It is a boy !

We are so happy to share that we have a new addition to our family and it is a boy! We have named him ' Chanakya '.

Chanakya was born on Feb 3rd ,2017 at 6.09 pm.

Baby C at the hospital - 2 days old

Guess What?!

The last post on this blog was published in May 2016.I haven't been able to update this blog as often as I would like to. One of the main reasons for such a long delay in the update post is that I am always super tired! And the reason behind my extreme tiredness is...

We are expecting baby number 2! Baby no 2 is due to arrive on Feb 11,2017.

With just a month's time more, we are really eager and excited to welcome our little one to this world. We really hope that baby number 2 will be a good companion for SK and they can do some of their programs together.

On with the updates now,

June-September 2016:

SK's program was still going with full intensity.

Reading program: 

English, Tamil, Spanish- Flashcards

Mathematics program

Skip counting, fractions basics

Encyclopedia program:

5 categories

Masking- 10-15 per day.

Patterning- 4 X 1 min 

Crawling: We started with 10 ft/day in the month of May and by the end of September he was crawling 400+ ft per day. He started to come to four point position on his own but he couldn't move forward. He was still crawling for locomotion.

Language program that included conversation, poem and choice board. 

Swimming 

Yoga 

Manual program that included hanging, vital release & prehensile grasp

Playing keyboard

.

What else happened?

I was having terrible morning sickness which made it a great challenge to cook for him as well as to effectively give him therapy. I was warding off nausea by inhaling peppermint essential oil and it helped a little.On top of this, I was getting tired very easily and exhausted by the end of the day.

We did a few things differently with this pregnancy and that helped me cope up with some of the common pregnancy niggles(that is for another post !).

On the days when I was unable to cook or give therapy, my husband would take up the role and very efficiently complete it. In fact, there were days when he would be the sole reason for the therapy activities being done. I was so happy that SK's program was moving at the expected pace.

On Aug 23rd, 2016 - SK's 2nd birthday

I was 21 weeks pregnant by the end of September, 2016. We were to have the anomaly scan in the 1st week of October. We were so focused on being positive, so the previous experience of anomaly scan didn't affect us much. In fact, we were looking forward for the scan in order to see our baby on the ultrasound screen, for the first time. (Yes, we skipped the dating scan and NT scan)

October-December 2016:

SK's program was downsized because I was unable to execute it with full intensity.

Reading program: 

English - flashcards

Mathematics program

A little break because I was not ready with the equations to be shown.

Encyclopedia program:

2 categories

Masking- 15 per day.

Patterning- A small break because I was unable to give patterning with my baby bump in front. 

Crawling: He was consistently crawling 400+ ft per day. Often coming to four point position on his own, he tried to move forward but fell on his face. Later he moved his leg and hand alternately but fell down due to lack of balance. His crawling style has improved and his speed has increased.

We hope creeping is just round the corner for him and when he achieves it, it is a going to be a great victory.. An achievement worth celebrating. We are looking forward to that day. 

Language program : choice board. 

Manual program that included vital release & prehensile grasp

Playing keyboard

What else happened?

The anomaly scan went well and baby number 2 was healthy with no issues.I cannot explain in words how relieved we were to see the scan reports. 

I wasn't able to do as much exercise as I wanted to because SK's therapy was already demanding my complete attention and energy.I caught a nasty cold with fever which made me lose 3 kg of weight.After recovering from the flu I started to gain weight really slowly. 

By the 32nd week I had severe gas pains and I had to go to the hospital for medication. Luckily,it subsided by 4 days.

By the end of December 2016, I was exactly 34 weeks pregnant.

January 2016 :

SK's program is now very basic.

Reading, Mathematics & encyclopedia program: 

Paused

Masking- 15 per day.

Patterning-Paused

Crawling: He still crawls at least 200+ ft per day. He is now able to sit up on his own for a few seconds. We have been using the anti-sit device so that he doesn't w-sit and it has been working wonderfully.

Language program : choice board. 

