Progress Report Time!

You have all heard me talk and talk about how amazing the boys are doing and all of the improvements we have seen.  I still can't believe that all of this has happened in ONE 12 week session at Brain Balance.  It doesn't even seem possible, but it happened!  I can't wait to see what will come with each session that we do.  Brody will only need one more - almost sure of that.  Wyatt will need at least 4 and that is all we know at this point.  The great thing is, even if it takes Wyatt a few years, I KNOW that he will continually improve and that we will reverse this thing called Autism until it is no more.

So, since you have heard enough from me, here are the results as the Brain Balance Center sees it.  (From their very comprehensive testing of course..)

Brody:  (Note: I don't have time to explain what all the items mean at this point, but you can email me with questions if you like)

• Started with 8 of the 8 primitive reflexes, ended with only 3.  Still have work to do, but that is great!
• Computerized-eye muscle coordination/balance:  Went up 2 levels
• Computerized-Visual processing assessment:  Went from age 5 to age 7
• Arm-Touch sensation (literally being able to feel his own body) Went up 4 levels
• Leg-Touch sensation:  Went up 4 levels
• Eye movements/reflexes:  Went up 12 levels!  (highest on this is level 12!)
• Smell identification test:  Went down one level (which is good because he had a hypersensitive sense of smell)
• Eye Movements/Reflexes: Moved up within the program, but didn't move up on assessment levels
• Pupil Light response:  Went up three levels
• Auditory assessment:  Went up one overall level (this is one of his greatest deficits)
• Auditory Processing: Moved up within the program, but didn't move up on assessment levels.  Again, this is a hard area for him.  In the test they actually noticed he was missing bits and pieces of information.  The words ball and car would be played in his ears at the same time and he would only hear "all"  and "are".  He almost always was missing the beginning sounds of everything he heard.  You can see how that would cause issues....
• Fine Motor assessment:  Went from age 5 to age 7
• Proprioception (body's spatial awareness): Went up within the program, but didn't move on assessment levels. 
• Balance Beam:  Went from age 10 to age 11! (He was already above his age in this before!)
• Gait/Aerobic and endurance:  Went from age 5 to age 12!!!  (I totally saw this happening)
• Postural Assessment (muscle tone) - These are crazy results!
• Supine Core: Went from age 6 to age 10
• Prone Core:  Went from age 7 to age 9
• Lateral Core:  Went from age 6 to age 9
• Abdominal Core: Went from age 5 to age 11!!!
• Upper Body Strength:  Went from age 5 to age 12!
• Brachiation (hand strength) Went from age 4 to age 11!
• Interactive metronome (Bilateral/Unilateral Rhythm and timing):  This one is hard to explain but basically he should be at about 78.0 as his score for his age.  The lower the score the better.  His initial score was 331!!  She said she has not seen many that are that terrible... His exit score was 146!  So he made HUGE gains, but still has a ways to go.  
• Inner ear balance:  Went up one level

As for his Cognitive results they administer the WIAT-II which is a standardized assessment.  I wish I had his initial test with me (I need to find it somewhere!) so I could tell you his overall score.  I will at some point.  But his Post score was 92 percent!  The reason that is so great is because average score of kids his age is 50% and College prep level is 70 percent.  The director stated that he was "very very gifted".  :)  Of course I always knew he was bright, but I don't know if I knew just HOW bright.  This is of course partially due to the fact that  his left brain is so highly developed and the rest is credited to his father.  That is truly what makes me so sad about all of the kids struggling with these types of issues.  They are SO smart, SO darling and have SO much potential, but they just can't get there because there brains are not functioning properly.  I am so very grateful that Brain Balance changes all of that.

