New Year....New Strategies

Happy New Year! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written! Jackson has continued to progress behaviorally at school (thank heavens!). He's now able to sit in the classroom, sit in the reading circle during rainbow time, and even sit to participate in a lesson. Since his behavior is now "under control" we are now able to work on academics and have learned he's really behind, which is nothing new to us. So, he continues to work with his aide every day and also sees the resource room teacher and school OT and PT, which has continued to help.

We saw a specialist today in a town a few hours from our house - known as a developmental pediatrician and came highly recommended for children who were delayed. We have a friend whose son has autism and she really liked this physician. So, after 6 months of waiting for the appointment...our day FINALLY came.....I'll write more this week on what we learned - or didn't learn - and the importance of mother's intuition.

Deep Pressure Massage and Children with Behavioral Issues

The school OT suggested we use a technique known as deep pressure massage during the 2 week Chrismas break. It's my understanding that this is a technique that some OT's use with patients to try and stimulate the brainstem. The brainstem stimulation teaches the child to learn to "chill out" during very stressful times instead of having a tantrum, head-banging or swearing, which is more common for him.

So, we began on Friday night....every 2 hours when he is awake, we take a small brush (it's a surgical scrub brush) and apply deep pressure, similar to a massage, to his arms, back, and legs for about a minute. Then, we follow it with joint compression (I think that's what it is called) for all of his joints. So far, we've been doing it for almost 48 hours and he welcomes it. He likes to try and give Mom the massage - which I think is cute. We'll train his babysitter tomorrow to complete it when he's at daycare and then will work with the special education teacher to do it when he starts back to school. According to the OT, we'll count this period as a very intense deep pressure massage for the next 3 weeks. Then, after that, we'll only bring it out when we know he's going to face a stressful time - for example, the start of the new school year.

I have more information about deep pressure massage that I will post later. It is a technique that is very controversial and cannot be used for every child. If you think it may help your child begin to learn coping strategies, please engage the help of a trained occupational therapist.

Seeking Help From School for Jackson

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote, but it's taken quite awhile (almost 2 months) for the school to complete the testing and for us to learn the results.

Well, in a nutshell, according to the school psychologists, Jackson does not fall on the autism spectrum. We're not sure if that's completely true as he has a lot of behavioral outputs that are characteristic of some children with autism. Anyway, after much testing, they decided to qualify him for special education services (which I think are now officially referred to as the resource room) so he can have assistance in learning letters and numbers, writing, and reinforcing what the teacher is learning. He did qualify for these services under developmental delay, which is something we've said from the beginning. Our son seems to be about 1-2 years behind his peers, which is very common of children who have been institutionalized. He also qualified for services and help from OT (occupational therapy) and PT (physical therapy), so we feel like we may be making progress. More to come as we learn more....

Jackson seems to have "adjusted" to the classroom as his teacher reports he's sitting in the circle more often, playing with some of his classmates, sitting at the table, and fewer tantrums. So, we're optimistic that the teacher and his classroom aide have done a GREAT job in helping him. He knows all of his capital ABC's now and can count to 12 - sometimes 20 (on a good day). We're working with number recognition now.

Sensory Integration and Our Son...

I remember the day I took Jackson to our family practice doctor and explained all of the behaviors he was exhibiting in school. After a lot of talking (45 minutes and Jackson hadn't even fidgeted once!), he asked me what I wanted for my son. In my head, I honestly didn't know what we were dealing with - whether it was Sensory Integration (SI) or fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or reactive attachment disorder (RAD), autism or if he was just behind, developmentally - which of course he was -he was institutionalized for 2 years of critical brain developing years!

So, I asked our family physician for a referral to a pediatric occupational therapist as a result of my research and learning that occupational therapy (OT) was the most effective treatment for children with SI. And, there you have it! We've completed a sensory profile of Jackson and had the results interpreted....and, my gut instincts were pretty much spot on. Jackson has delays in most areas and exhibits almost all behavioral and emotional reactions as a result of not being able to process the information that his senses are giving him. A mother's instinct is always right!!! We are waiting an appointment to begin intense OT sessions - which I think he will thrive from and help him to understand.

We've been able to forward this sensory evaluation to his teacher and the OT through the school system to offer advice and suggestions to help him adapt at school. They've implemented little things: routine, taking him to the library when there is a lot of chaos in the room, reminding him that the bell will be ringing soon, accepting that it's okay if he doesn't "sit" down like all of the other children during circle, and giving him hugs to reassure him, even when he's mad. And, well, they've seen a significant change! Granted, he's not the traditional, well-behaved 6 year old, but I wouldn't want him to be!

