Update

Riley has done lots of things since I last posted for him.

In May he attended his first birthday party without parents. His friend's dad took him and some of his friends to a college baseball game. Riley was really excited to go and did very well.

At the beginning of June Riley finished Kindergaten. He is reading at grade level and did well in all subjects except writing. We are trying to continue to work together on his writing and his reading over the summer. We joined the Summer Reading Program at the library so that we can get a backpack for Riley to use next school year. He is doing very well and we are about a third of the way done, but he enjoys me reading to him rather than reading to me!

We also finally got a time slot for physical therapy. We only have it through the end of August, but some time is better than none. We got lucky with the physical therapy because he has never been evaluated for PT, but was somehow put on the waiting list. He did end up qualifying for PT because his age appropriate skills are good, but when he has to slow down and do more complicated steps, he cannot do them.

For a summer activity Riley has attended three weeks of gymnastics day camp. He enjoyed the first and the last week because there were a lot of kids that attended those weeks. The middle week, he did not enjoy because there were only four kids including him. His gymnastics skills have greatly improved this year. He is able to do some moves on the trampoline like the seat drop. He was hanging on the bar over the pit and was able to hold on with one hand and switch directions on the bar and put his toes up before dropping into the pit. He is able to do forward and backward rolls and jump over the mat with his hands in cartwheel position.

The clothing issue for this summer is Riley would like to wear pants everyday. He likes his uniform of white t-shirt and blue jersey knit pants. He tolerates wearing shorts on most days, but usually puts up some fuss.

Riley has a new friend in the neighborhood. He is a boy that is 3 years younger than Riley, but they have a lot in common and play very well together. They both have a crush on the same girl, but have kind of moved away from playing with her to playing together much to my happiness.

Parent Teacher Conference

We went to Riley's parent teacher conference, and I was pleasantly surprised. He seems to do well in reading and has a great deal of background knowledge about everything, but has a great deal of trouble with writing and the sound he hears in writing.

Both of his teacher had stories of background knowledge that only Riley knew as a kindergartner. His morning teacher said that he was the only one who knew what a moat was in a Katy story. His afternoon teacher said that she read a book about the president and at the end there was a picture of the Statue of Liberty, and Riley was the only one who could identify it and tell everyone that it was in New York City. (He has never been to NYC.)

His reading level is a level B. He is expected to be at a level C by the end of the school year. He also seems to have a grasp on his sight words. He has 40 to learn this year and another 60 next year. He just got his last set of 10.

We discussed Riley's sideways vision issues, and I outlined what I have done with regards to specialists in dealing with this issue. We also talked about the sideways vision of the uncles and some of Riley's generation. I talked about how I had read once that it was a sensory issue; trying to block out too much visual imput.

The teachers felt that we should work on Riley's writing and writing the sounds that he hears in words. I believe that it is a good idea and will work on it with him. We are all at a loss as to what else to do and hopefully, IAT will have some new ideas.

OT Again

We had to stop OT for awhile because Riley started going to school all day. We finally got a new time slot and he goes every other week now.

I am starting to see the discrepancies between Riley's abilities and the abilities of the typical kindergartner with regards to fine motor skills. Riley's school just celebrated the 100th day of school and as part of their celebration, they had to color 100 small things on the numbers 1, 0, 0. I use to use this sheet when I taught, and I know what I expected from my students and the way that Riley colored this sheet would not have been acceptable for me as a teacher. We really need to get to work on improving his coloring.

I can say that he seems to be doing well with the Handwriting Without Tears program that the OT started with him. He seems to get that system and keeping in the space that it gives. I see his handwriting when he comes home from enrichment and because they use a dot to tell the students where to start, his handwriting is a mess. The fine motor needs to become a priority.

I am meeting with his teacher on Monday and I am somewhat anxious to see what she is going to say. I know about the fine motor, the lack of ability to follow directions, and being easily distracted. I know that he has made some improvements because of his oral knowledge, but I do not know if they are going to be enough. He has already been referred to IAT, so I am waiting to see what they are going to say also.