Here are some breakdowns:

Word reading:  Was at age 10.4 and ended at age 10.4
Reading Comp: Was at age 12.8 and ended at age 13.4
Pseudo Decoding: Was at age 17-19 and ended at age 17-19
Numerical operations: Was at grade 1.5 and ended at grade 2.2
Math reasoning:  Was at grade 2.4 and ended at grade 3.1
Spelling:  Was at grade 2.6 and ended at grade 3.5
Written Expression:  Was at grade 1.8 and ended at grade 3!
Listening Comp:  Was at grade 4.5 and ended at 7.2
Oral Expression:  Was at grade 4.7 and ended at grade 5.1

So there you have Brody!  As you can see, besides my observations of his obvious gains and improvements, there is CONCRETE EVIDENCE that he has changed and improved in all areas and some were HUGE.  This means his brain is changing and will continue to change.

I am trying a new thing since moving home - it is called "getting some sleep".  :)  I am trying to go to bed earlier so that I can function in this crazy life that I live.  Therefore, I will be posting Wyatt's results tomorrow!

Goodnight!

This is a lot harder than I thought....

Life at home is great, but a lot more work and a lot more complicated.  I was so busy and barely slept while living away and those things have even increased since moving home.  It is so great to be together as a family again, but EVERYTHING has changed.  The kids are not in any kind of routine.  I am not in any kind of routine.  They do not want to go to bed at night at all.  Last night Brody slept in a sleeping bag in the hallway....

And every night they cry when they go to their rooms and say they are scared.  Two nights ago that went on for almost 2 hours before I could get them to go to bed.  Even Wyatt cried when we put him in bed and he wanted me to "sit down" on his bed by him.  The only thing I can figure is that they are used to sleeping in a small apartment on the same floor and now they are sleeping upstairs far away from me? Also, Brody and Hazel shared a room and now they are in their own rooms?  I am not sure what the cause, but the kids are all out of whack when it comes to just about everything.

I am hoping that by the end of the day we can at least be unpacked and so we are not in a state of chaos.  Then, next week I am hoping to get on a schedule so that we can be more organized.  We are not accomplishing what we need to for Brain Balance or anything else for that matter and that can't happen!

This is a great interview that Dr. Melillo just did on Fox News about a new study showing that Autism (and other disorders on the spectrum) are caused more by environmental factors, than genes.  This is nothing new to me or a lot of us, but having a study confirm it is great!  The other great news is that if it is environmental, that means we can reverse it and prevent it!

Off to work myself to death if I can stay awake long enough! 

Tam

I Lied...

I was hoping I would have the energy to do the progress reports, but I don't.  I really think it might take me 3 months to unpack and get this place organized again and that is on top of the million other things I have to do!  So hopefully tomorrow I will post the progress reports, but for now, a cute Wyatt update!  

I can't believe this all fit in my van (plus bikes, a slide and a few other things..)  Even three days later, it still mostly looks like this. Anyone want to come help us unpack?

Today I was downstairs and came up to check on Wyatt and found him coming down the hall on his walker!  We have had him try it a handful of times, but he hadn't ever done it by himself.  Also, if he had a choice, he usually just sat on the floor and scooted on his bum.  

I am so glad my phone is my camera because I pulled it out of my pocket and got this great video!  It was so cute that he had just gotten his walker and started down the hall with it!  I am so proud of him and can't wait to see him get better and better at it.  

Here is the video!

Here is a darling picture of him!  What a big boy!

Isn't he a doll?

As for the other two, I am not sure what to do with them.  They were so hyper and not very obedient today.  They also won't go to bed and it has been hours.  They are whining about being scared and I think they are just overly tired and not adjusted at all to the new house or new time zone.

I think tomorrow is going to be throw away toy day.  They are going nuts because there are so many more toys here and they are leaving them all over the house and won't clean up.  We just have a lot of things to simplify because our life is too crazy to add more chaos!

We are close to signing the lease on our Brain Balance Center and are so excited to get going!  What an amazing thing it will be to continue to watch our children improve and to watch so many other children improve as well.  :)

Goodnight!

Road Trip!

