Plan B

Okay I have been busy praying over a plan for my girl. I have spent every free moment I have researching treatment options and been using all this information to formulate a comprehensive whole person plan for my girl.

Nobody but my mom (and maybe Randy) will probably be interested in this....It is long and probably TMI.....Don't say I didn't warn you!

So......in my research I have learned that because she has Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Dyslexia these may be the symptoms and not the root of the problem.  The root may be a neurological issue that needs to be addressed.  So I am going to try to address it neurologically.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is
is a motor speech disorder.  Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables and words.
This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. The brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g. lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech.The child knows what she wants to say, but her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those sounds.

Dyslexia is
a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.
These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

If you notice the underlined parts of both definitions have to do with sounds.  Saying sounds and hearing sounds is at the root of both Apraxia and Dyslexia.  If you also notice from the bolded parts of the definition they are both neurological in origin.  If you notice the blue part of the Apraxia definition you will see there is also a physical component.  So obviously I am not a doctor, a professional, a therapist....etc. but I do see connections.  I have researched a lot....

So here is my Plan B:
First I broke down each aspect of my daughter that needs to be addressed.  I came up with these categories:
Spiritual, Mental, Physical, Emotional

THE PLAN

Spiritual

• Pray for God’s intervention in her neurodevelopment Every. Single. Day.
• Find and claim and pray scripture over her.

Mental

• Independent scientific, replicated research supports the use of a reading and spelling system that is simultaneously multisensory, systematic, and cumulative with direct and explicit instruction in both synthetic and analytic phonics with intense practice. Which is what the Susan Barton’s Tutoring System is!!!!

Physical

• There is some sort of a connection with balance and reading/speaking/academic improvement. So I am going to try to make daily schedule of balance skills: Wii Fit using balance games, trampoline activities, balance board, koosh ball throw left to right while balancing on one foot, gymnastics.
• Evidence shows brain function improvement with adding fish oil supplements containing omega 3 fatty acids, Efalex, and Bee pollen in addition to regular muti-vitamin.  So I'm going to make sure with their pediatrician, Pepaw, a bee keeper friend, and a nurse friend of mine that this would do no harm....but if it won't and I can get a dose recommendation I plan to implement this within the week.
• Work daily on bilateral integration.  What is bilateral integration?  This is a fancy way of saying coordination between the right and left sides of the body. In the grand sense of the term, it means everything that our body does across its mid line. This means any signals sent from one side of the brain to the other. It means the two eyes tracking a flying ball together. It means coordinating the muscles on both side of your trunk and neck to twist around and look at something behind you while seated. Likewise, it means using those same muscles in more subtle contractions to keep your balance while you walk and run. It means being able to move your tongue side-to-side in your mouth (Common problem with apraxia) because the lateral muscles on either side of your tongue work together. In the area of fine motor, people are usually talking about using the two hands together or else about hand dominance when they talk about bilateral integration. However, all of these areas are interrelated, and someone who has significant bilateral integration dysfunction will probably have a cluster of difficult areas such as balance, smooth eye tracking, and coordinated use of both hands together, and possibly language processing delays as well.
• Listening Fitness with Lift…..WAY too expensive….but I’m going to work on this because I think it will make a HUGE difference….in SEVERAL of my children! http://www.listeningfitness.com/ explains more if you are interested.

Emotional

• Talk about her strengths: Dyslexia is often called "the gift of dyslexia" because these children's left brain hemispheres are often much more developed then "normal kids" which make them extraordinarily good problem solvers, extremely creative, and very visual with unbelievable gifts in seeing things spatially to the point that some archetecs actually seek out dyslexics.  I want to conciously point out her strengths.
• Read her children’s books about kids with dyslexia…I have found several recommendations online that I want to get her for Christmas.
• Teach her about famous dyslexics and their accomplishments: Alexander Graham Bell, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Ansel Adams, Stonewall Jackson, Cher, Winston Churchill, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, George Washington, Henry Ford, Agatha Christie, Walt Disney....and MANY more!
• Teach her how to respond to mean/uneducated people.

How you can pray:

• For me to diligently work the plan.
• For me to be able to convience someone to let us "borrow" their Lift for a few months.  PRAY I can find and make a connection with some kind soul. I'm going to work on this Monday....
• Praise that we live in a day and age with so much information, technology, and resources available!

Footnote:  I will be using this plan for Twinkie Boy too.  He also has Apraxia....and most likely dyslexia.  I just get overwhelmed when I think of how much they both need!

THANKS!  If you read all this...you are a trooper or a nerd like me :)

I like have a plan....now I've got to figure out how to fit it into our day!