Some good, some bad

The NR program is going well, we're getting in a good therapy session most days and the boys aren't fighting it.  Sometimes they whine about doing all the crawling and want to not do all 12 laps, but we get through it.  We finally got the winch and chains set up to do SUSPENDED INVERTED ROTATION per Sarge's instructions.  It sounds so crazy, but the boys love it.  We have heavy-duty straps that wrap around their feet and ankles, we hook the straps to a chain and then hoist them up so they're hanging upside-down.  From there we can push them so they swing and spin and they can also touch the floor with their hands (depending on how high they are) and push and spin themselves.  I'll have to take and post a video so you can see - it's pretty cool.

DS1:
He has been very unhappy and frustrated with school and it's getting worse.  He hates that he has to go to school which wastes his time, he already knows everything and how can they add homework on top of everything else.  He would like to beat up whoever invented school and if he were in Congress, he would outlaw school.  sigh...

I recently asked his school for a reduced handwriting accomodation for his 504 plan and we were working towards getting the plan worked out via email.  The school psychologist then contacted me to say she was seeing some of the sadness and frustration I had previously told her about and she is concerned and suggested we have a 504 review meeting.  So we met last week with the teacher, gifted teacher, OT, mom, dad, DS1's psychologist and the 504 coordinator.  It was great to have all these people together and wanting to help Harry, but it was also sad to hear how he is so bright, but struggling.  It's not the academics, it's his frustration, anxiety, difficulty trying something new and lack of close friendships.  He gets along fine with his classmates, but often chooses to read a book or do his own thing instead of really engaging with the other kids.  The outcome of the meeting is that he can type anything longer than 2 paragraphs, but, more importantly, they will have a better understanding of how and why some things are hard for him thanks to the wonderful input from our psychologist.  He's just awesome and really 'gets' my son.  He's an older man with lots of experience with kids like him and working with schools. 

We explained the NR program we're doing and our hopes that it will begin to help Harry with these problems in time.  We are going to have him start seeing the psychologist more regularly since he seems to need that kind of support right now.

DS2:
He's doing well with his program and ok in school.  He's learning to read which is great.  He does show some dyslexic tendencies - like saying "Cam" when reading "Mac" and flipping his letters and numbers at times - but I'm not going to worry about that right now.

Tom had a follow-up appointment with the neurologist last week which went well.  We saw him over the summer for the first time as we were transferring to him from a previous neurologist we were unhappy with.  At that appt looked over Tom's case so far, did a quick evaluation and suggested we take a "wait and see approach" and meet again a few months into the school year.

The appointment was quick - we gave him information about NR and Active Healing and he checked out Tom.  He said NR was not well-known and not validated by research and double-blind controlled studies, but that it certainly can't hurt to try.  (I'm not sure how you could do a controlled study for NR since it's so subjective for each person)  He said he saw some nice improvements which was great to hear.  He did this test of motor planning where the Dr would put his own hands into a certain position and then ask Tom to copy it.  He did different ones getting progressively harder and my son did much better than before.  He didn't have anything to offer us regarding therapy or suggestions and wants to see him again in 6 months.  This will be another great way to see if the NR program is working.