Bill the Annoying

Language update

December 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 pm (Damien, New, Talk, Uncategorized)

Well Damien has been diagnosed with a “Language Disorder”, rather than a “Language Delay”. A language delay will go away with time, however, a language disorder is there forever. On the plus side we know what we are dealing with and while language will always be difficult for Damien, he would still be able to graduate from college, some aspects will just be more difficult for him.

If you think about language as a brick wall, most people use various bricks to build the wall they need at the moment. Damien is having a hard time seeing the bricks in the wall, he just sees walls, so he tends to build prefabricated walls.

The way to help Damien is Speech Therapy, which will help give him a wider range of prefabricated walls to use, as well as special tools for Damien to begin building his own walls.

Originally our insurance was not going to cover the the Speech Therapy, because even though Damien was diagnosed with a Language Disorder, the insurance company classified it as a Language Delay, which they don’t cover.

Well Olya kept after the Insurance company, and no we have the go ahead for 40 sessions next year. Our doctor is suspicious though, so she has scheduled only three of them so far, and they take place every other week, just in case the insurance company changes their mind on covering it, at least we won’t be out too much money.

I am just happy that Damien is getting closer to getting more assistance that aid him in communicating with his peers and brothers.

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Books and Crayons

December 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am (Damien, My Kids, New, Sergey, Xavier)

I decided to take notes on paper about what the kids do, because as soon as I go on my computer, they they start acting out. So with a note book, I can just jot down some things while I am watching them, and the note book in much more portable, and takes less time to set up, no spell check but those are the breaks.

Currently (as of this writing) the boys are acting great. Damien is reading a book to Sergey, while Xavier is spinning himself silly in the swing. When the story that Damien makes up is over, they sings songs, such as the ever popular “ABC’s”.

Sergey is actively encouraging Damien to read to him, he often takes several of Mom’s books off the shelf and sneaks them over to Damien for translation. Being as the books have no pictures, Sergey has no idea what the books are about, but that doesn’t stop Damien he doesn’t need pictures to make up a story, just a book.

Xavier did make a big mess by grabbing a container of crayons and dumping them on the floor, then trying to spread them around evenly. It is partly the other boys fault as well, as one of them did not put the crayons far enough out of Xavier’s way (this is something that we have been working on with them for some time, so it is expected).

Since they are so good now, I don’t feel like busting them at the moment that would send the wrong message, I just wait for them to act badly, I don’t expect it to be a long wait.

Minutes later…

Everyone was given a plastic container, and told to pick up the crayons. After a brief legal battle with Damien and Sergey, cleaning did take place, even Xavier helped pick them up.

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To Kill a Toothbrush

December 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm (Damien, New)

A while back we went to the Dentist with the kids.

Damien was not on his best behavior, as he would not open his mount for the dentist to get a good look.
So we will have to take him to a dentist that focuses on children for him.

The kids all got new cleaning kits, complete with toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss.
When it came time to brush teeth, a fight broke out over who would get to use the green tooth brush.

Since Sergey was given the green toothbrush by the dentist, and Damien the blue one, we decided to stick with that. Needless to say Damien was not happy with this. That is Damien’s logical thinking reared it’s ugly head.

“Papa I can’t use the blue tooth brush“, said Damien, “It’s broke“. Damien held up the blue tooth brush which now had a 90 degree bend in the neck. “See“, he said, “I have to use the green one because this one is broke“, and he made a grab for the green toothbrush. “No it’s OK“, I said, “it just got bent, by accident, here let em straighten it out“; so I straighten the blue brush out, and used it to clean his teeth.

The next night the blue brush was broke again, on this time more permanently, he had snapped the head of the toothbrush clean off. So I brushed his teeth with the broken end of the blue brush and still wouldn’t let him have the green toothbrush.

The day after that, Damien had to go to the bathroom, but since Sergey was in the downstairs bathroom, Damien decided that he must use the bathroom upstairs. After a few minutes I checked on him, and found him closing the drawers in the bathroom, and running out as soon as he saw me. After a moments inspection the coveted green toothbrush was now also broken, having it’s head removed.

So that night during teeth brushing time, we talked about how you can’t just break things to get what you want. I also gave Sergey a new (more solid) green toothbrush, and continued to brush Damien’s teeth with the broken end of the blue toothbrush. After brushing I put all the toothbrushes away in the linen closet, because even though the new green toothbrush is more solid, so is Damien’s determination, and I think the toothbrush would lose that showdown.

I did tell Damien that if he is good, that Santa will probably give him a new toothbrush.

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Icicle

December 19th, 2009 at 1:47 pm (Damien, My Kids, New, Sergey, Xavier)

So I let the kids out to play in the snow, after they got in their snow suits.

A short time later I hear an “Ow!” First from Damien then from Sergey, then alternating back and forth.
When I check to see what is going on the are both standing under the eves of the garage, and looking up.

Me: What are you guys doing?
Sergey: Icicles are falling and hitting us in the head.
Damien: Ow!
Sergey: Ow!

Then the both laugh as water drips onto their faces.

After that they wanted the colored chalk, so I got that out for them.
That is when Xavier wanted out, so I had to get him dressed, in his snow suit.

Of coarse that is when Sergey wanted to come in, so I told him to ask his brother to open the door for him.

Sergey: Damien open the door for me.
S: Damien! Opeeeen the doooor for meeeeee!
Damien: I hear you, I’ll be right there.
Damien open the door for Sergey.
S: Thank you.
D: Your welcome.

Then Damien and Xavier color with chalk outside.
Damien was doing a very good job making a picture of a tree house, I think it is form “Go Dogs Go”, do to the giant ladder that he had going to the top of his tree. He also used lots of different colors, in making the pictures, and was able to tell me a (very) brief story about the picture.

Xavier had fun adding to the picture as best he could.

Xavier didn’t last long, but it was a start. It is always good to get the kids moved to different activities and if possible a different local.

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