Playing keyboard

SK's therapy is on basic mode now .Though we are a little sad for that, we know that this is just a temporary phase and that once our second baby is born we would be back with a bang!

That's all for the updates... 

1 year to 2 years

Weekly update & a free download

April 2016 : Days passed by without much therapy and concentration on nutrition. SK wasn't very interested in doing therapy related activities and instead he wanted us to take him out to new places.He was feeling really drained and quite irritated due to hot weather, which had exceeded 40 °C.He needed a little break from his routine and we decided to get him back on track from May.

Where does he stand now?

Manually, he is now able to clap his hands together. He's been doing it since the start of April. He has become more skillful in using his hands to grab objects and to transfer them from one hand to another.

In the department of language, he is now able to vocalize various sounds as an effort to converse with us. We feel that his understanding of emotions, people and surroundings has also improved.He uses a simple choice board to communicate his choices with us.We use the yes/no board now and we plan to make upgrade it by end of June.

Now on to the weekly update ...

MAY 1,2016 - MAY 7,2016

Therapy

Reading program: 

English- Genetics,Christmas,Cricket + Couplets 1 set + Phrases 1 set
Tamil- Famous books 
Spanish- Fruits

Mathematics program:

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division( only answer card was shown) 
Greater than, lesser than , equal to 

Encyclopedia program:

Music- Musical instruments
Arts- Sports
Biology- Breeds of Dogs
Geography- Transportation
Mathematics- Money

Masking- Started from 5 per day & increased it to 10 per day gradually.

Patterning- 4 X 1 min. 

Crawling: Started from 10 ft per day & increased it to 30 ft per day. 

Language program that included conversation, poem and choice board. 

Yoga 

Manual program that included hanging, vital release & prehensile grasp

Playing keyboard 

and other small activities.

What else happened? 

We went to a nearby shopping mall this week and SK loved the bright environment. He had a great time in a juice shop grabbing everything in sight and feeling various textures of things around him.

He can very well distinguish between edible and non-edible items.Whenever he is handed an edible item he makes this smacking sound with his mouth and/or starts drooling..

We are so happy that he is getting back on track. So, we have made this week's plan to have a little more of everything especially crawling and patterning. Let's see how well it goes! 

Free download - 15 pg book to introduce weather forecast symbols to your kid. 

Click here to preview & download the file

SK loves playing keyboard!

8 major roadblocks to success in Doman therapy and how to avoid them

There aren’t any sure-fire ways to make a therapy work the way we want it to. Still, there are a few things we can avoid doing, in order to increase the probability of success. As a fellow parent who follows Doman for her son, I wish to caution you about the mistakes that you are most likely to commit when you follow this mode of therapy.

This post is for all parents who have started (or already follow) IAHP's therapy for their kids. Following IAHP and sticking to the therapy with consistency is really a great task. In this tough journey, every parent is presented with various degrees of obstacles. Some issues are really common and easily solvable. Let us look at a few examples.

• Certain concepts are totally new for the parents and it takes some extra effort on their part to completely understand the concept and implement it. For instance, consider patterning, masking and dot cards method for teaching math. These do not conform to the usual methods of teaching/ therapy.

• A few of the ideas are revolutionary and even disturbing for a few parents. For instance, masking, vertical hanging, acceleration, etc. I even heard a parent once say that acceleration can cause brain damage or even result in shaken baby syndrome. Of course, that is not true. Still, it is totally understandable that she doesn't agree with a few of the suggested activities.

• Most of the family doctors do not agree with certain activities proposed by IAHP which adds to the stress of the parents. There was one parent who said she totally believed in masking but her doctor does not approve of it. She was worried that she will never be able to do masking for her child. 

• Family members may not be supportive of the therapy and keep criticizing the parents for treating their child this way. The grandmother may not be okay with the dietary restrictions of the kid, the grandfather might lose temper whenever the kid cries during patterning and so many such examples can be cited for this issue. Most of the Indian parents following IAHP and living together as a big family can relate to this.

Moving on to the bigger issues, let's talk about the barriers that do not involve anyone but you. These roadblocks can be totally dealt with, by your own power,but only you can solve them.

