Update on Tristan

pjscooby

Thanks for all the well wishes.  Thankfully it was nothing major!  PHEW!  Tristan's behind on his writing and cutting skills.  They were showing us examples from other kids in the class compared to his and he is a bit behind.  We knew this though, so it wasn't much of a shock.  We work with him nearly every day on this and he just doesn't seem to get it...or WANT to get it.  I just wish we had known that's what they wanted to talk to us about.  We were nervous for 2 days not knowing what this was!!

So, they want us to continue working with him on it so that he doesn't fall behind in Kindergarten.  

And for those who have asked about his pica and compulsion issues.  We seem to making great progress there.  I still occasionally catch him with things in his mouth, and he's still having issues with not being able to stop whatever it is he's doing...but it's a dramatic difference from when we started therapy.  Lots of positive reinforcement still.  Apparently children who have these types of behaviors also seem to require very little sleep which is now another pattern we're seeing.  Tristan doesn't fall asleep until nearly 11 or 12 every night (despite the fact that he goes to bed at 8) and wakes at about 8 in the morning.  He can't shut his brain off...ya know?

It's very eye opening going to therapy!!  So happy we're catching all of this early, before it turns into something that's harder to break.

Thanks again for all the support ladies!

sacey21

I'm so glad you posted! I was wondering how it went.

I'm sure they told you all of this, but there are so many ways you can help develop his fine motor skills. You can make up little games where he has to pick up things with tweezers (he could sort buttons into different containers or something), threading/beading, playdough or clay, picking up small objects, etc. 

Let me know if you need more ideas!! 

cheekywife

i'm so glad to hear that therapy is going well and that the meeting with school was just a "keep working on it" kind of thing. sounds like you've got some good teachers looking out for him

pink26

so glad to hear that things are going well, Pam. 

Also, Sarah had some really good ideas!  

fenwaysox

Glad that the meeting was better than expected and everythig else is going ok too.  I saw PP post with some fine motor ideas and have a couple others taht are good for strengthenig too- one is to use tweezers or teh kid chopsticks (the connected kind) and to pick up pom pom balls from egg cartons.  I made it into a counting/number game for DD, having her roll a number dice and take that many, then I do it and we count teh pom poms at the end to see who has more/less.  Then we play another way by putting them back in too.  she loves to play and got pom poms at dollar store- why we play b/c saw them there.  Did they say to have him do strengthening exercises or practice writing letters?  Letters, I used to take colored gel in plastic baggies and have kids practice writing letters (careful not to use nail though).  The kids loved this too- especially "erasing" what they wrote. 

sacey21

You can also pour salt or rice on a cookie sheet and have him practice letters that way.

Or with fingerpaint!

 

pfal6

Oh good Pam I am so glad that the teacher meeting was nothing to be alarmed about. You've had enough and deserve a break! You got some good ideas to increase his fine motor skills so far. I am glad that therapy has helped him so far. I have been thinking about you and glad that you posted an update.