Updates for the girlies!

Brooklyn: We saw the doctor today. We discussed Aspergers, and he said my notes and research are impressive and will be very helpful for him. We said that he thinks we're doing a great job between the behavior therapy and OT. He wants us to give OT at least a month and see how that effects Brooklyn's behavior.

He also said that he agrees we may want to pull back on the medications. So, we're going to start slowly removing the guanfacine starting tomorrow through next week. On Thursday we're going to touch based with the doctor about how that's going and then discuss how we want to go about backing off on the Adderall. We'll see how she does and if we have any behavior concerns, especially with OT as if the behavior issues are related to the sensory stuff.

He also said that he thinks we should consider an IEP for Brooklyn. Mostly because her being withdrawn in school IS an issue that needs to be addressed. And that the OT at school should be able to help with the twice a month private OT. He suggested that we consider requesting one-on-one teaching for at least an hour a day, and one-on-one reading groups and more very small group activities.

So, that's the plan for now. Still unsure about the Aspergers testing, but if we can rule out ADHD once and for all (which we may be able to do with everything we're working on) we can then push for Asperger's more easily as we've already begun ruling out other things.

Also, the OT who did Alayna's eval (which will be explained below) is the same OT who will  be seeing Brooklyn starting next week. This is great because she got to see Brooklyn in action. Brooklyn was completely well behaved in the first half, but went crazy once they went into the gym and Brooklyn could swing, slide, spin, and jump to her heart's content.

OK, onto Alayna. OT went great. Alayna did very well in the fine motor part of the evaluation process. I filled out a sensory profile during that time. After that we went to the "gym" where the girls got to play on th mats with swings, slides, a ball pit, trampolines, and larger shape foamy things. Brooklyn was in her element there, LOL. Alayna, not so much. It's so interesting to watch the girls as their sensory issues are EXACT opposites. What Brooklyn is always seeking, Alayna is always avoiding. While the OT worked with Alayna with all the sensory things, an intern asked me more questions.

After everything the OT and I discussed what our main goals for Alayna are. We both agreed that Alayna's sensory issues with spinning, behind upside down, and being off balance aren't really enough to effect her in life. She will be able to avoid those things without interfering with her day to day life. Our biggest concerns are in the goals are in the areas of personal responsibility and self care. We discussed that our biggest goal is helping Alayna reach her full potential in life.

We are heading out for Alayna's initial IEP meeting. We've written up our main concerns, and some suggestions of modifications that can be made for her. I think we're also going to request Brooklyn's IEP assessment on Monday.

We have the OT report FINALLY!

I spoke with Brooklyn's therapist today about the OT report as well as all of my notes about Brooklyn and how they related to Asperger's Syndrome. I also spoke with her about the medications Brooklyn is on, and my desire to have her off of them, especially considering that Brooklyn's behavior at school is no different on or off her medication. So, I have to talk it over with Joe and then talk it over with Brooklyn's psychiatrist about taking her off of the Adderall but keeping her on the Tenex/Guanfacine, and having her take it at lunch and again after school when she gets home.

I'm going to try to observe Brooklyn at school, both in the classroom and out on the playground. I want to see how she interacts with the other kids in both the classroom environment and out on the playground.

Well, we FINALLY got the OT report from Brooklyn's evaluation.

Here's the results:
Brooklyn has officially been diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder (AKA Sensory Processing Disorder).
She's in the 1st percentile for personal responsibility and the 14th percentile for adaptive domain.
I don't know exactly what all of the numbers mean, but basically a score outside of typical performance shows a difference between her and her typically developing peers.
The rest of the scores are a bit weird, basically the higher the "score" the more "typically developing" she is.

Factor
Sensory seeing: 21 out of 85 (definite difference)
Emotionally reactive: 55 out of 80 (probable difference)
Low Endurace/Tone 45 out of 45 (typical performance)
Oral Sensory Sensitivity 45 out of 45 (typical performance)
Inattention/Distractability 24/35 (probably difference)
Poor Registration 28 out of 40 (definite difference)
Sensory Sensitivity 20 out of 20 (typical performance)
Sedentary 17 out of 20 (typical performance)
Fine motor/perceptual 11 out of 15 (typical performance)

Sensory Processing:
Auditory Processing 30 out of 40 (typical performance)
Visual processing 37 out of 45 (typical performance)
Vestibular Processing 37 out of 55 (definite difference)
Touch processing 56 out of 90 (definite difference)
multisensory processing 20 out of 35 (definite difference)
oral sensory processing 50 out of 60 (typical performance)

Modulation
Sensory Processing Related to Endurace/tone 45 out of 45 (typical performance)
Modulation related to Body position and movement 28 out of 50 (definite difference)
Modulation of movement affecting activity level 22 out of 35 (probably difference)
Modulation of sensory input affecting emotional responses 15 out of 20 (probable difference)
Modulation of visual input affecting emotional responses and activity level 14 out of 20 (probable difference)

Behavior and emotional responses
Emotional/social responses 60 out of 85 (probably difference)
Behavioral outcome of Sensory Processing 19 out of 30 (probably difference)
Items indicating Thresholds for response 9 out of 15 (definite difference)