Minor issues like the ones stated above can be easily dealt with because they are visible and we can deal with them on face. We know what we are dealing with and we know how to solve them. If your doctor does not feel okay with masking, you can find another doctor who is willing to help you. If the kid's grandmother is not okay with the diet you can either convince her or ask her to stay out of it. There are easy solutions for these issues, but what about the barriers that stay hidden and hinder your progress? Those are the roadblocks that I am going to talk about now.

1. Being unclear about the concept before starting the therapy:

Without a complete understanding of the basics of the Doman method, you will never see progress. Take your time to fully learn the fundamentals and then begin the therapy. Only when you know what you are doing, you will know what to expect as an outcome. If that’s not the case, you will end up frustrated.

Luckily, we never fell into this trap but I've seen lots of parents do this when they start the therapy. They are so desperate for results that they do not want to waste any more time by delaying the therapy. That’s when they commit this mistake of jumping into the therapy without a complete understanding of it.

For instance, let's consider masking. Your child breathes into a mask for approximately 60 seconds and in that period he breathes in his own carbon dioxide and oxygen. This carbon dioxide present in the mask and inhaled by the kid helps dilate the vessels that carry oxygen to the brain thus resulting in a rich supply of oxygen to the brain in a short span of time. Masking should be done in intervals of no less than 7 minutes. There are many other stipulations that needs to be followed regarding masking.

If you do not take the time to read through the procedure and understand the logic behind masking, you might be inclined to do 2 sessions of masking within a 7-minute interval just in order to complete some 'n' number of sessions in a day. That is of course not good for your child.

So, always take your time to understand the concept completely before implementing it.

2. Doing something you do not completely agree with:

When you do not feel comfortable with what you are doing, you are better off not doing it. Simply, do those activities that you are totally okay with and skip those which you do not agree with.

For instance, let's say you are afraid of hanging your baby upside down for vertical rocking. Even after understanding that it poses no risk, you still have some fear in performing the activity.

Whenever you hang your baby upside down with that fear instilled in your mind, your baby will start crying or feel uncomfortable. It is because the kid senses your fear and thinks he/she is in danger. The whole activity does not yield any results because the goal of the activity is to be fun and effective both of which are not met in this case.

So, it is always better to do something with complete agreement or not do it at all.

     3. Implementing changes suddenly and simultaneously:

When you make radical changes to your home, be it in nutrition or organization or anything else, the household suffers. This leads you to revert back all changes, which means zero improvement. Make changes 1- step at a time. That gives enough time for your kid as well as the other family members to adjust with the changes.

For instance, you have decided to make all nutritional changes at the same time. You remove sugar, salt and even change your cooking oil, all at once. Imagine the taste of the food now! It is going to be bland.

We are all accustomed to dishes made with regular ingredients and all replacements are new to us. Whenever something is removed or replaced, it shows clearly in the taste and even appearance at times, which means we straightaway dislike the food. This will lead to disappointment rather than a welcome change.

Instead, if you start with removing sugar and then follow it with removal of salt and then replace the cooking oil, all with enough intervals for your family to adjust without their notice, you might find that, at one point, no one realizes that you have made these changes. Yes, it might take even a period of 2 to 3 months. Still, it is a thousand times better to slowly make a change and succeed rather than to quickly make a change and fail.

Change things 1-step at a time. A small change is always better than no change. A small change that will lead to success is always better than a big change that will anyway revert back.

    4. Devising a plan that is unrealistic:

A definite way to ruin your motivation is to create a plan that is way too hard to execute on a daily basis. Analyse your kid’s routine and create an achievable daily plan.

Once, I formulated a jam-packed routine for my son. It looked so good on the paper that I assumed it would be a great hit. Guess what happened?

I was not able to complete even half of what I had planned and I felt so incompetent at the end of the day. After a few days of following that plan, I realized that the problem was not because I was incompetent or that my kid wasn't co-operative; it was the plan that was unrealistic.