So, if your child is acting out at school or wherever it may be, you may want to look up the signs of SI online and visit with your doctor and school! I'll continue to update you on what we learn through OT.

Research....research....research

I'll never forget leaving that first SAT meeting and thinking that the teachers were asking for help and I needed to do everything I could to educate myself and then share that information with them.

So, I started by calling our adoption agency to see if they had heard of similar challenges from orphans from Russia. Our social worker was very nice and referenced their own children and how they had been able to help them. However, I didn't really feel like the challenges we were dealing with was anywhere near what the school was seeing. Everything was so....vague. I asked if they had received calls from other families - and the answer....no. Next, I called the adoption agency who did our home study. The social worker there who has met Jackson was very, very nice and reassuring. She referred me to one of her staff to visit with me about attachment disorder. I kept saying, "he doesn't have difficulty with attachment otherwise he would have never attached to us NOR his new brother and sister." And, so, with that, I waited for the return phone call. And waited....and waited......

After many nights of tears, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I began researching the following terms: orphans, institutionalization, autism, sensory integration, reactive attachment disorder and even fetal alcohol disorder.

The more I read about some of the disorders, I thought that maybe Jackson had a few symptoms of several of them. However, the one that really stuck out for me was sensory integration disorder. I'll blog more about this later. It was clear to me from what I read that Jackson had every behavioral and emotional reaction to not being able to cope with sensory input. Further, it was very common for children who had been institutionalized to have this diagnosis. And, in my head, it made a lot of sense - after all, we had limited the environments he was in for the past 4 years. Where did he thrive? Small groups, in-home, quiet, etc. Where was he known as the "naughty child"? School settings where he couldn't process the information.

YEAH - we were finally onto something!

Jackson's First Few Weeks of Kindergarten

It's the start of the school year and our little guy is so excited to ride the big yellow school bus to Kindergarten! Off he goes and I sit buy and cry! I can't believe he's grown so fast...where did the past 4 years go? In my mind, it was just like it was last week when we were in Russia.

From the very start, I started receiving phone calls and visiting with his teacher about her concerns. She was seeing significant behaviors that had begun to affect the classroom. Here's what was going with Jackson: difficulty sitting in the bus and not standing on the seat; not able to be redirected when they asked him to stop doing something (like kicking the seat); not sitting in the circle; kicking chairs; head banging and head butting the teacher; swearing; full-out temper tantrums; angry voice; striking out at peers; refusing to write; etc. I remember sitting in our first SAT school meeting in mid-September and was heartbroken. Here was my son - the child who has overcome so much in his short life - being, again described as a monster. We were not seeing behaviors of this magnitude at home nor at day care. So, suddenly, I began realizing that the school environment was triggering something for him - look at preschool and now Kindergarten. Again, diagnoses were thrown out: autism, attachment disorder, ADD, etc.

So, as a parent of the only internationally adopted child within our district at this time, it became my crusade to educate myself. Over the next few weeks, I've done so much research on orphans who spent time in orphanages and the impact that has had in their transition to school.

As time goes by, I'll update you on what has worked, what hasn't, and resources that we have found helpful.

A Pattern Begins...

A year ago, we enrolled Jackson in a full-time preschool as we knew he needed a lot of structure, routine and more intense education than some of his peers where we lived. Initially, the teachers would tell us that he was such a good little boy. And, as you can imagine - we were THRILLED! Then, a few months passed and we were now hearing things like - "We're concerned about your son." When I asked what that meant - they threw out words like: autism, reactive attachment disorder, sociopath, ADD or ADHD. I was stunned - and speechless! They would describe this very, very angry little boy...which was the opposite of who we saw 90% of the time at home. (Don't get me wrong, he has his days!)

Some of the behaviors they referenced seeing were: head banging, full body temper tantrums, swearing, hitting himself, short attention span, kicking chairs, and not following directions. In addition, he had no desire to sit still in the circle nor did he have any interest in learning how to write. He could recognize his name and was beginning to recognize the alphabet, but he still had no interest in writing letters or coloring (besides all out scribbling). The teachers would report that the only thing that seemed to calm him down was removing him from the room and placing him with the 2 year olds and a book.

So, after only 6 months, we decided to remove him from this setting as it was only reinforcing negative behavior. We placed him in a new in-home daycare, where he again began to thrive.