The Good, The Bad, The Stimmy!

So, Benji went to the Child Development Center at Vanderbilt Children's for his suppose to be yearly developmental pediatric visit. His last visit was 18 months ago when he was diagnosed with the Disorder of Childhood and was referred over to Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson to be checked out for Sensory Integration Disorder which he was then diagnosed with.

So, Dr. Cooper was glad to see us and reviewed Benji's progress with me. Or.. I should say I shared Benji's progress.

• His Speech is almost completely caught up. He still has some articulation to work on and he needs to pronunciate better, but he is a talking machine once he gets going.
• His fine motor skills are nearly on par. It's more of a stubbornness problem than not being able to do something. (i.e. He knows how to hold a pencil/crayon but chooses not to do it right)
• Gross Motor is improving. He still needs to strengthen his core muscles and we still need to work on those ankles.
• He is off the blood pressure meds for his heart. It's will be a year in May!
• While he does have low sugar episodes, we catch them quickly and he recovers fine. Mostly happens when he has been playing all day outside and doesn't want to stop for anything.

Dr. Cooper appreciated my knowledge on what was going on. Which this is a soapbox of mine... Do parents just not pay attention to their kids? I mean really. Benji has some medical issues, so I do the research and I do what I can at home to help him. That's how we realized it was the cow's milk that was causing the colic when he was little. That's how we discovered the sensitivity to red 40. (OH MYwas it wonderful when we got rid of that! The hyper activity disappeared!)

Anyhow.. so Dr. Cooper thinks we should do pretty much the same testing we did last time and see what comes up. His non-official opinion is that Benji is either a quirky 4 year old or we are looking at Asperger Syndrome. This does not surprise me at all.

• Ridgidty ~ Must have schedules. If normal routine changes he gets very non-compliant with anything. It completely disrupts him. (eating, sleeping, pottying, mood, etc)
• OCD type ~ While this isn't as bad as it could be. Benji is very particular about how things are. If he puts something somewhere, it had better be there when he gets back. Things also have to be 'just so'. It's hard to explain... would you like to come over and see one day?
• Obsession ~ for over two years the only thing Benji wanted was Cars. You know Disney Cars? It is still an obsession and he has moved to include Hot Wheels, Wall E, and Transformers with it. They are all mechanical and he loves to "help" work on the car or just to help with tools in general. He is also now obsessed with video games (PS2)
• He is very sensory seeking. The deep pressure type. He loves getting in his sling swing all cozy and swinging. Also jumping on a trampoline. When he is seeking he will throw himself on the ground or against the wall and laugh.
• While exercises have helped he is very tactile defensive. He will play in finger paints now but he doesn't like it and the second he thinks he is done he wants his hands cleaned.
• Can't stand to be sticky, slimy, itchy, etc.

So... that was the visit with Dr. Cooper. We are waiting for the call to get the testing done.

I am Not TIRED

... Says the sleepy boy at 2 in the afternoon while he twirls his hair and sucks his thumb.

Benji is a tired little guy that is wishing his schedule would get back on track.

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IEP and such

Benji's IEP went well... OT discharged him, which didn't surprise me since his fine motor skills are on par. PT kept him because of his core strength and that his sensory seeking behaviors can be a problem. He likes to throw himself down for the deep pressure. This is not new, they are just seeing it more than they used to.

Right now we are on spring break and unfortunately the change in schedule has messed the little guy up. His potty training has slid some. He don't want to use the potty for his BMs, so I put him in pull ups, which causes him to not care if he urinates in his pants. So sensory stuff is fun!

Benji's birthday was March 2nd and he had his party the night before. He was so thrilled with all of his 'CARS' toys it wasn't funny. Made me glad we hit the dollar aisle at Target. Plus I got the walking talking Lightning McQueen for $15 on clearance at Walmart right after Christmas!

Other than that we are just taking things one day at a time.