In this process of learning, I have lost a few days of time, precious time, that could have been used well only if I had devised an achievable plan. What I have learnt from my mistake is that, it is better to create an achievable plan and consistently complete it rather than creating an extremely hard plan and failing at it.

    5.  Rushing in to complete daily goals:

This is an extension of the previous statement. Sometimes we set a plan that is not achievable at the recommended pace. So, we rush in through the activities without giving enough intervals.

This means we have done something just in order meet our goals instead of making it joyous and effective for the kid. This is the real failure.

Instead, have a plan and try to complete it by implementing the therapy only at times when the kid is alert, active and happy. This makes sure that the stimulation (however little it might be!) you have given to your kid has been effectively given. Quality over quantity!

    6.  Comparing your kid’s progress: 

     This is the best thing to do if you want to give up on the therapy and end up feeling jealous and drained. Even when two kids have the same diagnosis, their progress need not be the same. Just because the other kid has started crawling, your kid doesn’t need to.

On the other hand, there are people who feel their kid is doing better than the other one. That’s a harmful thought too. It gives you a false sense of achievement and halts progress.

‘No comparison’ is the best way to see quick progress.

    7.  Comparing yourself with other parents: 

      Most of us have done that and still do it from time to time. Comparison in a good sense is motivating but there is only a fine line between healthy and unhealthy comparison.

Whenever I read some success story I feel happy for the kid and his/her parents. I feel a sense of motivation and encouragement. Thoughts up to this level are healthy.

But what happens if I move one step further and think the kid’s parents have given 10 hours of therapy for their kid every single day and that I must do the same or else my kid will not overcome his injuries. That’s where the problem begins. I will become frustrated that I am not competent enough and will start getting stressed out. That will reflect itself in the therapy and will that do any good to my son? No.

Just because someone else did it, it doesn’t mean you have to do the exact same thing. Every family has its own challenges and you never know what sacrifices they had made to achieve their goals. You never know what good influence they’ve had in their life to achieve what they had wanted. So, whenever you come across a success story, feel motivated but never feel compelled to copy what they did.

On the other extreme, looking down on other parents because they are not able to give a program as effectively as you (or so you think) is also detrimental. Do not ever do that. Not even once. You never know under what situation the family is following the therapy. At least, they are doing something for their kid.

Look up to other people for inspiration. Never compare yourself with them. That’s easier said than done. Still, it is an important skill to master.

    8.  Saving money by skimping on the essentials: 

     

There are times when the upfront expense is too high, so we decide to skimp. But note that they are the essentials. If you skimp on them and settle for 2^nd- quality products, will you get a 1^st-rated result?

Early on in our therapy journey we decided not to invest money in buying flashcards and instead we showed flashcards in using our computer. My son looked at the screen intently and so we thought it was working.

Only after 8 whole months we realized what a bad idea it was because he wasn’t able to recognize most of the things which we had showed him. We immediately purchased sheets of paper, cut them to size and started the reading program in the conventional way.

Within 2-3 months, we saw visible results and now my son can recognize words from 3 languages and he can do basic math. Isn’t that a good payoff for the money that we invested in buying cards?

Even though the expense is high, the payoff is high too. So never skimp on the essentials.

I am no expert on Doman and I don’t claim to be. This post is purely based on my experience following IAHP’s program for my son. 

Thank you for reading! Do you have anything that can be added to this list? Please leave it in the comments section below.

Have you been through one of these situations? I would love to hear how you managed to overcome the barrier.

Liked what you read? Share it with someone who might like it too...

SK is 18 months old- Update

After 4 months of intense therapy, we charted his developmental profile.

Developmental profile- SK- 18 months

VISUAL: He has moved three blocks up. That is a great news!
AUDITORY: He has moved 1 block up. He is in the process of reaching the goal 'understanding of 10 to 25 words and 2 couplets'.
TACTILE:He has moved 1 block up.
MOBILITY: He still remains at level 2. Yet, his crawling technique has improved. Now he can crawl up to 200 ft/day. He is now pushing up on his arms with the intention to sit up.
LANGUAGE: He has perfected level 3. On his way to level 4
MANUAL: His prehensile grasp has improved a lot. Now he is able to bring both his hands forward to receive or take an object. The control in his left hand is still less than perfect so he stays in level 3 functional.