Yes its me again I know ya'll missed me! I'm back! Well let me tell you about my recent road trip! I have been looking forward to driving the van home( thanks Tam!) and I got the opportunity a little earlier then I expected! This road trip got extended by about 300 miles. The trip totaled to 2346.7 miles. Doesn't that sound like a blast! Tam was so nice to let me do that especially since I love to travel! (You owe me;)

Since I have an awesome husband he volunteered to fly out and drive it home with me! Thanks Dre your the best. Well here is the story:

Drayton flew in on Friday the 3rd of July. We decided since we had a long drive ahead of us we better leave right from the airport. So we packed up all the stuff that we had taken on our trip and I headed out to get Dre! I am surprised I found the airport by myself we all know how good I am at directions. I picked up Dre about 30 minutes late ....sorry! He wasn't too mad but made me drive back to our apartment which took us about 8 hours. We arrived there around 12:30 a.m. We needed snacks so we ran to Walmart. Since we are on the kids diets now I had to get lots of fruit to eat while we drove. So I stocked up on my fruit and Dre got his snacks, we figured we better get a tarp in case it rains. So we got the tarp and headed to the apartment.

Poor Dre hadn't seen the amount of stuff we were supposed to fit in the van:)

We walked in the apartment and Dre looked at the stuff and said THERE IS NO WAY!!!!! 



That got me nervous because he is pretty good at packing and if he thought it wasn't going to fit then I had my doubts! It was now almost 2 in the morning...but we decided to start packing and see how much we could fit in and what we should start eliminating... Well lets just say at 4 am we put the last thing in! Yeah can you believe it we did it we got every last thing in the van! Tam had bought some tie downs online so we could strap the stuff to the top. When we opened them Dre looked at me and said are you serious? They had ordered the straps that you had to tighten yourself. There was no way we could tighten them tight enough to go 2034 miles! So we decided to run back to Walmart and get the ratchet tie downs. But we now had the whole van filled to the top with 6 suitcases, 2 bikes and a slide. We tied them down the best we could. We got back to Walmart and got the tie downs and decided against the tarp because Dre said he checked the weather there wasn't supposed to be any rain. I said you checked the weather in every state and there is going to be no rain in any of the states!!!!??? He said yeah no rain. We tried to return it and the customer service was closed so we kept it and went out to put the new straps on. Got it all strapped up and got back to the house at 4:30 am.

Good Packing Drayton!

We woke up at 9 and got ready to leave. The van we so packed that the tires were about 1 inch from the frame of the car. This was scary but we didn't really have a choice but to try it out. Dre had to be back for work on Tuesday and he travels 5 hours. So we had to be back home by Monday at 3 for him to get straight into another car and travel to work. Which means Dre is really nice to come out and help me! Anyways we left the apartment and had to go about 60 miles an hour most of the way and had to stop and check tires every hundred miles. This made the trip even longer.



It was fun to get to talk with Dre and catch up since we hadn't been together for 3 months. Dre might say that I slept most of the way but I only slept some of it;) Anyways the first day we drove for 16 hours. We made it all the way to Oklahoma City. Then we realized that we had all that stuff on the top of the van and we weren't about to take off all of it and haul it into the hotel at 2 in the morning. So we parked it in a well lite area and hoped no one would steal anything! Luckily everything was there when we woke up. We slept till about 8 and headed to breakfast since we hadn't really had a meal the last 2 days. We had only snacked in the car. We ate at Denny's and planned out the rest of our trip. We decided to try and make it to Flag Staff, AZ. This would be a 12 hour drive. We took off and the next thing I know...... Drayton hadn't done a very good job predicting the weather! It started sprinkling so we pulled over to a gas station so the stuff was out of the rain. We went into the bathroom and when we came out it was pouring! Luckily, we hadn't been able to return the tarp. So we tried to put the tarp on but we only had two straps. So we did the best we could and headed back on the road. About 4 miles later we pulled off cause the tarp was flying all over the place. I am glad Dre was with me or I would of just sat in the van until it stopped raining or someone helped me! He fixed the tarp and we were on our way yet again. Not for too long and we had to pull over again at the rest area! Luckily, a couple strangers helped us tie it down and gave us some rope and bungees. I for sure thought it was on there good this time....NOPE it ended up coming off again, so Dre (totally not frustrated at this point) got out and fixed it again. He did awesome and it worked and stayed the rest of the way.

