Christopher's Homecoming 6

Christopher’s Homecoming 6

Monday, May 24, 2010, 12:30 pm

I continue to be amazed.  It was only 15 hours ago that I sent out an e-mail with a link for signing up to provide meals for the Ackerman family… that e-mail/blog post where I spoke of my reluctance to ask for help… something which I am unaccustomed to doing.  But I did it and the response has been overwhelming.  We now have meals coming to us for the next two weeks, and knowing that I don’t have to plan and execute them is a huge relief!

I’ve been thinking about a conversation I had with a friend seven weeks ago regarding our faith in mankind. We were both in the midst of some personal struggles and were discussing the fact that it was disheartening to think about how many people had let us down.  We were feeling as though depending on others was an exercise in futility. 

It was only sixteen days later that I suddenly found myself in the midst of the most significant crisis and personal struggle I have ever experienced… one in which I found myself forced to depend on mankind.  The immediate and continued response by friends, family and those I have never even met has certainly changed my views.  I have seen compassion, love, concern, and acts of kindness expressed in ways I never imagined possible.  My friend has walked alongside me, though from a distance, like so many of you, throughout these past four weeks.  I do believe that he and I are now due to revisit our conversation about the reliability of mankind….  What I now know for sure is that I am most humbled and my confidence and faith have certainly been restored.  A huge thank you is in order…

3:00 pm

This morning Christopher had his first outpatient Speech Therapy (ST) session.  I was invited to sit in and participate with him, which was quite interesting.  Chris started things out with a very appropriate question for his therapist, Barbara, “Why is this called Speech Therapy when I am not having difficulty with my speech?”  She explained to him that what he is in need of has more to do with cognition than speech, but that it all falls under the title of Speech Therapy.  She then continued by asking him some questions, such as what he remembers about his accident (absolutely nothing!), where he feels he is struggling and what he is going to do to make-up the seven weeks of school he is missing. 

She also gave him several tests to assess the extent of his injury.  She handed him spiral-bound book with sixty drawings of various objects, ranging from the most simple (a helicopter) to the more complex (a ‘yoke’ and an ‘abacus’).  He scored 52/60 and Barbara told him that as a 13-year-old, he had done quite well, the average score for adults being 55/60.  Interestingly, he was able to perfectly define the words he missed even though he couldn’t actually come up with them.  For example, as he looked at the ‘abacus’, he said, “Oh, that’s an Egyptian device for making mathematical calculations, but I just can’t seem to come up with the word…”  GO CHRIS!!!

Another assessment was one she called ‘fluency naming’ in which she asked him to name as many animals as he could think of in a set period of time.  He came up with 24 when the average is 18.  She then read him a paragraph about ‘quicksand’ and had him paraphrase it for her.  After completing her testing, Barbara told us that she sees little intrinsic value in spending time in her office, paraphrasing short stories and such.  Instead, she gave us several cognitive exercises that we can do with Christopher on a daily basis and suggestions for helping him to stretch his recall and comprehension abilities.  These include:

1. Games such as Password, Scattergories, Soduku and Chess
2. Reading and paraphrasing books (I will read the same book with him)
3. Taking notes on TV shows such as Mythbusters and then telling me about them
4. Keeping a list of vocabulary words he has difficulty coming up with
5. Hiring private tutors for Spanish and Math.  These tutors will assess what he needs to ‘re-learn’, if anything, and then continue moving forward by finishing out what needs to be learned to complete 7^th grade and then moving on into 8^th grade work
6. Fluency-naming exercises

I am so pleased with her evaluation and recommendations and feel that this is a very appropriate means of restoring his cognitive abilities and one which will be interesting and engaging for Christopher.  Perhaps 'therapy' won't be so painful after all... We are going to see Barbara again in 2 weeks for a follow-up visit.

I am spending this evening with the lovely ladies from my MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchooler's) group.  I am looking forward to getting away (to somewhere other than Children's Hospital!) for several hours, after having enjoyed the dinner that my neighbor Darcy prepared and delivered to us!  Thank you again to everyone who so willingly signed up to provide meals for us during the next several weeks.  As I said earlier... I am most humbled...

Love, Laura