Busy, busy, busy bee.

Well, I guess when I want to get things done, I should say I'm resting. :)

Warning: This is going to be a long post.

I've thought long and hard about the Son-Rise program. I love it. The principles are wonderful and the playroom is a great idea that has worked very well for us when we've been able to use it. I love their loving, accepting approach to autism and the way they focus on interaction skills in the therapy. I especially love the fact that they put the parent at the head of the program. My own experiences have proven to me that no one can get through to my kids more than those close to them, which means family then friends. Therapists offer great guidance at times but the day-to-day stuff still falls on my shoulders. And the Son-Rise program is, in my opinion, the best at helping my children overcome their delays.

That said, I have decided to no longer pursue setting up a full-time Son-Rise program. As wonderful as it is, we just don't have what we need to incorporate it like I want. We live in an area that has very few potential babysitters and those who would be great just don't have the time. So, there goes my time in the playroom. As for volunteers, I don't want the legal and financial hassle of creating a foundation or becoming part of an organization just so that I can ask college kids to come to my home to help my children grow.

And this bring me to my main reason for not doing this program. It's not really the room. Well, okay, it kind of is. We rent, and that means there are things we can and things we can't do to the room. I realized that I want the option of putting in a door with a window so I can see how things are going or setting up an intercom so that I can hear how things are going without distracting Rachel from the therapy. But it's more than this. I also want to be able to rip out the carpet and put in vinyl sheeting or laminate or something that can be easily cleaned. I want a house that looks nicer than the one we currently rent so that I won't feel we're running an amateur operation, because frankly that's the last impression I want to give. I want homey and warm, not sterile or run-down. Unfortunately, this is going to take a lot more work than just fixing up Rachel and Sarah's room. It's going to require a move and possibly buying a house. Since both are impossible at the moment, I'm putting it all on hold. The most I may try is a once a week playtime with Rachel since she has quite a few more social difficulties than Sarah.

Obviously, I'm still going to apply the basic principles.

So, the next question is, what will I do instead? Well, a long time ago, before we realized that Rachel's problems were bigger than speech, we bought a speech therapy program advocated by NATTHAN called Straight Talk by Marisa Lapish and Tom and Sherry Bushnell. We have both volumes. It has references to Christian scripture in it and advocates starting a therapy session with prayer, so if you're offended by that, just ignore it. Personally, I liked the spirituality they brought to the topic. Its core though is speech therapy and having been through private speech therapy and public (ECI) speech therapy I can say that this program does a pretty good job. Volume Two, Part One focuses on listening and creating an environment where language becomes vital. It also works on vocabulary on a "level" basis. Part Two includes developmental checklists so you'll know where your child is at age-wise in his/her speech, instructions and a form for a very nice comprehension test based on the previously mentioned checklists as well as instructions and forms for taking a language sample. Once all that is done instructions and a form are provided for daily speech therapy sessions.

Volume Two is very thorough when it comes to principles and forms. It's only weakness is a lack of suggested activities to help develop the areas mentioned in the checklists. We overcame that by looking for books like The New Language of Toys by Sue Schwartz and Joan E. Heller. Also, although they recommend making therapy part of the everyday schedule, the form and some of the instructions assume that you'll be pretty formal in most of your sessions, which may or may not be the case.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to try it again since it takes very little time out of the day to do if you decide to make it a "session" (about 15-30 min.) and even less if you incorporate the learning in an already planned activity. So, this past weekend I did all the evaluations and the sample. It was nice finally getting some stuff on paper again.

We will also be using Volume One of Straight Talk. Rachel has always had trouble with pronunciation but I didn't realize how bad it still was until I did a language sample over the weekend. It's bad enough I had to do the general overview test of speech sounds to find out which sounds she keeps missing/mispronouncing. It's a pretty long list. Next (i.e. tomorrow) comes the deeper tests on the individual sounds. Once again, from what I can see there's very little in the way of suggested activities; however, I'm sure we'll be able to find ways to teach the sounds just like we've found ways to teach more general topics.

(Note: for those who wonder how on earth a parent could not realize how badly their child mispronounces words 1) a parent expects some mistakes and 2) a parent learns to decipher a child's meaning from all sorts of gobblydegook. Just look at the parents of really young toddlers and watch them as they have what seems to be a pretty advanced conversation with a toddler who seems to be speaking gibberish. After a while of watching you'll realize the parent is just a very good translator.)

All this talk about struggles with pronunciation leads me to my final topic: a quick review of Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration by Ellen Yack, Paula Aquilla and Shirley Sutton.

Building Bridges is meant for parents, educators... heck, anyone else willing to spend the time reading it. The focus is autism and PDD or any child who has trouble processing sensory data. Part One gives a nice overview of terms and their definitions (so everyone's on the same page) as well as the theory of sensory integration and the role of the occupational therapist in your therapy plan. It's here that they also mention the Wilbarger Protocol which I found very intriguing even though they make it clear there's no scientific studies that say it's useful.

But it's Part Two that most parents will flip to immediately. That's where they talk about identifying sensory integration problems and also suggest strategies for dealing with various issues. They also have a really neat list of items you can make to help calm your child, like weighted vests (you'll have to find your own vest pattern... all they do is tell you how to modify it) and the weighted snake. This book is especially helpful for those whose children are very young up to early elementary school, possibly a few years beyond depending on the strategy.

All in all, I like this book a lot. It's given me some new insights and strategies as well as helped me figure out what to look for if I decide to get either of the girls into occupational therapy. I highly recommend it.

Finally, I'd like to give a quick nod to the publisher of this book (I have no affiliation whatsoever with them though I did live down the street from them at one point). Check it out: Future Horizons, Inc.

Update: Interaction, interaction, interaction.