Random Thinking

It has been so busy around our place that I haven’t had time to blog. There is so much I want to say and I just haven’t had time to say it.

Last Wednesday was Mikey’s 10th birthday. It’s hard to believe that he is 10 years old and that I have had Mikey as part of my life for a decade. At the same time, it’s hard to remember life without Mikey! This last year has been a year of exceptional growth both mentally and emotionally for Mikey. We have seen him take such huge strides and we look forward to more over the next year. In September he will be starting a first grade curriculum including reading and math. We see him now getting ready for both where a year ago it seemed like he was still so far away from being prepared. He is so much more able to control himself both from self-injurious behaviors (like head banging) and from injuring others although he is still a little aggressive with hitting. His self-help skills have increased and his frustration levels have dropped.

Communication has always been a problem because Mikey is mostly non-vocal. He understands everything (sometimes we forget this because he is non-verbal) and communicates using PECS (picture exchange system) and signs. But after the Easter/Passover break, he started bringing home a DynaVox. This is a computer that allows Mikey to press pictures and it speaks for him. He is adapting to it incredibly fast. Yesterday, he came to me and used the DynaVox to say, “May I have some cookies?” They tell us he is learning to use it very quickly at his school. Our local school district is paying for the device so we did have to jump through a few hoops to get it but now that he has it we think it is really going to pay off in improving his ability to communicate and to reduce his frustration levels.

One of the things we have done since Mikey’s last birthday is to stabilize his psychiatric medications. Mikey sees a psychiatrist every month and we have been working together to find exactly the right medication to help Mikey control himself. The medications he is on now seem to be doing the job very well in helping him control himself, concentrate on his tasks, and help him sleep at night. We have also started Mikey on a product called MSBPlus. MSBPlus is a nutritional supplement that is supposed to be especially designed for people with Down syndrome. I have no idea if it actually works or if it has anything to do with the changes we have seen in Mikey, but we aren’t going to stop giving it to him, at least for now.

I am incredibly happy that Mikey is a part of our life. Yes, he can sometimes be frustrating and he requires us to plot our lives around him but that isn’t much different than any child. We can see that he works very hard to learn and his achievements make him very proud. They make me very proud, too.

I have pictures to post from Mikey’s birthday. I will try to get them up when I get home tonight.