Headaches and Communication

Ouch!  I have a migraine this morning.  I have chronic migraines and take a plethora of medication to try and stop them from arriving.  Sometimes they are so depressing, no one likes to wake up in pain, I would say, when you have to go to work, but who wants to be in pain when you don't have to go to work either.

I always worry about my students who aren't able to tell me when they are in pain or maybe just feel plain weird.  Especially those with seizures or who have had changes in medications.  Since one of the medications I end up having prescribed to me are anti-seizure meds, I have some idea how they can stand you on your head, make you dizzy, tired or even make food taste lousy.  But how do you know when this is happening to a child who can't speak?  How often do I or anyone else think they are being stubborn or "non compliant"?

  Communication is a beautiful thing.








This picture communicates "cute".  And he makes my head feel better :)

P**p :)

The magazine The Complex Child, has an entire edition on poop this month.  Now personally I am not as interested in that subject as some of the Moms and Dads of my students are, it was never a problem I remember having with my own children, but I can definitely understand why this could be a huge worry for parents of children who have issues with their bowels in any way shape or form.

I do work on toileting in the classroom, we have an adaptive toilet that the children sit on each time they need to be changed or use the bathroom and we work on their dressing skills, as well as the other self help skills, such as hand washing.  We change the majority, if not all of my students, standing up and although I know this can be a difficult skill for some of my assistants to learn, I really feel as though it is more respectful to the children and also lends itself to learning new adaptive skills

Do we have messes???? Oh yeah :) we have messes sometimes, but really it's not that big of a deal and usually creates more laughter than tears.  This also happens when children throw up on you as well :)  I will never forget having a student barf all over me after I picked him up because I didn't think he felt well.  He didn't!  And he just kept barfing and barfing and my assistants just stood there with their mouths open in shock until I quietly asked them, "Could someone give me a towel?"  At least I think I was quiet. :)   His Mother  bought me vanilla scented lotion as a reminder of the vanilla Pediasure her son had just imbibed minuted before I picked him up. (She knows who she is :)

Here is the link for this month's The Complex Child.         http://www.complexchild.com/

Just try and see what happens.

I saw this video on my Facebook page.  It was posted by Circle 21-Down Syndrome.  It made me cry with happiness just watching it, so I thought I would share :)  It was the 2009 winner of Tropfest.

 

11 days to go.....

I am starting to gear up for the start of school.  We are getting a whole new system in place to write u IEP's and so on the first day we will be doing training on that system.  It's supposed to be much easier.  I hope so, it would be nice to only worry about what is in the IEP and not how the paperwork works!

I hate that summer vacation is almost over, but part of me is glad to get back into the classroom.  I definitely need structure in my life and I love watching my students change and grow throughout the year.  To some people the changes may not seem all that large, but every step a student makes towards independence and self determination is a huge milestone in my book

I am starting to get together my list of supplies for the parents of my students.  I usually ask for paper towels (you know the kind that actually absorb:), tissues and diaper wipes, both for bums and faces.  This year, I am also going to ask for an 8 pack of large sized crayons, a 4 pack of play doh and a self inking stamp with the child's name on it.  The last item may seem a little strange, but I would like even students who cannot write their name  to be able to lay claim to their work.  I think pride is a good thing when you have accomplished something.  I also think that the more they see their name in print, the better.

I haven't decided what to do about snacks this year.  Typically I just buy snacks and when I was teaching elementary school, my students used the money for their community based instruction to shop for snacks when needed.  If you are a preschool teacher, what do you do?

Off the Path :)

relaxing on their first day at the beach

This has nothing to do with teaching, just wanted to share some pictures of our vacation at the beach.  We were joined by my daughters, their husbands and our grandson!

Snacks!

beach shoes

 

 

 

 

sisters

friends!

Who Decides?

Recently I read a blog concerning the care of children born with either Trisomy 13 or 18, which are syndromes considered "incompatible with life".  The blogger was concerned that because the child, who was born with Trisomy 13, had a "Do not intubate" order, although the parents wished the child to be intubated if needed.  This was a child born without the common heart and brain issues that many infants with Trisomy 13 have.  The parents did not find out about the order until after the death of their child.

One of the things the Mother of this child mentioned was that before Trisomy 13 and 18 were identified, children born with these syndromes were much more likely to live than after these disorders were recognized.  In my mind this means that the medical establishment predetermines what sort of lives these children will have.

My first question is,who are these people who have the ability to predetermine the quality of life of another human being?  My second question is, if we feel that their quality of life will be so poor, what are we doing about it?

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against doctors for the most part.  But let's face it, most deal with a huge amount of information about diseases, illnesses, etc.  They are very knowledgeable people.  However, most know little about children with special needs and what they are capable of.  They also know very little about the quality of life of most of these children. I am not sure if I actually expect them to, however since they probably do not, I also do not want them to decide what my or any other child's quality of life may or may not be in the future.

I was at a TASH conference many, many years ago when I was pregnant with my second child.  I don't remember what session I was in, but there were many nurses in it who said they had witnessed a doctor simply let a child die immediately after birth because the doctor had decided the child would have no decent quality of life.  I made my husband, at the time, promise to be in the delivery room no matter what happened.

Getting A Whole Lot of Nothing Done!

Well,  I was going to try and write my blog daily, obviously that hasn't happened.  I have done some house cleaning and the other night actually was able to clean my upstairs carpet.  Good thing too, because along came that mysterious and evidently not rare enough storm that knocked out our power from Friday night until early Wednesday morning :(. 

Of course this had to happen during the week when temps were at record highs in the area and even though we have a pool, that my husband had just shocked the heck out of, you can only swim in it for so long when the pump's not working.  We eventually spent Tuesday night at a nearby hotel, which was heaven :).

Our poor doggy though was miserable because when the electricity did come on, all the bells and whistles of the security system and the smoke detectors were wailing away and there were no people at home to turn them off.  It's hard when you don't have opposing thumbs!

So I suffered a lot of internet withdrawal and now have a really good excuse for not writing my  blog. 

On Monday, I get to go to the doctor's with my daughter and see "pictures" and hopefully discover the sex of our soon to be second grandchild.  Modern technology is wonderful when it's working :).