According the developmental profile at 18 months we see that his neurological age is 9.25 months. In a span of 4 months he has grown for approximately 4 months and now his injury is moderate, relatively diffuse and bilateral. This evaluation was done at home and a formal evaluation is yet to be done. We are planning to take our son to Philadelphia this year in order to get a complete evaluation and work plan.

We are so happy with the improvements and we look forward to seeing much more like this in the near future.

For more information on IAHP & Glenn Doman visit their website : http://www.iahp.org/
For the initial developmental profile of SK click here

Free download- 150 equations for math - Lessons 6- 10

CONTENTS

LESSONS 6 to 10

Lesson 6: Multiplication 

Lesson 7: Division 

Lesson 8: Zero

Lesson 9: Three step multiplication

Lesson 10: Multiplication and division combination

Total equations: 150

Click here to download lessons 6-10

Free download- lesson plan & 150 equations for math

SK loves math. He gets really excited when he sees me take out the dot cards and his favorite part is problem solving.At this point, he is 18 months old and he knows how to add, subtract,multiply and divide using dot cards.

Currently he is learning percentages. We have started numerals for him but he doesn't like it as much as the dots.We are planning to introduce factors and multiples once he completes percentage.

I know how hard it is to frame a syllabus for the math program.The next hard part is coming up with equations for the respective lessons.So I have decided to share my work with you.

The following download contains lessons 1 to 5 of the syllabus, that I have framed for my son's math program.It contains a total of 150 equations. I will very soon update lessons 6-10. 

Click here for lessons 1-5

It would be nice if you would leave a comment in case you find this download useful.Share this post if you think someone else might benefit from this.

Thank you! Have a nice day!

My experience : The 'What to do about your brain-injured child course?'

'The What to do about your brain injured child course' is a 5-day video course that teaches parents of brain-injured children on the whys and hows of treating their child.

My experience:

Overall it was a fantastic experience and it is a course that I would recommend every parent of a brain-injured child to attend.

The content and time period: 

The course was divided into 3 major parts- intellectual, physical & physiological over a span of 5 days.
Every day started between 7-9 am and ended by 7 pm (approximately). Some days were longer than the others due to the content discussed.Every topic was discussed for an hour followed by a break of 10 mins.

The auditorium & food:

The auditorium was purposely maintained cold and the explanation for it was given in the course. The food was not even palatable , in my opinion, and we attributed it to the cooking style of the hotel where we had lunch. Only by the 3rd day we were told that there was no salt in our food and that is why the food tasted bland(can also be read as bad).

DAY 1:

The first half of the day was mostly about introductions; introduction of staff, course etc. By mid-day, the lessons started and it was all about brain injury- what it is, the causes, how to deal with it and so on. 

DAY 2:

Day 2 was the continuation of day 1 and it was a bit more scientific in approach. After lunch, the developmental profile was discussed and the parents were taught how to evaluate their children. With the help of the staff, everyone created the initial developmental profile for their children. Personally, I liked this day very much because it helped me see where my child was and where he needs to move up on the profile. 

DAY 3:

This day was dedicated to the Physical aspect of the program.

We were made to crawl and creep. Though the whole activity was fun , it also helped us realize how tough it is for our children to crawl and creep.
We were made to pattern children (Different types of patterning for different age-groups of children).

There were also live demonstrations for crawling and creeping by children who have been on the program. It was a touching experience to see children who were determined to move in spite of their injury.

DAY 4:

This day was dedicated to intellectual and physiological excellence.

Intellectual:

This part of the course dealt with the importance of the flashcard program( reading) and why it would benefit the child if included in the daily routine.

Physiological excellence:
It was all about creating a toxic-free environment for the children and following an excellent nutrition program.

We were also made to design our home program as a part of the home-work.

