says Mother's day with Mom made Blankets

Okay we all know it; every day is Mother's day. Yet to make it special and memorable I sewed a gift for my son. It was a textured toy blanket. I had bought McCall's patterns on sale and loved this modified blanket. It’s easy to take anywhere especially good to sort of cover him when he is seated on the stroller. Say stroller blanket. The textures are great, made with different fleeces, rick rack ribbons, satin ribbons and stuffed with batting. Well the appliques are missing for the eyes and nose though... they will come shortly.

If anyone wants to try this here is the pattern nmber - McCall's Pattern M6525 Baby Blankets alligator bear dog cat lion.

Last month I made this weighted blanket and it servers so well during my son's nap times.
Especially when he is sick and needs rest. The blanket weights 10% of his body weight and thus provides a calming pressure. I have to thank Darlene who taught me how to sew and taught me with this first most beneficial project. I used prequilted fabric on one side and fleece on the other sewed several columns and rows and filled them with pellets and sewed them in pockets.

These were the work in progress pictures. Here I've already completed making the columns, then I start filling in with calculated amount of beads in each column and pin them in place and them sew a row across then I continued to fill the next row and sew it in place.

A closer look at the pockets. May look like too much effort, But it was really easy i made in within 2 weeks and that too this is my first ever sewing project. I felt so good because my son really benefits from this.

says Hadley.edu

Resources are mandatory when it comes to raising a special child. By resources I include every person, doctor, diagnosis, company, therapist, equipment, course, school that helps us in any way. Although my son's therapists help my son and teach me to help my son, the vision therapist gave me a sound advice on taking courses from Hadley. I recollect the saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". What my VT suggested was the same.

 

So when we moved to Dallas, that is just what I did until we could settle and get ECI restarted. I went to the Hadley's website and browsed the family education courses. http://hadley.edu/showCourseListing.asp?program=FE

 

Later I called the Student Services to help me determine which would be the right course for me as a parent to a visually impaired child. They helped me enroll into the basic course which was online; the materials arrived in the email with a note from my faculty. I could call or email my faculty if I had questions and once I’ve completed the course I submitted my assignment which came back with a grade and more importantly wise and honest feedback that gave me better insights on how to help my son. From then on I've been a proud student of Hadley.edu. I've completed over 5 courses online. Still taking new courses and I'm happy that what I learn is not just to pass some test but to actually see myself use it to help my son.

Let me tell you the best part about Hadley.edu

1. The courses are so systematic and precise and gives you practical methods that you can learn and apply in everyday life.

2. You can take the courses online, anytime, anywhere.

3. They are absolutely FREE

4. The faculty is just Amazing!

says lets turn on those lights

As part of the wonderful Sensory Learning Kit by APH provided to us by our TVI from the school district were the switches and the interruptors. We were so excited to try the switches with lights because lights are great appitite or hot spots from children with CVI.

The set up - if you want to do this activity during the day

1. The switch and the intrruptor provided in the kit.

2. Christmas lights

3. Red stuff, if your lights are not red then wrap them with mesh or net like fabric

4. More Red is good, like a red car screen

5. Try to make a black background using black table cloth and board pins.

says Sensory Integration really Works!!!

I used to try several things with textures, colors, smell and motion with my son but nothing so far had an impact maybe they did but nothing that brought any change in his attitude or reaction or response to the objects.
But as my vision therapist kept telling me to keep trying anything and everything we can possible get our hands on and who knows what could trigger his attention.
And really I’m glad I followed her wise advice and after 2 years and 3 months my son finally touches something and wants to keep going at it and to top it off he looks in the direction of the object, sees it and reaches and touches it.
God I feel so thankful now. I don't suppose there is a better word to say how happy I feel that my son could intentionally do something.

Okay this is what we tried, I just bought these microfiber dusters from Wal-Mart like on the 26th of Feb and on 27th I put the duster over a piece of black fleece fabric and left it near him, I never really hoped that he would touch it, by amazingly he brought and held his hands out over the duster and dropped his palm right in the center and started caressing it. Then he rolled over and tried more. oh boy what an achievement.


Here's to his success.

says Sensory Integration with Water

I've heard a lot about how children with CVI like to play at a water table. That water helps calm them down and helps them focus their attention.
Although my sons loves his Aqua Therapy and he loves to take bath and shows signs of anticipation when in the bath tub, he never liked the idea of playing at a water table.

I tried to add red food color to the water yet i did not get much of a reaction or response from him, he just wanted to get his hands out of the water.