I still mostly believe that Riley has mostly sensory issues although the book that I am reading right now says that SPD is not recognized by the DSM, and therefore is usually a secondary diagnosis with a primary diagnosis of Autism, Asberger's, ADD, etc. Maybe I should have Riley evaluated by a clinical psychologist as was suggested at his end of the year IEP conference last year since they knew that Riley still needed services, but was not eligible in the school setting and therefore graduated out. I think I am going to wait until after the IAT meeting to tackle that one.

Clothing

Clothing has been a problem this year. Riley has decided that he does not like anything with collars. He wears long sleeve cotton shirts with ease especially those from Land's End. They are a great quality shirt that I do not mind spending the money on because he will wear the shirts in all seasons. I bought pants for Riley that he will not wear because they are not soft. I have found that he likes sweatpants and jersey knit pants that I have found at Sears. Anything else and he complains.

Riley spent all summer in tennis shoes or barefooted. He would not wear sandals. Now that the fall is here, he is wearing all of his tennis shoes even those from Stride Ride that he didn't like in the spring; they felt funny.

I think that Riley has a tendency to like clothes that are a bit small and tight fitting. He may need that extra sensory input. I was going to give away a jacket that he would originally not wear because it is now too small and suddenly Riley has decided that he likes it and has worn it everyday for the past week. I bought his winter coat a little big and I think that I might have problems this winter with either the bigness or the bulkiness. I did take the lining (fleece jacket) out of the winter coat and that has helped with the bulkiness, but he will probably complain until he grows into the coat.

Clothing is something I have chosen not to battle him about. He started to wear short sleeves this fall after wearing long sleeves most of the summer when he should have been wearing short sleeves. I let him wear the short sleeves, and most of the time he chose to wear a sweatshirt jacket over his t-shirt.

Occupational Therapy

We finally got the call for Riley to start occupational therapy. We started on July 15th and the OT was able to give us some good pointers.

The first day we talked about some of the things that had changed since he was evaluated. This OT was honest with me and stated that Sensory Issues were not her specialty, and she was not sure why she was given Riley except that he might not have had a specification on his OT scrip. She was helpful in providing me information and activities for Riley to do, but eventually, we will have to change OTs in order to help Riley more. I was just glad to get off the waiting list. The pointer from this day was to have Riley use a broken crayon to write with so that it would make him use his fingers more and strengthen them. We also talked about the use of obstacle courses and the crab walk to help with the motor planning and development.

The second visit the OT tested Riley's grip strength and the strength of his fingers. At the age of six the grip strength is suppose to be 32 lbs. Riley's, at five and a half, is 16 lbs. The OT gave us some putty to work on finger and grip strength. She also gave us some ideas for heavy work activities and proprioceptive activities to work on Riley's awareness of his body position.

The last two visits I have not been able to take Riley to. I have had to work. But, from what I have seen from his homework, it seems like she is continuing to work with his fine motor skills and obstacle courses for gross motor skills.

Smell v. Hear

I was in the bathroom this morning, and I asked Riley to come into the bathroom to brush his teeth. When Riley got to the bathroom, he told me that he could not brush his teeth because the smell in the bathroom was disgusting. I turned on the fan to air out the smell, and Riley turned off the fan because it was too loud. He tolerated the smell and brushed his teeth without the fan.

I think the smell was the lesser of the two evils with regards to his senses. He could tolerate the smell better than he could tolerate the sound of the fan.

Long Sleeves & Long Pants

I am having trouble with Riley wanting to wear t-shirts and shorts this season. He likes the cold weather and somehow thinks if he continues to wear long sleeves and long pants, the weather will cooperate and get cold again.

I know that seasonal change in clothing is a sensory problem also, but I have not found the solution to addressing the problem. How do I get him to wear t-shirt and shorts when it is hot outside? I went and bought him a new pair of shorts today that were very comfortable feeling and I told him that some time soon we will have shorts day, and he will have to wear shorts. He said okay. I asked him if he would wear the shorts that I bought him today, and he said yes. I hope this works or you will see my son sweating like crazy this summer!