Feb 27, 2010

Adrian @ the National Home Show.








The washer is so much bigger/taller than Adrian.


Adrian was totally amazed at this ladder demonstration. He was so fascinated every time the demonstrator changed the ladder into different shape and put it in different use. Adrian must have thought this is the "Transformer"!


Feb 28, 2010

Adrian had a breakthrough at today’s skating class that he was finally able to incorporate the balancing technique and “skate” without the walker. Even though he still needs help to get up whenever he falls down on ice, he’s making good progress! Let’s hope he can keep up the good work!



Feb 25, 2010

Adrian missed the 2nd school field trip (to an Indoor Playground this time) and went for his M.M.R. vaccination instead. The grandparents were nervous at the beginning (because of all the tandrums at doc’s office last time), but it turned out Adrian behaved exceptionally well today! The shot was given in Adrian’s right thigh, and he didn’t even shed one tear or let go of one sound!!!! The doc is being extra cautious this time – apart from having us fax her a letter of consent form for this live vaccine shot, she also had grandma call Mama to go over all the possible side effects relating to the shot. We hope Adrian will keep this up because there are more shots waiting for him in the months to come. Next two shots on the list are scheduled on Mar 31st.

Feb 23, 2010

We had our long-awaited appointment with a Speech Pathologist at Markham Stouffville Hospital this morning. It’s a good opportunity to go over our concerns with the Speech Pathologist together with her performing an assessment with Adrian during our 1.5 hours visit there. The SP had Adrian look at pictures from each page in the binder and asked all type of questions ranging beginning from easy to difficult. Adrian got impatient half way through the assessment (i.e. so he didn't get to finish the first half!) and the SP quickly switched to the second part where Adrian was asked to mimic the sound/word that she produced. While the assessments were mostly done in English, Mama was asked to chip in and translate the instructions to Cantonese when Adrian had problems understanding the terms in English. As expected, the result confirms Adrian’s delay in speech, however, not as severe as we’d thought (still within a year). In addition, Adrian also has some problems with articulation (Making certain sounds e.g. Final consonant deletion, stopping, cluster reduction & gliding). The SP is unsure if the problem with articulation was attributed to his partial hearing loss. She recommends therapy sessions with Adrian but treatment will depend upon the results of his hearing test/ABR Test (previous hearing tests were deemed not 100% reliable) in the coming months (Mar/Apr 2010).

Feb 14, 2010

Happy New Year of the Tiger! We went to visit the grandparents first thing in the morning and then followed by dim sum at the restaurant where Adrian was entertained by AN HOUR of lion dance.





Feb 13, 2010

Kid's party for Chinese New Year at Auntie Cherry's home!









Feb 12, 2010

Adrian showing off all the Valentines' Day cards & gifts from his friends at school.


He also had "face painting" for the first time - the little heart on his left cheek!

Feb 10, 2010

We received a call from the Speech Pathologist from the York Region Infant Hearing Program. Apparently they’ve gotten a copy of our completed Intake Form, instead of having us wait for 8-9 months for appointment; they changed their process and decided to see Adrian earlier given his hearing loss & delay in speech. Our appointment will be scheduled on Feb 23rd at 08:30.

Feb 9, 2010

No school for Adrian for more appointments (again):-

- First appointment with the Early Intervention Team. It began with an interventionist interviewing Mama talking about concerns on Adrian (mainly speech) while the therapist was playing with Adrian, observing how he behaves cognitively as well as assessing his skill sets to determine our eligibility. The whole appointment took more than 1.5 hours and they later came back telling us that Adrian is doing quite well (considering what he's been through in the past), though a little behind/weak compared to kids his age, but that doesn't warrant him getting OT & PT. The therapist suggested us to engage some games/exercises with Adrian to bring him up to speed (i.e. strengthening his upper limps etc.). We're ONLY eligible for their service because we mentioned we've registered Adrian for JK, and they will coordinate some kind of a "Transition Process" to ensure Adrian, being a special need kid (mild hearing loss with speech delay), is well taken care of when he enters JK this Sept. They'll arrange a home visit in 6 – 8 weeks' time.

- The 3rd hearing test at Sick Kids was a total disaster! No matter how much we've prepped Adrian to "do" whenever he "hears" the beep sound, he just ignored and kept on starring at the tinted case holding the "Energizer Bunny" banging on the drum (the audiologist had it on for testing at the beginning). And he's not very patient either when asked to point on the object whenever the audiologist said it on his headphone. As Adrian becomes very "untestable", the audiologist started to buy in our idea of having Adrian perform an ABR Test (equivalent to the BAEP test Adrian had before at QMH) instead. We'll mention it to the ENT doctor on our Apr 1st appointment as it requires sedation.

Adrian helped getting ready for CNY by vacuuming the staircase before the appointments.


Feb 4, 2010

The second Parent-Teacher Interview was held this evening. Unlike last time, we were only able to meet with Adrian's class teachers (the others were fully booked). The comments were all very positive based on our conversations with the teachers as well as the comments written by his rotary class teachers on the progress report card. However, the teachers told us Adrian doesn't follow instructions a lot of times as if he doesn't understand them. Even though he doesn't quite speak out in class, he loves socializing with his friends in class (though it happens a lot in inappropriate time per the teachers! :-). In fact, we find that Adrian enjoys going to school even more since attending full day school in December.

Apart from his speech/language issues, we also noticed Adrian improves in a number of ways. For example, he's starting to associate numbers to quantities and is able to count from 1 to 50. His pencil grip is getting stronger that he's able to use the forceps properly to pick up cotton balls at home. Way to go, Adrian!

Feb 1, 2010

We have been doing "school shopping" for Adrian recently. Since the beginning of the new year, we've been thinking if Adrian should continue getting his education at his current school or join in the public school system for JK this coming September. Being an ESL student and a speech delay kid (with hearing problems), it's inevitable he still has difficulty understanding and expressing his wants a lot of times at school. One classic example is he ALWAYS wets himself WITHOUT telling the teachers he has the urge to go to the washroom (not sure if he's too shy to tell or he has no clues what to say).

Despite Adrian enjoys going to his current school, we handed in the JK application this morning to a Public School in our neighborhood (though we haven't 100% made up our mind yet). From what we understand, Adrian could access more resources for his needs that private schools do not offer. The challenge is Adrian will only attend school full days 2–3 days a week and though we already have one other school in mind, we'll continue to look for the best school that caters special needs kids like Adrian.

Well, we'll get to know Adrian more on Feb 4th Parent & Teacher Interview at school and the upcoming appointment with the Early Intervention Team on Feb 9th.