Assessment 2018-19: Beowulf
If we were traditional school people, we'd have enrolled Beowulf in Kindergarten this year.
But we're not.
And we didn't.
He wasn't ready.
Instead we spent the year focused on 3 main jobs:
1. Get him psych testing and a diagnosis.
2. Finish toilet-training.
3. Solidify preschool skills.
I'm delighted to report that we've done all three . . . mostly.
We got the psych testing ball rolling last August, and we got a diagnosis this April. The clinical psychologist interviewed me for a couple of hours and ultimately limited her testing plan to 2 areas.: Autism and ADHD. Beowulf did not qualify for an Autism diagnosis, but he does have severe ADHD--so severe that his non-verbal skill scores pulled his IQ from a high-normal to a below-normal number.
His ADHD is called "combined-type," meaning he is both inattentive and hyperactive.
His diagnosis took longer to achieve than Ladybug's or Brother's, so they were the guinea pigs who proved to us that stimulant meds, usually a very effective treatment option, would not be a good idea to try with him. His doctor kindly allowed us to skip the suffering that would have ensued and went straight to guanfacine, a non-stimulant medication approved for ADHD treatment.
Other than getting very sleepy as he adjusts to the med, Beowulf has responded well to it. He's still busy, busy, busy, but his attention-span has increased by a few minutes, and he calms down faster than he used to. With coaching, he is able to use words to explain what's wrong when he's upset.
As of this writing, June 2019, we are happy to stick with guanfacine as an aid to our at-home behavior modification efforts for coping with ADHD.
Even though the sleepiness caused by guanfacine does affect goal #2--toilet training.
Shortly after his 6th birthday, I started to think that Beowulf was fully toilet trained. We stopped buying pull-ups, and he was dry day and night.
The initial dosing of guanfacine caused both day time and nighttime accidents for nearly two-weeks, but then it cleared up.
Increasing the dose caused the nighttime accidents to come back, and his doctor gave us a bed-wetting alarm. I don't love it because he's very sensitive to sound, and I feel the alarm going off is a punishment rather than a guide. We've used it twice, and I'm leaning toward leaving it off, because I feel like having him clean up his own mess is a better teaching tool than nighttime terror.
He's grown from not caring or noticing at all that he's wet to caring a little bit--at least enough to want to be dry and to be happy when he's high-fived for remembering to use the toilet during the day and waking up dry in the morning.
And goal #3 was to solidfy preschool skills.
One reason we had Beowulf tested was because Lola and Baymax were passing him in social/emotional, cognitive, fine motor, and speech/language skills.
He's doing very well at identifying emotions; I've actually had to hide smiles a few times as he's raged at me saying, "I'm angry at you! I'm furious! I'm so, so, so, so mad!" Yes, it's sad that he's screaming and crying and hitting and spitting and spending time on our porch to keep from breaking things, but the fact that he can match words to his actions is so encouraging!
His ADHD often keeps him from following adult requests, but he has developed a desire to obey. If the request is routine enough, he is very successful. For example, he gets up, gets dressed, and picks up the living room most mornings without too many reminders. He also knows how to use the toilet, wash his hands, and hang up the towel as long as one of his brothers doesn't distract him. He's not as successful at cleaning up toys in the yard because there are too many distractions, but being on his med is helping him to be less angry when we direct him back to what he should be doing.
He is not a successful negotiator yet, but I've heard him make an effort many times. For that progress, I'm profoundly grateful (because at 6 1/2 he's getting bigger and stronger, and the hit-and-take method of getting what he wants was starting to cause real damage).
In the Speech/Language category, Beowulf has mastered all of the items on the 3-4 list. This year has been a growing year for narrating/story-telling. He can tell the story of a physical experience much better than he can tell one about a story he's heard, but I see him paying attention and making connections now that he could not at the beginning of the year. His history drawings are usually on-topic, and if he cannot manage a narrative sentence, he can manage a coherent identification sentence about what he's drawn.
