Sensory Issues Update

A lot of times it feels to me that any progress Jake makes is just going to be counter-balanced with a new quirk or a setback in socialization or communication, and it's easy to get frustrated.

However there ARE some significant things that I can point to as progress, and I think it's important to celebrate those.  But there's a lot to talk about, so I'll do the extended post thing.

A young adult who works with Jake's Sunday School class told me a few weeks ago that he can tell Jake is acting SO much more social, as compared to earlier this year, and that he's communicating better.

At food school Jake still won't eat most new things, but he is getting better at TOUCHING them, feeling their texture, getting his hands messy (which before he refused to do) and is actually taking small tastes sometimes.  He has two new foods that he's learned to like and has asked me to buy so he can eat them at home -- Kix cereal, and veggie sticks.  The veggie sticks look like french fries, crunch like chips, and have three colors -- they're made of spinach, corn, and carrots!  He loves them.

Jake has always been terrified of Santa and refused to talk to him or even stand by him.  On Saturday we were at a Christmas thing at Jake's school (we went with Priscilla) and Jake not only talked to Santa, he SAT ON HIS LAP!  His talking was pretty much mumbling, but progress is progress.

I'm starting to realize just how detail oriented Jake is.  It's freaky.  He notices details that I would NEVER see (last year at Chick-fil-a he noticed a TINY PBS kids green symbol -- like 1/4 the size of a dime and he said "Look!  Booh-bah!" because that's the symbol that showed at the end of a Booh-ba program.)  He remembers so many things -- like which stories are in which video for Thomas DVDs.  (Each DVD has 6 to 8 stories.  And he can think of a story he wants to see, then tell me which DVD to find for it.)

Jake's also really getting into numbers and counting.  He reads EVERY number he sees, and then asks me what it means.  We were driving home from church yesterday and I hear him say "Four, nine, zero, one.  What that mean?" It was the address of a building, had big numbers on the side.  I think the left side of his brain works MUCH better than mine does.  LOL.

And now for the newest quirk . . . ya know how he's been acting like a cat lately?  (And this is after acting like a dog, forEVER.)  Well I think he's swung back around to being a dog . . . only instead of making dog sounds, he says the word "Barkers."  Constantly.  All.  the.  time.  And it means a lot of different things.  He told me it means he's counting his dogs -- he looks at a toy puppy and says "Barkers."  But it's also just a tic kind of thing -- just says it over and over for no reason.  Or says it in response to someone talking to him when he doesn't feel like answering.  And as I was putting him in the car to go to my mom's, I said "I love you" and he replied "Barkers."  I said "Oh, does that mean I love you?"  And he said "Yeah.  It means I love you and I miss you."  Umm, OK.

He's still doing the grinding his teeth thing.  I REALLY wish that one would go away.

And finally, there are days when words he hears simply do no make it from his ears to his brain.  I talked with Rachel, his OT, about this, and she said she's noticed it in therapy, too.  She has to say his name firmly and even grab his hands or face to MAKE him notice her.  She said it's common in kids like Jake -- who are sensory seeking -- to have so much going on that their brains can't process the directions fast enough and they literally do not hear you.  So you know, that's fun.