Today I remembered that he likes to be scrubbed with a pouf when taking his bath and was wondering what could give him a similar sensation when playing at the water table and then i found the mesh bag that clementine oranges come in. So i just ripped them off the packaging and put that mesh in the water and amazingly my son started feeling this mesh under the water and he started moving it around. This is a great achievement.
I'm so proud of him and would love to share a video of his success.

says Ideas on Sensory Integration

The basic thing that I noticed with my son and his sensory integration concerns were the fact that he does not touch anything. There are several instances where he would pull his hands quickly towards himself when we make him touch a tactile object.

Our therapists suggested several things to provide him sensory input, the first thing we used was a therapy ball, it was a medium size ball and we still use this ball to rock him back and forth and also side to side. During the initial days she cried a lot when we put him on his tummy on the ball, but nowadays he has learnt to lift and in a small way balance his head when placed on the ball on his tummy. He actually enjoys rocking on the ball.

The second thing we started was a simple brush when he was around 15 months old. And till today I still use a therapy brush to brush his legs, arms and back after his bath. He reacts well to the brush, his body immediately tightens, he tries to pull his arms and legs closer to him and he even opens his mouth wide.

The next thing we tried was a small massager, the kind of thing you can get for say less than $10. We still use it, but my son does not show much of a reaction to it like I expect him to show signs of liking the mild pressure of the massager or he shows signs of discomfort but every time the reaction is varied and really does not come out clear.

We then moved to using rice and beans. I filled a large bowl with uncooked rice and some beans, we help Sripathi place both his feet in the bowl of rice and beans and move his feet around and press down on the rice, and also we pick up a hand full of rice and pour them over his feet. Again these kinds of tactile inputs are easier on him on some days. But there will be days he does not want anything to do with tactile objects. I will fuss and want his feet out of the rice as quickly as possible. I learnt that this is a characteristic of children with CVI. There will be days they cannot perform their usual and so we take it easy and give him a break or do something that he likes like reading a book.

I guess every child enjoys this vestibular activity, "The Swing". We live in an apartment so we don't have the privilege to hook up a swing to the ceiling so instead we went out and bought an exercise bar, I think from Wal-Mart. Since we don't carry many tools in our house we called the maintenance guys from the apartment community to help up nail the exercise bar between the door way to one of our bedrooms. We hung the Swing, a common little tikes swing from Babies-r-us on the bar. It worked out well and sripathi likes it. The swing as such provides sufficient sensory input, in addition to it my OT had suggested to ripe one layer off from a cardboard box and try to have Sripathi feel the corrugated side of the box. This is a very cheap and effective sensory tool. What we try to do is hold up the corrugated side of the board at the height were his foot can reach when he is swinging. So he will get to rub his feet over the corrugations as his swings back and forth. As this is again a very tactile activity we give him a break and stop using the board when he fusses.

Later my Speech Therapist provided Sripathi with a massager that looked like a purple Bat. We use this over his cheeks and throat to provide oral motor therapy. He likes it and relaxes to the soothing wings of the vibrating bat over his cheeks.
We also bought him a spin brush. With this brush we can say that his cooperation to brushing his teeth has increased by 10%. Apart from these we sometimes use a vibrating pillow while placing him on his tummy.

A recent addition to Sripathi's toy chest is the tactile ball, although I had this ball we never really played with it because sripathi did not like the feel of it. Later I received this link from wonder baby website. They have a wonderful video on how to play with the tactile ball and ever since we saw this video I play the pull - n - snap - way with Sripathi and he seems to tolerate the feel of the ball and even tends to look at it. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY9g7l43LJ8&list=UUWOZFOIF4IGqCbfFXhmLKbA&index=1&feature=plcp

We can play basketball! I just bought this small basket and soft ball from party city for probably 50 cents each. We sit in front of the mirror and I use hand over hand method to help Sripathi hold the ball, then placing the basket right in front of us I tell him "let’s put the ball in the basket" and then we throw the ball in the basket. I should say that the yellow basket in the black background (We had black towels, but you can simply use black trash bag)must be appealing that sripathi did give a good look a couple of times.

says Cortical Visual Impairment: Visions of change conference in June

Western PA School for the Blind is organizing a conference on CVI called the visions of change as part of their 125th year celebration.

Please visit their website for more information
http://www.wpsbc.org/18761083101838763/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=55228&18761083101838763Nav=%7C254%7C&NodeID=282

Little Idea Log will also be there for a presentation. We look forward to meeting more parents, therapists, specialists and many more good resources.
More about this in the future.