We finally get all the paper work completed for his “big” Evaluation with Damien Korb and dropped in at the centre to be sure they received it.  Within 10 minutes I receive a call to schedule an appointment, wow great news hopefully this will be the final piece in the puzzle to get the CPT code so that we can get help from the insurance company.  The date is set so fingers crossed.

Slight change to schedule this week.  Elliot has a field trip in the morning so we schedule the OT and SLT for after the trip in the afternoon.  Elliot is very excited to be going to see his therapists he really seems to be enjoying his sessions.  He takes great pleasure telling Miss Joyce that he had been sick in his bed at the weekend and proceeds to show her his buzz lightyear plaster also.  What difference a few sessions make he is very chatty compared to other sessions and warms up really quickly to Joyce.  She seems to have really tuned into what Elliot likes already and sets up a bucket swing for Elliot and they pretend that he is buzz lightyear.  He loves this idea and as he is swinging backwards and forwards he is given lots of different types of balls to get into the net on the wall.  After this another exercise to improve his balance and co-ordination, having him climb ladders and pretending to be in a castle so he can jump down again.  Which of course he thinks is great as he loves jumping.  As with other sessions he is nicely warmed up for his SLT sessions especially after the squishes Joyce gives him.

We now head to SLT with Miss Christie.   We recap from next week and discuss phonetics and letters of the alphabet.  It is difficult to be clear exactly what issues Elliot has with his speech as I spend so much time with him that I don’t always notice something right under my nose.  So I would agree it is far to say that the Speech and Language sessions are as much of a learning curve for me as Elliot.  It seems a lot of Elliots problems are not that he doesn’t know what to say there is just too much to say and he is struggling to access all the words together.  SO for instance when you ask him what he has done at school he wont really answer.  Miss Christie introduces us to a method of helping him access the information and get talking.  I guess it is a little like a mind map we start at the beginning of the day or a time when we know he is more receptive to sharing information with and draw pictures and work from there.  Also it starts to become more apparent that I am really not helping Elliot by finishing sentences for him or accepting a request with it being spoken correctly.  An example of this would be if he just points at something and says please.  Rather than accepting this I make him ask for what he wants.  If he isn’t very clear with his words I help him pronounce them and encourage him to describe things to me as well.  We go home with a few exercises to help Elliot strengthen his tongue again say L’s and words ending in LL

Monday morning starts off like any other Monday.  A quick prompt to remind Elliot that he has his play group with his friends, Hayden, Derek. Sameer, Miss Debbie and Miss Susan.  Elliot is definitely used to the idea of going to his session at TSSV however  I am still concerned that he is not taking part as much as he could.  I guess Elliots social issues are going to need a lot of attention.  In the meantime his notes from group session pretty much confirm the same as previous weeks:

Elliot: Session 7

• Cheers: with structure and prompting, participated in activities. Continues to be quiet in group, but more engaged with peers and activities,  Really enjoys physical play
• Challenge: maintaining group peer play, speaking to peers.

With this in mind we head to PTS for an open evening regarding summer sessions that they have available that might help Elliot.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that there are any sessions that will tie in with the TSSV session and the Maui holiday plus we decide that Elliot deserves a break over the summer.  It was a great opportunity none the less for Elliot to be able to show his Daddy where he goes to play on a Friday and for Simon to meet his Therapists.

The week is pretty much uneventful and I am having one of my many “am I imagining that Elliot has problems” until Thursday morning that is.  Whilst playing at home with his hot wheel cars he cuts his finger on the car launcher.  The cut on his is pretty minor it is near his knuckle so a little awkward and bleeds a little as he bends his finger but nothing to dramatic.  Not to Elliot though it is a really big deal and he gets so upset and is crying so hard he is almost screaming.  I pick him up and sit him on my knee and hug him really hard and try to sooth him.  I had a pain reliving spray that I manage to get on his finger in between the screams.  He has nearly calmed down that is until he bends his finger and it starts to bleed a little this really freaks Elliot out and the screams start up again.  I then have an idea we have lots of plasters if you’re American and reading this “Bandaids” ;o) some of which have Buzz Lightyear on.  I suggest to Elliot that Buzz Lightyear will sit on his finger and look after his cut and make it all better.  As Buzz is his hero he thinks this is a good idea, with the plaster in place we manage to get to a slight sob and within 5 minutes he has clamed down.  Phewee that was a 45 minute session over a tiny cut.  OK self doubt gone Elliot definitely needs this assessment so we can reassure ourselves that we are doing the right thing.  With all the upset Elliot has decided he is not going to school because his finger hurts too much.  It just goes to show that certain things really throw him off track.  I decided not to press the situation and told him that it would be a good idea to still go and with a little more encouragement I managed to get him to go at 12.15 as usual.  What a morning…..