New Psych

Today we went to a new psych. He does a combo of meds and talk. I set my expectations *extremely* low - given how much luck we've been having lately - it seemed justified. I wasn't displeased with him, nor am I giddy with joy we've met him either. The Girl went semi-psycho, which is good, therapists tend to look at parents crazy like when the kids don't. I did appreciate that he talked to her like a person. Some don't. Some do that "Hey, puppy dog, don't bite me, there's nothing to be afraid of" kind of speech pattern. That tends to irritate me. He doesn't have any good, magic ideas or solutions.

I've noticed most - if not all - therapist have a *thing*. A reason all people who have problems are messed up. A lack of food as a baby, inattention of the parent (there's a story for another time with that one), lack of sex in marriages. Apparently, this guy has decided that "The Girl's pain of potty training and issues in that aspect and continued issues with this are causing her anger and self-esteem problems". And "She shows no signs of Aspergers." Weeeelllll... Okay, well you have clearly never met her for more than 15 minutes then now have ya?

Now, the good of the last of that statement? The years of social training is working!! Fantastic!! She talks, she stayed on topic(ish), she looked near him as she spoke. I doubt she looked him IN the eyes, but close enough to fool his ass. Good for me! We've been working for just that for years. Literally, years. I honestly couldn't be prouder of her in that aspect.  Could she do that for longer than we were there? Na. Would it have worked if I wasn't in the room? Probably not. She sees me and it reminds her of the *rules*.  But, honestly, it doesn't matter if that guy thinks she has Aspergers or not. We know she does, it doesn't change anything.

Another, nit picky, thing he said that just irritated the hell out of me - is when asking about her meds - he asked 3 times if we'd given her a stimulate ADHD medication before. No, we haven't. She's already on anxiety meds, and sleep meds, and other mood meds (which is why we're there: to re-evaluate the meds) and on the third time I say that the only stimulant we've ever given her is coffee. Nothing else. She's been evaluated to have ADHD, we did not assume it. We don't treat it, nor say anything about it being an issue of any sort. He stops writing and turns to me and says "It's never been proven that coffee is a test for ADHD" umm?? Ok? Jolly then.. How about that psych test you all dole out? Does THAT? Yeah, ok then.

The one this I did like is that he correctly identified that her constipation is still an ongoing, chronic issue. He provided a do-able daily solution to resolve it. Now, is this creating deep psychological problems? I'm seriously doubting it. Massive, serious doubt.

He inquired if we had a councilor for her. When I answered I'd been trying to find one with availability, but having difficulty - he simply said "Oh". I would have suspected so sort of suggestion of where to look, a name, a firm. Something. A bit disappointed  there. I mean if you know a great shoe store and you know someone is looking for shoes - why not hook the 2 up?

We go back in a couple, three weeks. I am a bit curious what he'll do when we *cure* the constipation, but lo and behold The Girl is still neurotic. Could it be that poop is NOT the cause of all her problems?!? Oh. My. Will his world shatter?? It would be pretty amusing, I must admit.

School Revamp

We homeschool year round. The kids are about a grade and a half of where they are supposed to be in pretty much everything except handwriting. They are MASSIVELY behind there - and will probably never ever catch up. They both have dysgraphia and we've even been sending The Girl to occupational therapy (OT) to learn ways to strengthen her hands, learn new ways to teach her, typing programs, and other ways to help her circumnavigate this. We've been working with  The Boy on these things as well because you can't read either of their handwriting STILL. Well, come to find out (and I had a suspicion) a couple of weeks ago as I was asking Girl some questions about what she was doing in OT because the report from her therapist had been rather vague. That "it's SO fun" but she wasn't *learning* anything we weren't already doing at home and HAD NOT been the entire time was what I gleamed from the conversation. I asked her about several aspects of things that she could be missing. Nope. She wasn't missing them. They just weren't being done. Our insurance doesn't cover OT really at all so we've been paying out of pocket for it. Which, if they are teaching her things and is beneficial, I don't mind one single bit. BUT. I do not want to pay $120 a week for a glorified babysitter to play games with my kid to teach her jack shit. I can pay myself to play with her. I love the OT we use. She has helped us a tremendous amount where it comes to The Girl's sensory issues, behavioral issues, stimulation issues. But this is clearly NOT her best work. So, as of this week, we are again therapy free. And I broke up with them over email because I am a complete and utter pansy. So, instead of leaving my house every Wednesday at 2 to get home at 4:45 to 5 for a 1 hour appointment. (Yes, 3 hours for a 1 hour appointment.) we are now freeeeeee.(And $120 per week less spent.)

Both kids have also had medication changes within the last month. The Boy has gone from not talking to *anyone* but people in the family, to most people he knows. I'll take it! He'll actually go off and play with other kids almost like a real kid now.  The Girl stopped sleeping again so we changed her sleep meds and found out she grew and out grew her dosage levels of other medications so we upped that slightly. It's only been one day on that so hopefully she won't go all wonky and turn into the Poltergeist child permanently. 

But one of the biggest changes is their school. I keep wondering if I'm leaving something out of what I've assembled for them. Whether on accident or by my own biased and preferences. So we're trying an alternating schedule of what we had been doing for the last while - just dividing the full schedule up into slightly smaller bites, not even dividing the days in half - and adding in Easy Peasy Homeschooling in too. Because the work, even at their accentuated grade levels, is too easy for them on the Easy Peasy. But, from what I've seen so far, it focuses on some folk lore, story telling, and game playing so it teaches in a different method than what I normally use. It's a religious based instruction, but since it's online we can take and leave the parts we don't want.

The Boy spend his time on the math online puzzles today instead of Lego Star Wars on the Xbox. *shrug* I figure religiously based or not, I'm ok with it. Plus, I don't feel like I'm going to be leaving SO much out if they are getting things for another source as well. It all goes back to the inadequacy we all tend to feel this time of year when people all talk about *planning* and *curriculum* and such. They do SO well with what we've got set up, I don't see a reason to screw with it much. But they LIKE the computer a lot I figured we would give this a go. I don't want all their stuff on the computer. That seems... like a bad idea.. but if they'll do MORE because some of it's on there.. Ok.