We have to visit the hospital on Friday for an Elektrokardiogram (EKG) and blood tests.
Contrarian not so happy about the blood tests.
Follow up coming.....
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Starting medicines
Started medicines today. Contrarian hates swallowing tablets so I had to open the capsules and give him the powder form. We'll practise the swallowing.
Monday, 30 May 2011
Visiting the dentist
Life is so good at the moment - it couldn't possibly be better!
Contrarian had a dentist appointment today. Dentist appointments have always been cause of distress in the past.
My boy just behaved 'normal' - like he does at home. He calmly sat down for x-rays. Did exactly what he was told and didn't push any buttons or grab the remote control for the chair. No playing with the dentist equipment or spraying water all over.
He just sat down and opened his mouth.
I didn't prep him - I didn't bribe him - nothing.
It was such a wonderful feeling walking out of the dentist office that I cried. Just couldn't help myself.
Tomorrow we have appointment with neurologist and the next day the psychiatrist.
We are just on such a wonderful 'up' ride at the moment!
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Good going
Contrarian's teacher phoned today. She phoned to tell me 2 things:
1. Contrarian got a ball in his face again - playing football. Instead of bopping anybody (like he usually does) he ran inside and found a chair to sit in while he cried. The teacher said it really must have hurt because his face was very red where the ball had hit him.
2. Yesterday - two other children were getting into an argument in the classroom. The teacher was keeping an eye on the situation because she could see it was escalating. One of the kids was Contrarian's best friend.
Suddenly Contrarian walked in between the two and gently pushed them away from oneanother. He said something to the two boys and shook his head. The kids then all walked away and sat down in their seats.
She feels that our little talk about self control and taking 'time out' to think before reacting has worked.
I feel this is worthy of a celebration! Yay Contrarian!
1. Contrarian got a ball in his face again - playing football. Instead of bopping anybody (like he usually does) he ran inside and found a chair to sit in while he cried. The teacher said it really must have hurt because his face was very red where the ball had hit him.
2. Yesterday - two other children were getting into an argument in the classroom. The teacher was keeping an eye on the situation because she could see it was escalating. One of the kids was Contrarian's best friend.
Suddenly Contrarian walked in between the two and gently pushed them away from oneanother. He said something to the two boys and shook his head. The kids then all walked away and sat down in their seats.
She feels that our little talk about self control and taking 'time out' to think before reacting has worked.
I feel this is worthy of a celebration! Yay Contrarian!
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Rough start to the weekend
Contrarian received a birthday invitation from two girl's in class (joint birthday). I thought about it for a week and decided that we were going to skip this one.
Birthday parties are generally disastrous - even if it's a party with just the boys in class. A birthday party with 9 boys and 20 girls - well, I don't even want to go there - literally!
Unfortunately I chose the wrong time to tell Contrarian this. Ten minutes before he walked out the door to go to school on Friday morning. How stupid of me!!
Contrarian was deeply unhappy and felt I was very unjustified by not letting him go. This he loudly demonstrated by banging the front door as he left.
I had just finished my morning walk when the phone rang. Of course it was the school.
The teacher wanted me at the school a.s.a.p to demonstrate her seriousness to the boy. I obliged her by arriving at the school 13 minutes after her phone call. I have no doubt that her liking me has much to do with my instant response to any request that she might make.
To tell the truth - I am so grateful to finally have a teacher who shows an understanding for my child's oddities - that I would walk on burning coal if she had to ask.
The new 'special' teacher had her first day and the kids had been asked to stand in a line before they walked into the class room so that they could great her.
Contrarian had been fooling around with the class room keys and would just not listen. He was asked not to enter the classroom but stand in a line with all the other children. In pure defiance he walked into the classroom.
The new teacher took him by the arm to lead him back to the line. Contrarian went ballistic.
He started pulling away and hitting. Then his own teacher came and tried to restrain him because he was hitting the other teacher and he ended up scratching her too.
Then his assistant came and only then did he calm down.
The teacher, assistant and I spent an hour with him talking about unacceptable behaviour and self control, cause and effect etc.
I explained to him that this was why I wouldn't let him go to the birthday party. Because I was worried that if there was a disagreement of sorts - he would hit and scratch somebody.
He seemed to accept and understand what we said and he apologized for lashing out at his teacher.