Beowulf is sensitive to sensory input. He seems to seek proprioceptive input and be bothered by auditory input. However, he is developing all of the skills from the Sensory list above. His fork/spoon skills do continue to improve . . . even if we are still often discouraged by the amount of food that does not make it from his plate into his body!
From the Cognitive list, Beowulf has improved his ability to recall parts of stories, and as described above in the Emotional/Social paragraphs, he's following 3-part directions that are familiar routines. If the directions are new, he needs 1-2 step directions in order to succeed.
He has awesome Gross-motor skills. Oddly, we have noticed this year that his core strength is not what we thought it was. He climbs and swings and rides a bike, but he loses his balance at odd times, and he cannot do a sit-up. I'm encouraging what core strengthening playtime activities I can, but it is on my radar to follow this up with his doctor in the next year or so.
Beowulf mastered all of the items on the Fine-motor list this year. We worked a lot on scissors and pencil skills. He's come so far--from barely being able to copy a letter on a large white board, to making all of the letters (capitals and lower case) on his own.
Beowulf is making lots of progress on this 4-5 chart, too.Social/Emotional
We've worked on following group rules with rewards and consequences, and he's doing much better than he used to. We had no progress at all over anger/frustration and tantrums until he started his med. The violence had become dangerous and almost endless, but now we're down to tantrums just once or twice a day, and there might even be days without them . . . but I can't remember one off-hand.
His ability to independently dress himself, do simple chores, and play are increasing.
Speech/Language
He's got all of the skills on the chart, as long as I'm generous about "Understands most of what is said at home and at at school." Yes, I think he understands most of what is said--definitely not all.
Sensory
He's got it all except independently toileting. He still needs reminders to use the toilet, though he does go without reminders at least a couple of times each day. He cannot clean himself up after a bowel movement yet.
Cognitive
He's got it. He joined Lola and Baymax for preschool this year. They were a fun little class of 3, and he now knows all of the names and sounds of all of the letters, can match capitals to lower-case, knows all of the vowels, knows short- vs. long-vowel sounds, and is reading simple sentences. He used Shiller math and language arts products for a short time last fall, but settled happily into Easy-Peasy-all-in-one-Homeschool's Getting Ready 1. He also completed The Good and the Beautiful Level K Primer, and he's working his way through The Genesis Curriculum Big Step workbook (which uses the McGuffey Primer).
Numbers make sense to him. He's great at counting. He likes to find number patterns.
Gross-Motor
He's got it all, except skipping.
Fine-Motor
He can do all of the things on the list. He's awkward and slow about doing them all, and it can take many tries to get them right, but he does get them done.
Beowulf is participating in increasingly meaningful ways during Morning Meeting and Academy. He raises his hand to share connections he's making between stories and life, and the connections are often sensible and insightful. He's improved from repeating a single noun or verb as a narration to sharing a full sentence that is grammatically correct. He likes history stories about heroic actions, and he likes science experiments--the messier the better.
Beowulf is all boy! He's in nearly perpetual motion most of the time, and if it has an engine or wheels it is the coolest thing ever! He has a loving heart, and he shines the brightest during our simple gospel lessons each Morning Meeting when he jumps with delight at a familiar scripture story or song. He likes to help. He likes to do physical work. He likes to build. He's both fascinated and repelled by babies (he can't take his eyes off them, and he speaks to them in a cute little baby voice, but when offered the chance to hold one on his lap, he almost fell over in trying to get away), and he likes to go on outings with Dad just about the best of all.
Both Beowulf and Brother strike me as Fetal Alcohol kids so much. Their challenges are so familiar to me. However, the diagnosis does not matter that much and there is lots more services and support for ADHD and Autism than FASD anyway. It just really makes since why some of the ADHD medications haven't worked so well. Our Katie couldn't handle any kind of ADHD meds. You are simply a remarkable mother. I sure it doesn't feel that way at times, but you truly are. You are doing so much to improve your children's lives.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn