Thanksgiving Play and a Logan Update

Dylan had his Thanksgiving play at school this afternoon. Andrew worked from home so Logan could have his normal nap, so I was at the school manning both the video camera and digital camera. I only got a couple of photos, I was too busy taking video.

The words to one of the songs they sang (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star):

Turkey, turkey, look at you
please be careful what you do
Thanksgiving Day is almost here
We eat turkey every year
Go and hide out in the woods
We'll eat pizza as we should.

Tonight Andrew will try to help me download the video and post it (or part of it) onto the blog. I have not mastered that technology yet! But until then, here are a couple of photos. The kids were so cute and they practiced their songs so hard leading up to this day. Adorable!

In Logan news, I never know exactly where to begin. He continues to recieve speech and occupational therapy services through our counties' early intervention program. We are now looking into the possibility of him attending preschool thru the county school system next fall after he turns three. Its quite a process of paperwork to see if he's eligible, and we won't know for several months. He has always tested borderline for speech delay, so its always a struggle to obtain services for him. It takes a lot of convincing those involved that his behavior and sensory issues seem to delay his ability to progress in his speech.

There's really so much more to it than this, but its an exhausting and ongoing series of therapies, discussions, research and more therapies. We've backed off taking him to Kennedy Krieger for the time being. And instead, we're focusing on sensory integration and occupational therapy OT). A friend of ours has put us in touch with a private OT (as I've mentioned, OT is not often covered by insurance companies for early intervention with young children) and we have just set up some appointments with her and Logan. We'll have to pay completely out of pocket, but if it can make a difference in his overall behavior and ability to self-regulate, it will be worth every penny. He currently only receives the county OT services 2 times per month and speech therapy 2 times per month - that is all he qualifies for according to them. Their resources are spread very thin across many kids in the county. We thought pursuing private OT for him more frequently (i.e. at least one a week) might progress him more quickly. So, we're taking him to see the private OT this Friday morning. I'll report back on that.. She came highly recommended and we have high hopes this might be a really good thing for him. The sensory integration stuff is fascinating to me, and I've been reading so many books and learning more and more. I think everyone has some sensory issues to some degree. Logan's are just a bit more out of whack, and we need to help him mature those areas.

He does continue to make progress in some areas of speech and behavior, its just coming very slowly. We'd love to see him get completely up to speed and be able to attend regular preschool next fall alongside all the other kids his age. However, if special education preschool is an option and seems to make sense for him 8 months from now, we'll certainly want to consider it.

We had another interesting development with him this week. We learned his frenulum (the flap of skin between his upper lip and gum line) is very low. At first we thought this might be affecting his pronunciation of some sounds. I took him to three pediatric dentists and an oral surgeon. They all agree (as does his speech therapist) that peforming a frenectomy (when they snip the skin) on a child his age is best done only in every extreme cases. He'd have to put under anesthesia because he'd have to remain perfectly still. And of course there are always risks with anesthesia. So at this point, the specialists are recommending we just hold off. This condition might correct itself as he gets older. Its not causing discomfort or any health issues. So I think we'll just leave it be unless something changes and we have to address it. So many kids have this condition, we're learning its actually very common and most often left untreated.

Logan sure does keep life interesting around here. Dylan had many, many ear infections and ultimately, ear tubes, when he was a baby. Those days seem so long ago and so easy compared to what Logan has going on in his little world. But he will get through all of this, we will get through all of this, and someday it will be a distant memory. They grow up so fast.