Ryan Decided ..........

Today Amy his OT was telling Ryan that her sister has a job doing research about issues that Ryan is working on overcoming . As they sat there face to face talking on their blue mat in the OT room, I could tell he really wanted to say something to Amy... so I came over and he said. RYANS CALLING IS TO HELP DISABLED CHILDREN.RYAN DECIDED!

Wow.... we both sat there and Amy proceeds to list all the kids Ryan has helped and how each therapist he shares his voice with and RPM.. helps hundreds of children many he never even met..

So, awesome my son.....to want to help others..he will never know how proud I am of him today..

A Request from a Parent.. our life before RPM

A Mother who has children with Autism asked if I could post a blog of our life before RPM...so she could try to understand what our life was like. Will try my best. To be honest I really don't like to think about what our life was like then. Because for those years Ryan was trapped inside. As he told me when I asked him... "MOM I ALWAYS TRIED TO REACH OUT.

So, Ryan was never interested in toys, or books our being with other kids. We worked on PECS which was extremely difficult for him. Now I know why..he back then had an open learning channel ... Auditory ..so vision was difficult. But all along he was hearing what was being said. Focus was such a huge issue.. he would connect with me if I was tickling him or trying to hug him or swing him.. but then he was in his own world again.. I thought.. He for years did intensive ABA and hit more and more road blocks as he aged. The presentation again was visual and not based on how the brain works and sensory integration...Frustration was so high the older he got because he was cognitively understanding more and more and he was once again. Trapped.

Please learn this method. Go to Halo. buy the books.. do whatever it takes...find other parents.. who are Halo parents and start on this journey.........Ryan has his voice in a few short years He can now share all his thoughts feelings and emotions..I have Ryan and every word he letterboards is a joy.... remember you must move beyond what you already know of Autism and prove to yourself what works for your son or daughter.. It is educational NOT intrusive ( medical route) It is safe... The Autism world we live in is holding to practices many times and become positional. This is to the detriment of our children.. so you must do this on your own for your children.. you will come back to me and say....... LIFE CHANGING I HAVE MY CHILD NOW.. THEY HAVE A VOICE....PLEASE TRY... You can do this and you have a friend in me.......I hope this helps you to understand..

No! Not Vitamins!!!!!!

So driving down the road I was talking to the kids who were in the back seat.. We had not been doing well at remembering to take our vitamins .. so I said....How about once we get home everyone take their vitamins.. and Ashley chimed in with a big NO... no one wants to take their vitamins... in a sweetly sarcastic manner. Then.. here chimes in Ryan............. all these sound come rattling out of his mouth...da hah dee dee da.... and I said.. what did you just say........... and Ashley letterboarded with him


TERESA PLEASE RYAN TOO NOT WANT TO TAKE VITAMINS...

oh... yes.......he had a definite opinion as well...............

Then I asked him. why .. why don't you like your vitamins Ashley spoke and said......they are awful tasting and her comes Ryan

MOM VITAMINS TOO TASTE BAD

Well.. They made it all clear on how they feel about vitamins.!!!!!!!!!! Crack me up!!! .........yep.. Gotta throw the Mom card.... though they are protesting...... they are still taking them because vitamins are good for them..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So great moment... together talking...
What was cool about this moment was ........ Ryan just was pointing so fast and the conversation was flowing.. Our kids have so much to say.....thank God for the letterboard!!!

SNOWFLAKES POEM FOR SCHOOL

SNOW FLAKES AS COLD AS ICE
MANY SNOWFLAKES ARE DELICATE GODDESSES
CALLING OUT
TEARS TO THE LIVING
GATHERING IN TIME TO SEE THE LIGHT EVERLASTING
GODS FACE SHINES
TEARS HAVE EVERY FACE
GODS LOVE RAINS


many times we cry tears of joy.. together...and he understands joyful tears..he told me the other day tears mom are on face are happy tears.........he was right!

At our friends house .. he is so happy!

My dear friend has four children and there home is so lively.. Ryan said .. the minute he got there tonight. RYAN LIKES SO MUCH FRIENDS.. SO NICE ..

Then Mrs.X says ...So impressed you are letterboarding with all this loud music playing and he turned around before leaving .. and said.

RYAN SO TOTALLY COMFORTABLE DAD PLAYS LOUD MUSIC!

the kids give him knuckles and bys and hugs and he says

RYAN LOVES BEING AT x HOUSE............... I am so grateful to God for our friends........