I am so grateful that the school staff are as understanding and supportive as they are!
The teacher told me to leave it at that and not take any further action so we have put it behind us.
Saturday I told Contrarian that he would have to walk with me to town center if he wanted his Saturday sweets. He didn't complain once (usually he hates walking). We ended up having a lovely weekend. A nice recovery from a shaky start to the weekend.
Birthday parties are generally disastrous - even if it's a party with just the boys in class. A birthday party with 9 boys and 20 girls - well, I don't even want to go there - literally!
Unfortunately I chose the wrong time to tell Contrarian this. Ten minutes before he walked out the door to go to school on Friday morning. How stupid of me!!
Contrarian was deeply unhappy and felt I was very unjustified by not letting him go. This he loudly demonstrated by banging the front door as he left.
I had just finished my morning walk when the phone rang. Of course it was the school.
The teacher wanted me at the school a.s.a.p to demonstrate her seriousness to the boy. I obliged her by arriving at the school 13 minutes after her phone call. I have no doubt that her liking me has much to do with my instant response to any request that she might make.
To tell the truth - I am so grateful to finally have a teacher who shows an understanding for my child's oddities - that I would walk on burning coal if she had to ask.
The new 'special' teacher had her first day and the kids had been asked to stand in a line before they walked into the class room so that they could great her.
Contrarian had been fooling around with the class room keys and would just not listen. He was asked not to enter the classroom but stand in a line with all the other children. In pure defiance he walked into the classroom.
The new teacher took him by the arm to lead him back to the line. Contrarian went ballistic.
He started pulling away and hitting. Then his own teacher came and tried to restrain him because he was hitting the other teacher and he ended up scratching her too.
Then his assistant came and only then did he calm down.
The teacher, assistant and I spent an hour with him talking about unacceptable behaviour and self control, cause and effect etc.
I explained to him that this was why I wouldn't let him go to the birthday party. Because I was worried that if there was a disagreement of sorts - he would hit and scratch somebody.
He seemed to accept and understand what we said and he apologized for lashing out at his teacher.
I am so grateful that the school staff are as understanding and supportive as they are!
The teacher told me to leave it at that and not take any further action so we have put it behind us.
Saturday I told Contrarian that he would have to walk with me to town center if he wanted his Saturday sweets. He didn't complain once (usually he hates walking). We ended up having a lovely weekend. A nice recovery from a shaky start to the weekend.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Twice this week
The school phoned today again. There had been an incident again.
The children had been playing football and everything was going well until one of the boys kicked the ball and it hit Contrarian in the stomach. Of course, it had not been intentional but contrarian thought it was.
Contrarian had burst out crying holding his stomach then run up to the other boy and grabbed him by the hair. Both boys were in tears.
The school inspector had spoken to Contrarian and he had apologized - realizing that it had not been an intentional move on the other boy's side.
The inspector decided to keep Contrarian in her office with her (where he has his own little corner to play with lego and read books). He wanted to catch the bus home with the other children but also wanted some alone time after the incident.
I sense we are in another one of those phases. It's like a tsunami wave - a giant force that wipes us clean and then leaves us to pick up the pieces and start building from scratch again.
There's nothing we can do - just wait for it to disappear.
The children had been playing football and everything was going well until one of the boys kicked the ball and it hit Contrarian in the stomach. Of course, it had not been intentional but contrarian thought it was.
Contrarian had burst out crying holding his stomach then run up to the other boy and grabbed him by the hair. Both boys were in tears.
The school inspector had spoken to Contrarian and he had apologized - realizing that it had not been an intentional move on the other boy's side.
The inspector decided to keep Contrarian in her office with her (where he has his own little corner to play with lego and read books). He wanted to catch the bus home with the other children but also wanted some alone time after the incident.
I sense we are in another one of those phases. It's like a tsunami wave - a giant force that wipes us clean and then leaves us to pick up the pieces and start building from scratch again.
There's nothing we can do - just wait for it to disappear.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Incident in the classroom
We had an incident at school yesterday.
Contrarian pissed off one of the girls by throwing her books around. She smacked him on the knee. Contrarian pushed her and ended up scratching her in the face.
It's difficult finding out the finer details of the matter but I am deeply unhappy that he scratched her in the face. It tells me that there was a 'violent' altercation.
There were no adults in the classroom when it happened. The assistant was off sick and the regular teacher was replaced with a temp.
