Liam and Seamus are off from school this week. Liam is on his second day of a 1/2 capsule of anafranil. Jill has said she has not seen really any change in his behavior. He has been unable to stay with any task he starts for even 2 minutes. He constantly wants movies changed, a video game hooked up, and on a tv he is not watching he wants Disney. When he does not get his way his behavior is whiny and angry. His tantrums of crying and being upset would last a short time, but they kept repeating throughout the day.
Liam has continued to pick at his gums. I looked at it when I got home from work and his gum area on the bottom row of teeth, on his left side, were very red and sore. We are continuing to monitor this and trying to stop him when we see him touching them. Liam did something new today that Jill watched for 15 minutes. He would position his forehead on the berber (sp?) carpeting like he was going to do a somersault. Instead he would push himself around the carpet with his feet. Hi forehead then had what looked like rug burn, but was simply just red from what he did. He no doubt has some sort of input in doing that.
Liam took 9mg of Melatonin tonight before his bath at 7pm. Afterwards I could tell he was already feeling sleepy. He was asleep by 8:15, so today the melatonin worked. We will continue to monitor this.
Jill and I also were talking about Liam's report card from school. Liam is in the Olmsted Falls Center Based Pre-school program. Liam has made some progress, but one area in which we totally disagree with is the school's OT. Liam enjoys swinging like most other autistic children. It is a way for him to organize and calm himself. The OT does not believe that he needs to do it any longer. Jill and I totally disagree with this. We now need to look into this further and will probably end up meeting with Liam's teachers and OT to discuss his IEP, and look at making changes. Liam currently receives 1 hour of OT per month through the school and 1 hour per week through Lifeworks at Southwest General Hospital. Doctors recommend at least 20 hours per week of therapy for Autistic children.
We are fortunate that my health insurance covers this at a $20 co-pay per session, 30 sessions per year. We figure by August we will be out of therapy sessions for Liam. Paying for them out of pocket will be about $225 per session. When insurance runs out, we need to figure out what we can do until January 2006 when he can resume therapy at Lifeworks. Interruptions to his routine like this are hard for him to adjust to, as they are for all autistic children.
Liam has continued to pick at his gums. I looked at it when I got home from work and his gum area on the bottom row of teeth, on his left side, were very red and sore. We are continuing to monitor this and trying to stop him when we see him touching them. Liam did something new today that Jill watched for 15 minutes. He would position his forehead on the berber (sp?) carpeting like he was going to do a somersault. Instead he would push himself around the carpet with his feet. Hi forehead then had what looked like rug burn, but was simply just red from what he did. He no doubt has some sort of input in doing that.
Liam took 9mg of Melatonin tonight before his bath at 7pm. Afterwards I could tell he was already feeling sleepy. He was asleep by 8:15, so today the melatonin worked. We will continue to monitor this.
Jill and I also were talking about Liam's report card from school. Liam is in the Olmsted Falls Center Based Pre-school program. Liam has made some progress, but one area in which we totally disagree with is the school's OT. Liam enjoys swinging like most other autistic children. It is a way for him to organize and calm himself. The OT does not believe that he needs to do it any longer. Jill and I totally disagree with this. We now need to look into this further and will probably end up meeting with Liam's teachers and OT to discuss his IEP, and look at making changes. Liam currently receives 1 hour of OT per month through the school and 1 hour per week through Lifeworks at Southwest General Hospital. Doctors recommend at least 20 hours per week of therapy for Autistic children.
We are fortunate that my health insurance covers this at a $20 co-pay per session, 30 sessions per year. We figure by August we will be out of therapy sessions for Liam. Paying for them out of pocket will be about $225 per session. When insurance runs out, we need to figure out what we can do until January 2006 when he can resume therapy at Lifeworks. Interruptions to his routine like this are hard for him to adjust to, as they are for all autistic children.
posted by Jim McIlwee at
8:46 PM
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