BA BA.......................

So Ryan is being so sweet patient as he waits for his fries... and I said.. Ryan your fries are coming.. and he makes this big sound BA BA.. and I repeat BA BA as I grabbed the letterboard and walk to his green chair in the living room where he is sitting. and he I said..that was so loud what does that mean and he spells

MEANS............PLEASE.........................


you just had to be there.. so sweet ............my son........


I share this so other Moms with Children who can not speak..may believe the best about their kids....I would not have thought the loud BA BA meant Please.......

Battle of the French Fries!

" The French Fries!"

So the ongoing battle.. Ryan just LOVES french fries! I do baked fries on the stone in the oven for him. Well........many times Ryan will sit down right in front of the oven and look into the window and attempts to wait patiently for them to cook!!! More times then not, he will keep opening up the oven door and then I tell him..OUT of the oven... close the door.. you have to wait you have so many minutes until the timer goes off.....blah blah blah..

Well yesterday, Ryan just could not wait.......he opens the oven door snagged all the fries while I wasn't looking... I open the oven door and ALL the fries.. had vanished!! Well, I proceed to give him the lecture.. blah blah and always include the line about.. Mom does not want you to burn your hands and it is very dangerous... and get this.. Ryan says............................

RYAN IS VERY CAREFUL NOT TO BURN HANDS WHEN STEALING FRIES!

Yes.. a well phrased statement from my son the " theif"....OK.. that just cracked me up!!!! I love my son!

" Ryan can talk in Heaven"

Today is March 6th, it is 4:30 am in the morning. I am writing this so I will always remember this morning.... Ryan woke up ..so we started our day early. We have not been watching Ryan's favorite pastor Creflo Dollar lately, so I pulled up his sermon this morning. Creflo was talking about heaven and how the physical body will change to an awesome spiritual whole body.. pleasures in heaven we will have.. our bodies will be " decked out" as he put it... the perfect body..... on he went.sharing how exactly the rapture will take place... the changing of the physical body...the good news.. Well... Ryan is laying on the couch in his favorite blanket....next to me and he lifts up his arms and starts his happy happy sounds... and screeching.. I grabbed the board because I knew something was up... he pointed so clearly and exact..... here it comes... RYAN CAN TALK IN HEAVEN... I said Yes!!!!! Ryan in heaven YOU WILL TALK.. forever and ever.. and you know we are working on it on earth... I told him see God has good plans for us.. this life is only temporary... Then he spells to me after he jumped up and did his happy run back and forth through the living room... he says... RYAN SO HAPPY RYAN TEARS HAPPY.... PEACE GOD.... then ran off again.. I wonder what he was going to say about God.. I will let you know............ our children need the hope of Jesus ...Ryan and I learn Gods word.. every day.. and it has given Ryan hope and joy and peace..it is a good morning......

Ryan's Warning!

Yesterday I was at our RPM parent support group meeting which Ryan was there by the way.. said a few things about how smart Soma was and then split with Dad:) Well..hearing what took place when I was gone from Ashley and Paul and Ryan.... was the highlight of my evening ! I guess Ryan was upstairs by himself and decided to take a bath ( loves the water)... Paul and Ashley I guess tuned into this fact.. a little late.. and all of a sudden...they hear this loud screeching sound from Ryan. Ashley said.. Dad.. I have never heard this sound before...so yes!!!!!.....they ran up the stairs and there is Ryan standing up in the bathtub.... water just inches from flowing over the tub....Well.. Paul turned off the water ...opened the drain and took care of Ryan. He asked Ryan .. Were trying to tell us.. the water was about to flow over? This sound he made was so very odd..... He did not have a letter board in the bathroom..so.. they got dressed and in I come in from my meeting. I asked Ryan and this is what he said... RYAN TENSE RYAN LEAVE..( think is was going to say leave water on ..something like that) but continued on with this new thought) I will repeat entire sentence: RYAN TENSE...( RYAN LEAVE)........... SEE WATER RUN OVER. I asked him.. so you were trying to tell Dad and Ashley the water was running over.... he spells YES. He was running around our bedroom as I stopped him to get him to answer what took place..so his wording a little different .. but we got it!!! I am so excited...over the top!!!...........do you know why????.........again......this shows me how he is cognitively developing.... how his motor planning is coming together... sounds that never he did before........( PROMPT and all the sensory integration methods we use and of course key... how beautiful RPM is ) I jumped around like a crazy woman.. thanking Ryan for warning Daddy and Ashley... ..here it is ......he was so so PROUD of himself... he can speak out... he did want to do the right thing and NOW NOW.. WITH RPM... EVERYONE IS TOTALLY CLEAR ABOUT THAT POINT.. Before....... without a way to communicate with Ryan ....it could have been looked at like MAN!!!!!!.....another PROBLEM RYAN .. YOU ALMOST FLOODED THE BATHROOM!!! GET OUT OF THE TUB!!!! When all along he was warning us!! Our children without RPM are so misunderstood.. it makes me so sad.......... WE CAN NOT IMAGINE SPENDING OUR entire life trying to be heard.. and trying to get people to understand that your intentions are good. and that your trying... ..to only be left to suffer in silence......WE MUST STOP THIS...PLEASE SHARE THIS IDEA WITH OTHERS.. THERE IS A BETTER WAY TO GIVE OUR CHILDREN THEIR VOICE!! I am so grateful for RPM.... I will spend my life trying to convince people to try this method.. .... So.. on a happy end to my writing.. Ryan must of been having so much fun in the bathtub.. he likes his alone time ..he has told us... and for the water, he forgot the water level was rising... I've done that too!! I love my son...thank you God for Ryan.

