have a child with autism, you always take the chance of the regression starting again. It's one of those disorders that is "two steps forward, one step back."
We are very grateful to have been able to receive the answers about what was happening to him this year, though we may never know why it has happened. Many questions still hang over our heads...but that is ok, because it keeps us on our toes and keeps us fresh in our research and willingness to get involved with great organizations that are looking for those answers. Mike and I are not going to sit back and let Brycen's life pass before us like this...we are going to stand up for him and others affected by Autism...we are going to attend support groups to help ourselves and others...we are going to give what we can financially to those organizations who support us and our son...and we are going to continue educating those in Brycen's life so that he is included in everything he can handle!
We are looking forward to 2010 being a year of more answers and more progress!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Brycen's Team page is ready!
Check out Brycen's team page to sign up to join the team or to make a donation! Donations can be made online by clicking on the Team Donation tab on his specific page or you can pull up a form to print off to send in a check!
Thanks again for all your support! Let's make Brycen's first team the best team ever!
http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=330303&lis=1&kntae330303=FD9FF1DD84464C428EEB9F183535562F&supId=0&team=3618519
Thanks again for all your support! Let's make Brycen's first team the best team ever!
http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=330303&lis=1&kntae330303=FD9FF1DD84464C428EEB9F183535562F&supId=0&team=3618519
Autism Speaks walk 2010
Please join us in supporting Brycen with the 2010 Autism Speaks walk in West Des Moines on the morning of Saturday, June 19! Mike and I will be forming a team in honor and support of Brycen (and of course all the other children affected by Autism). If you would like more details about the location of the walk, time, etc...please follow the link below to the Autism Speaks website. We will be starting a team page through the site that will provide information for walkers and for those who would like to donate to the team! I know it is still 6 months away, but Autism doesn't wait for anybody! We need to plan ahead and show as much support as possible for this wonderful organization that focuses on research and education about Autism.
If you have a business or if you work for a business that would like to donate, we will be including any business names on the t-shirt my cousin will be designing for us to wear that day also! More details to follow soon once we get our page up and running!
Thanks again for all the support you have given us and for all the support/donations that will be given as we prepare for the walk!
Monday, December 7, 2009
"It's beginning to look a lot like PROGRESS!"
Mike and I spent some time yesterday discussing how the heck I was going to keep a structured environment for Brycen for 2 WEEKS over xmas break so that he could transition back to school with no problems (while also continuing to work from home and complete all of my job expectations at the same time). Through this planning and worrying, I definitely realized why I did not go to school to be a teacher. I think, rethink, and then get distracted...and forget that I am supposed to be focusing on Brycen and his learning (not my sanity!).
So, I am enlisting my friend and co-worker, Megan, to help produce many pictures from Boardmaker that resembles any type of activity we have or may be able to do during those days. Megan attended a recent training with my Mom and I on picture schedules and communication with children with autism...but more on that in a later post. While she works on that, I have been forming a schedule that starts at 7am to 5:30pm each day. Since Brycen's attention span is very short and he has a hard time transitioning from a beloved activity, I am forming this schedule to include many of his favorites (IPTV first thing in morning, a train movie at rest time, blocks, musical instruments, Curious George at 5) as well as many things he needs to work on (flashcards, sorting, board games). I also plan to utilize Angie as much as possible, as she is home with Ellie all day and structures her time with centers and various projects (did I mention that she has a degree in education too!).
So among all this planning, I decided to try a few things out with Brycen that we have not tried in some time. Brycen received a new wooden train puzzle with sound from Kelsi last week. He LOVES it! When we first started putting it together, I noticed how fast he figured out where each piece goes (compares the picture on the piece to the picture on the board that it covers). So I decided to bring out some of the old wooden puzzles we have. He used to wrestle around the pieces, so these were put away during that stage of his (even though that stage has never ended). Well, he surprised the heck out of me! The kid can do every single one of them! He does it so fast and just needs help fitting the piece the right way, but he knows exactly where each of them go!