I'm considering asking the school to let me know when there are temps so that I can keep contrarian at home on those days.
These kind of incidents just put us so far behind again. It's the first one in a very long time but it really doesn't help his situation with the girls in the class.
I still haven't decided on how to deal with this but I'll start with no TV for a couple of days. It will give us time to talk about anger management and solutions.
We had a meeting with the teacher last week. She felt that things are going much better.
I noticed the following:
Contrarian looks her in the eyes when she is talking to him.
He pays attention to what she has to say and he doesn't get off his chair and walk away the way he used to.
She is much more confident in dealing with him and firmer - which is a good thing!
Everything else is going well at the moment.
Contrarian pissed off one of the girls by throwing her books around. She smacked him on the knee. Contrarian pushed her and ended up scratching her in the face.
It's difficult finding out the finer details of the matter but I am deeply unhappy that he scratched her in the face. It tells me that there was a 'violent' altercation.
There were no adults in the classroom when it happened. The assistant was off sick and the regular teacher was replaced with a temp.
I'm considering asking the school to let me know when there are temps so that I can keep contrarian at home on those days.
These kind of incidents just put us so far behind again. It's the first one in a very long time but it really doesn't help his situation with the girls in the class.
I still haven't decided on how to deal with this but I'll start with no TV for a couple of days. It will give us time to talk about anger management and solutions.
We had a meeting with the teacher last week. She felt that things are going much better.
I noticed the following:
Contrarian looks her in the eyes when she is talking to him.
He pays attention to what she has to say and he doesn't get off his chair and walk away the way he used to.
She is much more confident in dealing with him and firmer - which is a good thing!
Everything else is going well at the moment.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Nevropsykologisk rapport
Tuesday 22 March
Today I had a meeting with the neuropsychologist.
He strongly feels that contrarian has ADHD in addition to Aspergers. It's difficult to know if the 'impulsive behavior' is a symptom of the Aspergers or ADHD but there's a strong possibility it's the ADHD.
If it is a symptom of ADHD then medication could help in the therapy.
If it's a symptom of Aspergers - well then the medication won't do much good.
I have always been very reluctant to use drugs on a child. Drugs have no place in a child's body. But then there are children like my son who really want to 'fit in'. Like most children - he just wants to be like everybody else. The thing is - he's not like everybody else.
If medication can give him the 'thing' that he needs to be able to behave like other kids in new situations and with strangers - maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe it will open a whole new world for him. The ability to try new things and make new friends.
Everything is going well at the moment. The three musketeers (friends) have found eachother again.
I had a meeting with his teacher yesterday. Things are going well at school - much better than they used to. This last week he has been uncooperative and questioning everything but it is always much better than it was a few months back.
The teacher has put contrarian in charge of a project - teaching the other kids English by presenting them with questions to answer.
He thrives in his role as 'English teacher'.
Below is a diagram. The average is 50. It is clear that contrarians ability to focus and shift focus is way below average.
An appointment has been made with the psychiatrist for 1 June.
Today I had a meeting with the neuropsychologist.
He strongly feels that contrarian has ADHD in addition to Aspergers. It's difficult to know if the 'impulsive behavior' is a symptom of the Aspergers or ADHD but there's a strong possibility it's the ADHD.
If it is a symptom of ADHD then medication could help in the therapy.
If it's a symptom of Aspergers - well then the medication won't do much good.
I have always been very reluctant to use drugs on a child. Drugs have no place in a child's body. But then there are children like my son who really want to 'fit in'. Like most children - he just wants to be like everybody else. The thing is - he's not like everybody else.
If medication can give him the 'thing' that he needs to be able to behave like other kids in new situations and with strangers - maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe it will open a whole new world for him. The ability to try new things and make new friends.
Everything is going well at the moment. The three musketeers (friends) have found eachother again.
I had a meeting with his teacher yesterday. Things are going well at school - much better than they used to. This last week he has been uncooperative and questioning everything but it is always much better than it was a few months back.
The teacher has put contrarian in charge of a project - teaching the other kids English by presenting them with questions to answer.
He thrives in his role as 'English teacher'.
Below is a diagram. The average is 50. It is clear that contrarians ability to focus and shift focus is way below average.
An appointment has been made with the psychiatrist for 1 June.
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