Noelle's mom : )

[Guest guest]

,

Congratulations on the accomplishments of how much Noelle can do . So

hugs your way for that . I enjoyed reading this . Thanks also for

sharing about the Samonas Sound Therapy , glad its helping Noelle .

Do you think that Noelle will be able to use a portable cassette tape

player with headphones when out in public restroom ? Yes, something

does sound like something had happened at school to make her

regress . When the time is right she'll come along on the toilet

routine . I would still try to take her to the restroom slowly with

diaper on and a book just to get the hang of entering without any

struggle . Also have some type of rewarding chart at the door , she

sounds like a pretty smart cookie . No forcing of course , so when

summer approaches then you can concentrate on the actual toilet

training . Have you've tried potty videos or potty training books ?

If you have tried this route , the timing has been thrown off , so

yes , until she is ready again . Ok , sorry no help , but you know

here when you need to share or vent . Take care .

Irma, 13,DS/ASD

> Hi,

> I went back and read my original post and realized I did not have

one

> positive thing on there about my daughter! Her name is Noelle. She

is

> actually doing really well with many, many things, but the ones

that I am

> having trouble with are just becoming very frustrating for me.

>

> She does have many words in her vocabulary and her speech is coming

along

> well. She has apraxia so her intelligibility needs some work

because of the

> way she makes the sounds. But she is able to combine words into

simple 2 or

> 3 word phrases... " daddy eats sandwich " , " Nick is running " , " mommy's

shirt " .

> She can tell me when she wants things " I want xxx " . She is also a

very

> talented reader. We did that " love & learn " program with her that a

parent

> put together and after doing the series of 6 sets she has lots of

sight

> words and can read beginning readers. This is her wonderful,

wonderful

> strength!! And she loves to read. She goes to a private montessori

preschool

> where they also encourage early reading and she thrives in that

area.

>

> Other areas that the montessori work on are hard for her...the fine

motor

> stuff, the language intelligibility etc., but we pay for the

schooling since

> we had many problems with the public school system and this made

the most

> sense to us for now. We are very happy with this school and that

she has the

> opportunity to go there. Some of her areas that are difficult

(besides the

> toilet training! ) are auditory processing. She can't seem to

process

> questions such as " how old are you " , " what is your brother's name " ,

and

> " what is your name " is a recent gain. However, she knows all these

answers,

> but it's as if the question gets stuck in her brain and she can't

translate

> it into an answer.

>

> I think the reason the toileting issues are frustrating me is that

she is

> almost 5 and has some skills that are really great and maybe my

expectations

> are too high. Right now we are holding off. We worked on it during

summer.

> She got to the point where it was such a battle to get her to go

into the

> bathroom so I probably messed up (she's my oldest-I also have a

> " just-turned-2-year-old " named nicholas). She was to the point

where she

> would pee but just not poop on the potty. She can hold pee for a

long

> time--3-4 hours--so that was a positive thing.She would never tell

me she

> had to go, I would take her and she would sometimes go. I guess I am

> thinking ahead to those automatic flushing toilets, hand dryers,

etc. &

> wondering what to do once she's trained at home.

>

> The diaper thing concerns me. I almost wonder if when someone at

camp,

> school, etc. changed her she was traumatized for some reason. It

makes no

> sense to me that she's fine at home with being changed, but in

certain

> settings out in public places it's so horrible. There aren't

usually loud

> sounds in the places i change her. (Not that loud, like in a huge

public

> bathroom). Something happened at the public school that *did*

traumatize

> her once (unrelated) with how a teacher was trying to get her to

use the

> words " help me " and I guess I may be slightly paranoid.

>

> She does wear headphones & we have been trying the Samonas sound

therapy for

> the sound issues but not noticed any major benefits in the sound

area. Her

> climbing skills have improved exponentially and apparently the

therapy is

> supposed to help vestibular / motor planning skills which it seems

to

> possibly have done (WHO KNOWS!)

> Sorry to go on for so long--but thought I would elaborate on not

just

> noelle's weaknesses!!

>

>