So, then we decided to break out the Memory game that his cousins gave him since they are too old for it now. I took out 8 different pictures that I knew he would recognize and their matches and placed them on the floor face down (of course Brycen helped me put them in an exact line too...my precious OCD boy!). We worked on taking turns, recognizing the matches, etc. He did fairly well with this...definitely better than I expected! I have faith that if we work on this daily during xmas break, I can have him to the point of playing more boardgames suited for his age (don't tell him, but he has a couple fun ones coming as gifts for Christmas).
So, then I found a pack of flashcards that his Aunt Brenda got him with simple pictures of things on them. I once again took out the ones I knew he was familiar with and also a few that I thought would be easier. Here are the ones that he said spontaneously: shoe, ball, and boat. He successfully imitated the following (with exception to the fact he doesn't pronounce every sound in the word, but close enough that we know what it is): fish, car, book, cake, hat, moon. He did try to imitate the rest though it sounded nothing like the word, but it was great that he tried and was being so very attentive: sun, sock, bear, pig (noise), cat (noise), baby, dog (noise), cow (noise), drum. Of course after every card, he had to line them up on the couch and I was not going to get his attention back for the next card until they were lined up right!
So to summarize the entire post...he has sneakily been learning things over the last couple months and I know he loved our excitement at watching him show us these skills and to hear his sweet voice trying to say these words. Soooo..."it's beginning to look a lot like progress!"
So, I am enlisting my friend and co-worker, Megan, to help produce many pictures from Boardmaker that resembles any type of activity we have or may be able to do during those days. Megan attended a recent training with my Mom and I on picture schedules and communication with children with autism...but more on that in a later post. While she works on that, I have been forming a schedule that starts at 7am to 5:30pm each day. Since Brycen's attention span is very short and he has a hard time transitioning from a beloved activity, I am forming this schedule to include many of his favorites (IPTV first thing in morning, a train movie at rest time, blocks, musical instruments, Curious George at 5) as well as many things he needs to work on (flashcards, sorting, board games). I also plan to utilize Angie as much as possible, as she is home with Ellie all day and structures her time with centers and various projects (did I mention that she has a degree in education too!).
So among all this planning, I decided to try a few things out with Brycen that we have not tried in some time. Brycen received a new wooden train puzzle with sound from Kelsi last week. He LOVES it! When we first started putting it together, I noticed how fast he figured out where each piece goes (compares the picture on the piece to the picture on the board that it covers). So I decided to bring out some of the old wooden puzzles we have. He used to wrestle around the pieces, so these were put away during that stage of his (even though that stage has never ended). Well, he surprised the heck out of me! The kid can do every single one of them! He does it so fast and just needs help fitting the piece the right way, but he knows exactly where each of them go!
So, then we decided to break out the Memory game that his cousins gave him since they are too old for it now. I took out 8 different pictures that I knew he would recognize and their matches and placed them on the floor face down (of course Brycen helped me put them in an exact line too...my precious OCD boy!). We worked on taking turns, recognizing the matches, etc. He did fairly well with this...definitely better than I expected! I have faith that if we work on this daily during xmas break, I can have him to the point of playing more boardgames suited for his age (don't tell him, but he has a couple fun ones coming as gifts for Christmas).
So, then I found a pack of flashcards that his Aunt Brenda got him with simple pictures of things on them. I once again took out the ones I knew he was familiar with and also a few that I thought would be easier. Here are the ones that he said spontaneously: shoe, ball, and boat. He successfully imitated the following (with exception to the fact he doesn't pronounce every sound in the word, but close enough that we know what it is): fish, car, book, cake, hat, moon. He did try to imitate the rest though it sounded nothing like the word, but it was great that he tried and was being so very attentive: sun, sock, bear, pig (noise), cat (noise), baby, dog (noise), cow (noise), drum. Of course after every card, he had to line them up on the couch and I was not going to get his attention back for the next card until they were lined up right!
So to summarize the entire post...he has sneakily been learning things over the last couple months and I know he loved our excitement at watching him show us these skills and to hear his sweet voice trying to say these words. Soooo..."it's beginning to look a lot like progress!"
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