Tuesday, August 13, 2013

School bells and Neurofeedback!

So school is almost back in for us down here in the south and some have already ventured back this week. I'm not going to lie, by the time August hits, I am counting down the days until school like my kids do with Christmas.  I am that mom who shimmy's back up to her house after the bus pulls away and sits on my front porch for that first cup of tea and silence after a long busy summer with two boys *bliss*.

Our summer isn't typical.  Yes, we go to the pool, we cook out, we go on vacations and we meet up with friends, but we also run back and forth to therapy at least three times a week and have meeting updates on Aidan's progress with doctors in addition to keeping up with reading, writing and math.  I believe summer is much more busy for me than the actual school year.

Over the summer Aidan was doing  interactive metronome therapy (IMT).  He has completed 30 sessions and has plateaued.  Did we see a difference?  Yes, we definitely did see a lot of progress and improvement. The area where we saw the biggest gains was sports.  I know that seems like something that wouldn't be important to some people, but to an 11 year old boy who wants to play on a team with everyone else it means the world. He began playing flag football when we first began IM therapy and it was not pretty.  We almost pulled him out but we decided to let him stick it out.  By the end of the season he was named the most improved player. He was catching the football a lot more, throwing more accurately and his response time was a lot better. Best of all, he began to feel better about himself.  His improved timing and coordination carried over to his overall tasks at home.  He didn't seem as clumsy anymore and his movements began to appear more fluid.

However, IM  plateaued which we knew it would.  Right now we just began neurofeedback therapy (NFT). We are hoping this is another step in the right direction to recovery.  Aidan appears to be on the verge of breaking through to complete recovery but isn't quite there yet.  He had one session so far of NFT and afterwards he seemed a little tired, but nothing worrisome.  By the time we got home, he perked right back up and was fine.  At this point Aidan appears more ADHD than ASD, although you can still see some quirks pop up here and there that reminds us of his ASD lurking in there, such as covering his ears when he gets overwhelmed.  In addition to NFT, he is undergoing a Spectracell blood test tomorrow morning to check for any intracellular vitamin deficiencies along with the MTHFR test.  I will definitely post those results when I get them back.  I am figuring 2 weeks.

Much love...xoxo