Lets just say that I might have slept a little bit on the trip but I also drove a few times. We stopped to get Dre some books on tape. He said if he has those he can drive all night! Well I fell asleep and woke up around 1, we were supposed to arrive at Flag Staff around 12 so I was confused. Freakin Dre had just kept Driving and we ended up to our destination at about 4 am! He did so good, he didn't get hardly any sleep and he drove for about 18 hours! What, I couldn't believe it! Anyways we took the van to Tam's and unloaded the top so it could fit in the garage and we went home!

It was a long and crazy trip, but so fun to be with my husband and so glad he came out to help me! I might owe him! That's our trip in a nutshell. Hope we don't have to travel anywhere, anytime soon!

Night(:

We are Home!!

I have decided that there is nothing in my life that will ever be "normal", "typical" or even run smoothly.  That is just not how my life was meant to be.  I guess it never really has been and I have always known that, it just becomes more apparent each day.  I am sure most of you have noticed that and friends and family seem to always have something to say.  I have heard the following comments: "If my life was anything like yours, I would be living in a white padded room",  or just the basic "you are crazy".  When asking my Dad the best way to do something he said "That is what normal people would do, but you guys aren't normal."  He is so funny and so right!

Luckily, although things don't run smoothly and are not "normal", they always seem to work out. :)

We were finally flying home last night and I just wanted everything to be quick and easy so we could get home and start our crazy life again.  I really should have known it wouldn't be quick and easy....

We headed off to the airport with Bo's sister and 2 of her kids (8 of us packed into a 7 passenger car).  Then we stopped to tour another Brain Balance Center!  I was able to see a total of 4 on our trip and Bo got to see 2!  It was so great to see the layout and ideas from other owners and we appreciate SO much the time they took to show us around.

We got to the airport a few minutes later than what we had hoped, but we were doing fine.  We had A LOT of luggage to tote around, but I didn't want to check any since we had spent so much money checking bags to move in the first place.  We each had 2 carry on items plus we had Wyatt in his stroller.  Since Wyatt and Hazel don't carry anything, Bo took most the load and I pushed the stroller with one hand while pulling a suitcase and wearing a backpack..  This was way fun and totally not hard on either of us at all :)  We got to security and put all our items on the belt.  Of course when I went through I beeped because of my earrings.  Then, they had to inspect 3 of our bags!  They confiscated a bunch of my hair products even though there were less than three oz in them.  Then they opened my food bag and swiped every last item in there and they checked another suitcase too!  Then they had to send all three things back through the machine.

We got on the plane and because we didn't book at the same time, we weren't seated together.  Thankfully we switched around and Bo and Brody sat behind the rest of us.  Then... it started raining.  It wasn't too bad, but apparently the airport where we were heading for our first stop was closed down due to the weather.  So we sat, and we sat and then we went to the runway, and then we went back to the gate, and then we went back to the runway and back to the gate.  Finally after over 2 hours we finally took off!  Luckily Hazel fell asleep within 5 minutes of boarding the plane because she was so whiny.  I was SO worried because if we missed our connection, we were in trouble!  I was NOT excited about finding a hotel or sleeping in the airport.  I just wanted to get home! 

I had turned my phone back on since we weren't taking off and had a voice mail saying our next flight was delayed 2 hours - perfect!  We got of one plane just in time to board another and that one still took off almost an hour later than expected.  Wyatt was so hyper and crazy and I don't know why?  But besides that the kids were really great.  Me and the kids all slept on the plane home (4 hours) while Bo watched a movie.  I guess he can't sleep on planes?

We finally landed at our destination and then had to collect our 11 bags and our booster seats, load them on a cart and get out to the car.  By this time it was 12:30 as opposed to the 9:30 it was supposed be.  We were all exhausted and because of the time change, it was actually 3:30 am to most of us.. 

Brody and his Papa.  He is getting so big and helpful! 

The kids and the luggage.  

We got home and Brody and Hazel were asleep but Wyatt was wide awake. 

Aren't they darling???

