Thursday, March 11, 2004

Spring 2004

Spring 2004

Mason’s development has progressed a lot from where we stand. In three years he has gained about three months in age and abilities. We are so thankful that he has not regressed. The seizures continue to interrupt his patterns of learning so he tends to get stuck in typical 1 – 2 year old type phases for great lengths of time. He gets quite good at some of the little quirks like manufacturing burps. But it’s better than the ‘screaming to hear his own voice’ stages! A lot of climbing and exploring is on his daily agenda. Pre-school, and daycare before that, have been quite beneficial to him in learning behavior in the classroom and imitating his peers.

Mason is making tiny steps of progress. It all depends on how many seizures he has and how well he is sleeping. He has been sleeping a lot better this spring, sometimes even through the night. For the last three and a half years, his sleep has been interrupted by one or two seizures each night. But as his development progresses, he understands a little more and picks up a new word every few months or so. He is also getting more mischievous as he becomes more alert. Climbing as high as he can, checking the locks to try to escape (which happened the other day. We found him in the van on the driveway.) We have to keep an eye on him constantly. With a sense of adventure, trying new and practiced things with no fear or comprehension of danger, well . . . lots of work is what Mason is.

like ‘outside’, he bolts to the back door and starts crying if we don’t let him out. Other words that have the sThese past couple of weeks have brought us very nice weather and the kids have played outside a lot. Now we have had to start spelling a few words around Mason because he actually understands, quickly, some of the things we say!!! If we say words ame effect: ‘bath’ – runs to the bathroom door, ‘bye bye’ and ‘let’s go’ – cause him to hang on to his jacket or shoes if he can get them and sit and cry at the door to the garage. ‘Breakfast’, ‘lunch’, ‘snack’, and ‘eat’ and he’ll be standing crying at the gate to the kitchen. So he’s getting it! We are in the very early stage of using a Picture Exchange Communication System, where he has to give us the picture of what he wants (totally initiating it himself) before we give it to him. His speech is still very limited, but he babbles a lot lately. It sounds like conversation, but no real words other than and emphatic “no, no!”. Hmmm, does he hear that a lot?

We are still investing heavily into diapers, although we did have one little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. On his fifth birthday, Mason peed on the toilet at preschool after seven months of attempts each preschool day. It shocked him as much as anyone!
So the progress is there, discouragingly slow most of the time, but we are moving forward!