In All Things Give Thanks

Apraxia has joined Benaiah's list of diagnoses.  I am not surprised but a little sad that we have to ad another one.  Benaiah received a gift from a friend of mine in the mail- 3 elephants.  He is in love.  On top of that he sang with the Toy Story theme song.  It made me cry as it was a big deal.  He now says he is a dude.  When Miss Niki gave him his homework yesterday, he said, "No, dog eat". The kiddo already has the homework excuse down.  She laughed and I did.  Then she really laughed when I told her that he did not have a dog here.  Then he said "kraine".  So his dogs in Ukraine are going to eat his homework.  I thought it was great.  It is time to hit the road as we are picking up his knee immobilizers today.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  His feet are looking better.

crazy schedule

So life has taken an insane turn.  Starting this week, Benaiah will have 9 therapy sessions a week.  He is really progressing and we hope to get him to the spot where I am confidant to work with him once we get back home to Ukraine in November.  It has really become apparent to me that I live in the state of denial at times.  It is bliss to think he doesn't have this or that wrong.  Now we know what I have feared all along, the cerebral palsy is causing problems in his legs.  The night splints are working great and last night I caught him trying to put them on. We also had to up his Lamictal because he had a breakthru seizure.  I find it amazing that when we upped his medicine then his speech took off.  I need to ask Mike W about that.  Benaiah has adjusted to all of his therapy and loves his therapists, he also is using proloquo2go and it is helping him alot..  Next time I promise to post pictures.

Proloquo2go, night splints and a trip up north

Benaiah is really taking off with the proloquo2go.  He was able to "say" bake a chocolate cake last night at bedtime.  He is also able to tell me that he is frustrated and he is finally getting the idea of proloquo2go.  I am excited and have great hope that he will be able to communicate with it.  Between signing and this app, we are making headway with his communication.  I am still amazed when I look back at how the Lord has led us.  Really, I shouldn't be amazed but this trip in Holland is hard at times but the Lord has been right there with us.  We are figuring out how to work with this apraxia.  

Last week Benaiah was retested in OT.  Mr Justin was amazed at the progress he has made.  He went from 25 percent to 50 in hand eye coordination and 5 percent to 8 in fine motor.  We obviously have alot of work to do.  But he is working hard.  He traced his name on a white board and he also traced a square.  All the while, Mr Justin says that he is vocalizing alot more.  

We had to take a break from the night splints because of redness and yesterday I watched him trip over his toes twice.  I will be writing Mike W and asking him about an orthopedic dr over there that can take care of Benaiah.  Speaking of Neuros, the Neuro here will be seeing Benaiah before we head back to Ukraine.  For a while it looked like he would not be seeing a Neuro till we got back to Ukraine thanks to insurance companies.  But the guy has proved he is a good guy.  

Benaiah got to meet his cousins this weekend at a family reunion.  He had a great time with Maya, Bryan and Brandon, but the most fun he had was with Copper and Baya.  Those 2 little dogs loved Benaiah and he loved them back.  But he could not handle their barking, he would cry and cover his ears.  By the end of the weekend, he would just cover his ears.  I would love to know what he felt when that was going on. At one point those 2 dogs knocked him down and were licking him in the face.  He said no to them meanly but then started laughing.  

Mrs Bower called me today and prek starts August 20, but Benaiah will only be going to school for services like he was last school year. Missouri really is a good state for special needs.

A pool party with no pictures and an update.

Yesterday was a very long day.  It started with 3 hours of therapy and ended with a pool party.  In between we had pizza and did some shopping. Benaiah continues to impress his therapists and is making great improvement.  It is fun to watch how excited they get when they come out to talk to me.  He is doing as good as he did with First Steps as a baby.  They say he is a great kid and they are loving working with him. In OT, they worked on saying shapes and colors and he would repeat them but could say purple on his own. In Speech they worked on Miss Niki's kindle.  Benaiah is obsessed with cake, so they made cakes and played with a doll house.  He made her laugh when he insisted his brothers wear hair bows. The PT had Benaiah on some exercise equipment and he did great and came out jumping when he was done.The word motor planning disorder has come up and we are watching him with it.  It makes sense as he struggles at times with how to use things and Apraxia falls in there too.

After therapy, we had Pizza.  We had lots of time to waste before the pool party. Have I told you how much Benaiah loves Pizza?  Our waiter was great and he saved the day when Benaiah melted down cause he could not understand that the pizza had to cook.

Finally, the pool was a hit.  Benaiah has always loved water and he was getting quite daring with just water wings on.  I worked therapy into the pool party.  He was able to balance on these lily pad type things and did stairs up to the water slide.  He loved the water slides.

An amazing quote

Many therapists believe that sign language is beneficial for children who have difficulty being understood. They often recommend that children attempt to say the words they are signing to practice making the necessary movements with their mouths.

People with more extreme cases of acquired apraxia may also benefit from sign language. Or they may use assistive electronic devices, including computers that can be used to produce words and sentences. 






I find this amazing as the Lord laid this on my heart when Benaiah was about 6 months old.

Benaiah's new teeth and more

Benaiah got 8 teeth repaired yesterday.  Thank God he was put under and did great.  He was so happy last night.  He ate a Popsicle(his favorite food) and said no more booboo. So now I know that his teeth were hurting him.  I feel bad as he couldn't not say his teeth hurt. Next thing on the agenda is to get his night splints.  They should be calling us on Thursday.  Benaiah wants to go to the oo(Zoo).  But after looking at the weather I think we are going to have to wait a bit.  We will see. Thanks to Signing Times, Benaiah knows all these animal signs.

A great sensory experience! Touching the sting rays.

Spreading awareness

It has come to my attention that my motives for talking about Benaiah is all for attention.  This is not the case and we are entitled to our own opinions, but I believe it is wrong to attack someone when they are not walking the same road we are. This blog is to track Benaiah's progress.  He is doing really well.  We may be adding Apraxia on his diagnosis. He has homework and is very willing to do it.  I would love to have some answers to why he has a speech problem. http://www.apraxia-kids.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=chKMI0PIIsE&b=839037&ct=837215