When we brought Wyatt in he immediately said "computer, game, animal puzzle".  So - he basically remembered everything he used to do here that he was not allowed to do the last 4 months and tried to get us to let him do it the second he walked in the door.  So smart.  When Brody and Hazel woke up they were all over the house.  The three of them were playing with their toys, reading books, etc.  We could not get them to go to bed!  Then Hazel and Brody were scared and ended up wanting to sleep together.  I thought it was so darling since they have slept together for the last 4 months and they just felt comfortable that way. :)

Wyatt and his book party.

I think everyone was finally asleep by about 3:30 and were up by 6:30...

Now we start the crazy task of unpacking and reorganizing our entire life!  This could take months!  Unfortunately, we don't have months.  We have more things going on in the next few months than even we have had before. 

I am counting this blog as yesterdays and will post again tonight.  Then, I think tomorrow I will have enough in me to do the 12 week progress reports! 

See you soon!

We are Moving Home Tomorrow!

Our whole family is boarding a plane tomorrow to move home!  It is so exciting and will be so interesting to see how the kids react when they finally go back to their own home, their own rooms and their own beds. 

I know I still need to post the results of the 12 week reports and I promise I will do it when we get home.  But for now, here are some more amazing videos that I took this morning.

I decided to ask Wyatt to sing some songs and he did!  First I asked him to sing Twinkle Twinkle.  He has done this before, but never near as well.  He usually says Twinkle Twinkle and star, but everything else is just babbling.  This time was WAY better!  Then I asked him to sing Row Row Row your boat and he said "ABCs".  So he sang the ABCs so well!  Lastly, I decided to ask him to sing Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.  He LOVES this song when people sing it, but I have never heard him attempt to sing any part of it, nor have I asked him to.  I was SO amazed when he just started singing every word.  Some are still a little hard to understand, but he knew the whole song.  I don't really know why I was amazed because I know he has so much in his brain, but I guess I was amazed that he was able to use that information and express it.  I made him sing it about 5 times today and I loved every minute of it!

Today he also said:

• Mama Climb Stairs (he was at the top and wanted me to come up)
• Sit on chair (when he wanted me to put him on a chair)
• I want kitchen please (when he was upstairs and he wanted me to take him down).

It seems that yet again, almost overnight Wyatt is changing!  He is talking SO much in the last couple days it is crazy.  He is spontaneously using words and forming sentences on his own.

His brain is continuing to change even though we are not currently in the Brain Balance Program.  As soon as we get home we will be doing everything we can from home and of course get him back in our center as soon as it opens.  However, it is so comforting to know that he is still moving forward everyday.

When we get home we have a lot of work to do - A LOT, but I have hope and knowledge and proof that the boys will exactly where they need to be.  Our family has a beautiful road ahead of us.

Tomorrow we start the next part of our amazing journey!

Goodnight!

P.S.  I know that you can't view videos on your phone, but these are worth it.  When you get time, watch these videos and the ones from yesterday :)

 

THIS ONE IS AMAZING AND MY FAVORITE!

I'm So Happy :)

Today was a happy day.  All days have their happy times and some days have more hard times than others, but today was pure happiness.  Yesterday was a fun day, but not quite as happy.  Since stopping our Brain Balance sessions I had started to notice some strange behaviors from the kids (mostly Brody).  He has changed so much over this three month period it is crazy.  So - when I all of the sudden started seeing some strange behaviors or things he used to do, I must say I was quite freaked out.  When I talked to the center director and told her what was going on, she explained to me what was going on.  In short she said that once the sessions stop and the brain is no longer firing constantly,  that the brain needs time to synchronize and adjust to the changes that have gone on.  She said it is usually a roller coaster for about three weeks and then almost like a light switch, the kids go back to their new selves.