Winter Jewels and IsoscelesTriangles and More!

Had a great lesson today... Ryan is so easily reading off the computer monitors theses days. had 9 different triangles and hand to determine if they were right triangles isosceles or equilateral triangles.. got them all correct!!!! Then they gave him word problems to figure out length of sides of triangles. Again..so easy for him .

This was a poem Ryan had to read in literature today. I asked him to interpret the poem in his own words...


Winter Jewels
A million little diamonds
Twinkled on the trees,
and all the little maidens said,
"A jewel if you please!"
But while they held their hands outstretched,
To catch the diamonds gay,
A million little sunbeams came
And stole them all away.
- Mary F. Butts

Ryan's interpretation of this poem:

YOUTHFUL MAIDEN TO TELL HOW SNOW MELTED. HOW UPSETTING

So, I asked him what is the metaphor in this poem. He spells:

TALKS KIND OF ABOUT SNOW...ON LIKE TREES AS JEWELS.

A very enjoyable school day!

OH!

So we just finished with our online class.. There is one other boy who does rpm and Ryan and the teacher in the virtual classroom. She teaches for one hour on a virtual classroom site.. with a white board. Ryan and the other boy are in different grades so she divides the screen so each boy can show their work... and many times gives different levels of work for each boy.

Well the teacher did only one math word problem for both boys to solve today. Ryan got one answer the other boy got another answer. So the teacher, trying to make the one boy feel better about making a mistake... talked about how she makes mistakes and how mistakes are fine... and kept trying to reassure the boys that the mistakes are just part of life...



Remember Ryan is more auditory than visual.. so she didn't actually say aloud and emphasize who made the mistake (again, as to not upset the other boy).. Well, she fixed the mistake on the boys side of the white board.(visual) The session ends and Ryan immediately is upset.. He starts crying and I said what is wrong? RYAN IS UPSET MADE MISTAKE? Let me tell you ...that was the furthest thing from my mind.. I of course was thinking he was sick of learning.. NOPE... He was upset he made a mistake in Math. So get this... I looked right at him and said NO ....... it wasn't you Ryan....xxx made the mistake and your answer was correct. ... He stopped crying.. I mean immediately.... instantly smiled.. yes .. a smile!...and spelled ...get this ... OH.. hands me back the pencil. It was so appropriate and his smile so appropriate.... yes.. it was so typical.... in expression and comment and remember ..he is auditory... so she really never said clearly who had made the mistake.

What is most important is this has NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE I have never seen him act in a way that he was able to shut off his emotions so quickly and to combine a smile and a comment that was so direct and percise as it relates to the situation. I believe the pathways and the connections in his brain are becoming more integrated, do to the choice of sensory integration techniques we have been focused on.(Speech,PT,OT,RPM)
Yes, one incident .. however in the last 4 months family and outsiders have noticed an increase in the pace of cognitive processing he exhibits.

His senses are being integrated .............. I am no doctor but to see this happen is a milestone for Ryan in my opinion.