LONG

Well last week Jojo had his PT evaluation at MISD. He struggled with some of the age appropriate skills such as jumping off of things, doing stairs independently and alternating feet, and getting up off of his back the proper way. He was more at the level of a 20-24 month old than a 30 month old on these skills. He also cannot get up on his toes because his feet are too weak. The outcome however was that he did not qualify for free services based on his score that they calculated. In each area he needed to get at least a 6 and wouldn't ya know it he got a 7!!! We just missed getting in, we will just continue to work on what we needs help with at home and go from there. If I feel that he still needs additional help we will just take his script we already have and go back to Beaumont. That will just complicate things as far as insurance goes, but we will see what he needs. I do have to comment that Joseph does have some really great skills the PT also noted. He throws and kicks very well. (great, right? isn't that what every mother hopes for? LOL)

Therapy this week focused on increasing his vocabulary of single words and starting to work on some 2 word phrases and actions of objects. For example he is shown a phone and he needs to be able to answer what we do with a phone---talk. This is very new to him and so he had a tough time at first. Once he gets someone to model a word for him he is able to imitate it I would say about 80% of the time. We are still trying to get him to say more words spontaneously, but he is getting better every day. Sometimes between Dave, Dominic and I, one of us is able to understand what he is saying, if the others don't. We are told by his therapist to try to wait him out when he wants something, but says no words for it. In the end sometimes we have to give him a model because he doesn't know how to initiate the word. Today at therapy he had a new set of word to try and they were the most difficult yet. Some of them were: tomato, potato, bandanna, poodle, and other objects. They were very complicated words for him and even with a model, they didn't sound close. I am looking forward to the progress on the new words just as he had on the old ones. One of his therapists suggested I teach him 5 new words a week and try to get him to say them many times a day until he can use them without us giving him the model. Then hopefully, they will become part of his vocabulary. The other little things we are working on are "w" sounds and the "nee" sound still. (bunny, money, honey etc)

I hope that makes some sort of sense. I have a million things in my brain today! It is one busy week! I'm wondering tomorrow for Thanksgiving what this child is going to eat. I can't think of one single thing that will be on the table that he will eat. Oh wait bread. Woo-hoo! He won't even eat the best part-pumpkin pie. He has never tried a bite of pie of any kind. It sure must look scary to him!!!

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving tomorrow. I know I have a million things to be thankful for. I couldn't have asked for anything more wonderful than my amazing boys, husband, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, family and friends. On the long drive to therapy today, the boys were holding hands while we were driving there and Dominic said, "Mom, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are holding hands because we are thankful for each other." Bless his heart. It doesn't get any better than that!!

Here's a video update! He really has been working hard. Some days it is still very overwhelming, but we are encouraged by his progress! Once things settle down this week I will update more thoroughly. (I've had Dominic home sick since Friday, that good old viral induced asthma kicking in again!) Dominic home sick means no therapy for Jojo so hopefully he can go back to school tomorrow! We have speech tomorrow and a PT evaluation on Thursday.

Jojo has started a new set of cards (words to work on) at the Kaufman Center. We are now trying words such as penny, dirty, muddy, happy and bunny. We have a list of about 30 words to work on this week. He recently started to call his brother Dom-eee. We all use that as a nickname for Dominic. He went from calling him Da to Dom-eee. It's very cute. The two things that we were working on the most at therapy so far this week are; again the second consonants in daddy, mommy, puppy, bunny and working on the "n" sound in the middle and end of words. He can say it most of the time on the beginning of words such as "no." When it is elsewhere in the word he turns it into a "t" sound. "On" becomes "ot" and "down" becomes "dot." He said a two word phrase spontaneously twice today during therapy. "More ball" and "put on." His accuracy on spontaneously naming objects with single word approximations was near 80% for the past two weeks Kendra told us. That means when shown an object, 80% of the time he tries to say what it is. (even if it is only a good attempt!) That means we have made great progress and will try even harder things next week. Well three sessions down, one to go this week! Next week he has an appointment for another PT evaluation. He is going to start going once a week to PT again. Still waiting to be reimbursed by our insurance company for his bills at Beaumont. Apparently Beaumont billed for the wrong therapy, billed speech when it should have been for PT, so insurance won't pay until that is fixed. His 60 consecutive days are up for insurance coverage for speech so now we have to start paying 20% of each visit to Beaumont and insurance doesn't cover treatment at the Kaufman Center at all. I am just so thankful that he is making progress, it is all worth it!!!

Go, Jojo, Go!

The past two days of therapy have been very encouraging. He has imitated a couple of two word phrases such as open up and open box. (with approximations but they sounded close!) On Monday we finally got him to say the second consonants in the words puppy, daddy and mommy. The only way he got them in was when Jenny would take his hand put it on her lips and have him feel the sounds as she said them. Then when it was his turn he had to touch his hand to his mouth and imitate her. He did it and it was very exciting for all of us! She hugged him and told him how proud she was of him! He hasn't been able to do it again since therapy yesterday, but eventually it will come! Today he fell asleep on the way to therapy.......he must have been tired because it was only 9am! (The boys have both been getting up a few minutes before 6:00 in the morning!) Kendra was really impressed with his progress over the past two weeks. She didn't see him last week, she was off on Tuesday. She couldn't believe how much he has improved in just two weeks. He was having trouble with the 'n' sound today, he wants to make a 't' sound. She would touch his nose to try to get the 'n' sound out. The most important part is to keep working at home with him, his therapists can tell that we do and it makes a huge difference.

Here's Elmo!