Well, the last couple of days were quite bizarre.  Brody has been more hyper, less compliant, more defiant and more emotional than he has been in over 4 months.  It is SO weird.  I am trying to be really nice and patient since I know that he can't really control what is going on, but it is still hard.  Yesterday he cried for 30 minutes because he couldn't keep his stuffed shark here and it had to go home in the car with Paige.  That is SO something he used to do and something he doesn't do at all anymore.  He is so mature, reasonable and responds typically to those situations.  Since everything Brain Balance has told me up to this point has been accurate, I am confident these behaviors will go away and Brody will be back on track in no time.

Before I get to today, let me just say that my kids were AMAZING in the car the other day.  They drove for FIFTEEN HOURS without whining, crying or complaining and with NO MOVIES!  I actually brought one movie just in case of an "emergency" and that is when I thought the drive would be 7 hours...   But we didn't even need it.  The kids read books, colored and even shared the crayons without fighting.  They really were amazing. 

Wyatt Hanging out and reading his book :)

Hazel coloring :)

Brody in handcuffs..... ?

After 13 hours they finally all fell asleep.

Hazel asleep falling out of her car seat.  Notice the giant stuffed shark with Wyatt's head poking out behind it.

Today was wonderful!  I still didn't get to sleep in, but that is nothing new.  The kids were up playing by 6:30 and Wyatt woke me up with his usual request for toast and bacon.  However, his requests have changed in the last week from "Toast Bacon" to Toast and Bacon" To a totally independent "I want toast and bacon please."  Awesome!  Spontaneous sentences!

The kids played with cousins all day, we ran to Target to grab some groceries and then went to see Cars 2.  Besides Wyatt getting a little loud and silly, the kids were awesome.  They all sat nicely and watched the movie.  Hazel fell asleep for about half of it though.

We came home and had a BBQ.  The kids all sat so nicely and ate their dinner without getting up, running around or being crazy.  Loved it!

As we were cleaning up dinner I looked out the window and saw the most amazing sight!

Brody was outside playing baseball with his cousins!  He never would have chosen that as his activity before Brain Balance.  He would have chosen to play with Legos, watch a movie or something along those lines.  Also, he never had the motor planning to really play sports or hit a ball, so he just stayed away from these types of things....  Not anymore!  He was outside hitting balls and I LOVED it!  I watched for 20 minutes and recorded almost every minute of it. Yahoo!

It gets better!  We thought the kids were in for the night and then I looked out the window and saw this!

Our darling little (big) boy was outside playing football!  They weren't technically playing the real rules, but they were having so much fun!  The next thing I knew they all had their shirts off.  I have just never seen Brody playing football with the boys with his shirt off - totally new and wonderful experience.  It is funny how even though I knew there were some things about Brody that weren't totally "typical",  he seemed pretty typical most of the time.  It isn't until I see things like this that I realize the things that have been missing.  The better social interaction (he was always talkative, but didn't always act socially appropriate or want to do what others wanted to do), the interest in sports and the same things as other kids his age and just basically the fact that he is acting more like an 8 year old. I can't even explain how happy this makes me. 

Now on to Wyatt!  He has been talking so much lately it is amazing.  His articulation is SO much better and he is spontaneously using more words and sentences.  He is a lot more connected and when someone says Hi to him, he actually says it back!  This has all improved so much even just since he broke his leg less than 2 weeks ago.  He has also been singing songs a lot lately and sometimes I catch him just singing to himself.  This isn't entirely new because he has always loved music and loved when we sang songs, but now it is different.  He is actually singing the songs HIMSELF even with some melody to his voice.  Also, his articulation is amazing!  He used to sing and you could tell a few words, but the rest was just jibber jabber.  There is still a little of that, but these videos are amazing!  I just recorded these tonight and I was even blown away when I watched them again.  This kind of stuff really does happen overnight.  I love it and I love Brain Balance!  Really, none of this would be happening without it and I fully acknowledge that.  These are not random coincidences or gains.  These things are all happening because Brody & Wyatt's brains are changing and it is remarkable to watch.  I can't wait to see them continue to grow and change.   I will love to look back at all of these posts after Wyatt is fully conversational and Brody is the star of the football team :) and remember when Wyatt was just learning to talk and when Brody was just learning to play football in the backyard with his cousins.

Goodnight!