DAY 5:

Summary & certification ceremony.

My certificate

All of us were requested to answer the question "What is the most important thing that you have learned?".

Everyone had something wonderful to say and it was enlightening to hear what other parents felt. Most of them have been through a lot and it was evident in their speech.

The course concluded with the certification ceremony.

You can check out more about this course at http://www.iahp.org/hurt-kids/what-to-do-about-your-brain-injured-child-course/

Note: I am in no way endorsed with IAHP and the above written text is my own experience. I have not received any monetary benefits for writing this article.

Free download - words for english flashcards

It is definitely not an easy task to consistently do a flashcard program. One of the major hurdles that most of us face is keeping up with the pace of our kids and providing new materials.

I had to go through such a phase once and from it I learnt what a waste of precious time it was to pause the flashcard program due to insufficient new cards.

In this post I have provided a link to the list of words that I compiled for the English flashcard program. The list contains 1000 words comprising of single words and couplets.By any means this is not a comprehensive list of words under each topic.

Click here for the word list

Hope that helps. Have a good day !

Nutrition notes- A mathematical approach to giving Sai Kishore the perfect diet

 

Physiology- nutrition

Being a mathematics graduate, I tend to use math in every way possible. When Sai Kishore was 8 months old, I started measuring the nutrients (in addition to just measuring the amount of food) that he consumed everyday. I maintained an excel sheet to log in the values and to check whether he consumed the required amount of nutrients( say omega-3,calcium,iron,etc). I would then try to fit in a diet that would give him all the nutrients over a span of a week.

Sample of how the excel sheet looks

People said that I was crazy to do such things and a few of them even said that it was really wrong to measure the amount of food that we give to a child.

Now, after attending the course, I realize that what I had been doing so long was right and that IAHP too advises the parents to measure the amount of food and the amount of protein , carbs and fat that the child consumes. This is in order to ensure that the kid receives optimal nutrition.I had been doing this for the past 6 months so I find it easier to follow.

I feel that once a good diet routine has been established, it is not required to check every single gram of food the baby eats because you already have an idea about the nutrient value of the food. So I will stop doing this excel sheet work once I have set a balanced meal plan for Sai Kishore. After that point, I will check his diet once in a while to see whether it requies any changes.

LIQUID BALANCE: I have never (accurately) measured the amount of water he drinks. I give him water whenever he feels thirsty.

Now, I have started measuring the amount of liquids that he needs to drink each day so that he doesn't drink too much or too little both of which would cause serious problems. As per the formula provided by IAHP, for his age and weight, he has to drink around 400 ml of liquids everyday.We live in India.Considering the climate here, I have added a 50 ml of liquid allowance which sums up to be 450 ml of liquids per day.

In the next post I will provide information on what foods I feed Sai Kishore,how well it has been working and what changes I have been asked to make.

I have completed the What to do course successfully!!!

My certificate

The "What to do about your brain injured child' course is a five-day intensive course that teaches parents on the whys and hows of treating their child.

Click here to take a look at the details of the course

The course was really informative and it is a course that every brain-injured child's parent must attend. The course was divided into 3 major parts- physical, intellectual & physiological.

I'll post the updates in a similar 3-part manner.I'm trying to plan a really good program for my kid and it is time-consuming. I'm allotting the first week for physiology, second for physical and third for intellectual. I will be back with the updates soon.

9 months to 1 year

The WTD course is happening!!! & other updates...

Yay! The WTD course is happening in India on October 18 , 2015 and we are eagerly looking forward to attend the course.

Krishna Jayanthi - Our little Krishna!

INCLINED CRAWLING TRACK:

He has started moving forward in the track and that is definitely a great news.
I will upload step by step videos after he starts cross crawling.

SWIMMING:

What if all the doors are closed; we have found a window.

We have bought an intex easy set up swimming pool to teach him to swim. So far things have been going really well and he loves spending time in water. Swimming has definitely helped his gross motor skills as well as his muscle tone.

Things are happening... We hope to see a positive change in Sai Kishore very soon.