He's done!

We are finished with Brain Balance, and I am not too impressed.  Whit is still staring off into space and proceeding at a snail’s pace when it comes to writing assignments, causing frustration all around (meaning I get frustrated).  His grades actually came down marginally at school this go-round.  His teacher explained that he’s unable to finish written expression during class.  (Of course it doesn’t help that 4 of 12 kids in his class are using laptops with DragonSpeak dictation software, so that they don’t have to physically write any more.  They just talk into their computers.  Whit’s neuro-psych testing has actually shown that noise totally distracts him.  So you can see how that is working out for him, with four kids mumbling around him while he needs to actually write.)

I think he has made progress when it comes to math though.  He usually gets his homework done in class and doesn’t have to bring it home.  When he does have math homework, it goes relatively quickly once I can convince him to start on it.  The same goes for any reading assignments, the type where you read a page and then have to answer multiple-choice questions.

In January, I wrote a list of how I would judge success.  So let’s see how we did:

Easy homework taking 15 minutes?  YES, as long as it’s not writing.

Less goofing off at school? NO, he had more U’s for unacceptable behavior on this report card than ever before.

Able to remember three or more tasks given at once?  OCASSIONALLY.  I’ve seen improvement, but I still am having to remind him more than I’d care to.

Stop saying “no” just to be contrary? OCASSIONALLY.  Again, maybe it’s better overall, but if he’s feeling ass-y, I’m getting no’s.

This week Whit is being retested at Brain Balance so that we can compare how he did back in January to how he is now.  I will have those results next week, and I’ll let you know how much Brain Balance says he improved.  But I would have liked more drastic results. 

final days

Whit had math homework tonight for the first time since my school hissy in mid February.  He knocked out 14 conversion problems (simple stuff, sure, but some multi-step) in under 10 minutes.  –Like a normal person.  I was scared initially because he promptly started singing and whistling when the paper was put in front of him, but after one (1) (ONLY ONE) reminder, he got to work.  Ok, Brain Balance, you win that round.

Last night, however, I sent Whit back to his room for a shower, and after reminding him 3 times over 20 minutes, finally had to threaten to strip him myself and turn on the water.  Where was BB then?

It’s hard to assess over-all improvement in the day-to-day stuff.  I had written the list of accomplishments we wanted to see at the beginning of this program.  We have only 5 sessions left until final judgment. ;-)

Progress report

I got Whitman’s second progress report on Monday.  The BB lady was very excited for him.  He is now at age-level or above for everything they measure, with the one notable exception of upper body strength.  Since the last progress report on February 6^th:

Whit has gone up 3 levels in Visual Ocular Reflex (not moving his head with his eyes). 

He’s up two age levels in Visual Processing (meaning he should now be able to find something particular in a junk drawer, or do Where’s Waldo pages), Proprioception (knowing where his body is in space—I never realized he had an issue with that.  He’s not particularly clumsy), Gait/Aerobics and Interactive Metronome (keeping a rhythm).

He gained a level in Balance Beam, Supine Core (face up), Prone Core (face down—like superman exercises), Upper Body (he’s still far behind) and Brachiation (like a chin-up—still far behind)

My 4^th grader (Mom brag alert) is working at a 7^th grade level for Getting the Main Idea and Drawing Conclusions, and a 6^th grade level for Making Inferences.  In Math, he’s doing 5^th grade level Fractions, Decimals, and Multi-step word problems.

So what does this mean at school and home?

So I told you how he turned his U’s in Miss Miller’s class to S-.  She has told him that he is doing much better in her class and that she’s impressed.  In fact, when the kids of the reading class got out of hand last week to the point she had to bring in the head of lower school to yell at them, Whitman was told it didn’t concern him and he didn’t have to stay in for recess with the rest of them.  I attribute BB 100% for that breakthrough.  It has always been Whitman who would be the leader in such class-room hijacking shenanigans.  The fact that he wasn’t a part of it at all is mind-blowing.

We’re still not getting any math homework, but any writing assignments remain next to impossible.  I told that to BB lady and she promised to work on writing with him for his last month at BB.  She told me that she is very excited to see what he accomplishes in this last trimester.  Me too!  I hope he can put his thoughts on paper by the end of this.

fail

Eight weeks into Brain Balance, and I have sat here watching Whit avoid his homework diligently for over an hour now.  He is supposed to be writing down key words regarding activities he did over the weekend--not even whole sentences.  But my dear Space Cadet has wasted an hour talking to cats, talking to me, going to the bathroom, walking around, doodling on his paper, laying his head on the table, eating some food, closing his eyes, staring unfocused at the ceiling...  an hour plus.  And now he's getting frustrated with himself.  I'm betting by the end of the night, we'll see tears.  Thanks, Brain Balance! You suck.

8th Week

The time just flies.  Only four more weeks of Brain Balance left.


There's nothing much to report.  I will mention that Whit's progress report came home on Wednesday.  He managed to turn all his U's for unsatisfactory behavior into happy S-'s for "needs improvement" in Miss Miller's class.  She's always given him U's in Self-Control and Following Directions.  One time he even received N's for those, which wasn't explained in the key, but I took to mean "so much worse than a U that I had to use a new letter."  Any way, perhaps that's Brain Balance at work.

questionable focus improvement

We had a week-long break from Brain Balance, between the holiday and Chris taking Whit to Philadelphia last weekend.  Whitman earned three level-up stars between Wednesday and today: one for brachiation (hanging on to monkey bars—he’s not strong enough for pull-ups yet), one for core strength, and today for focus.  I was very excited on the drive home when he told me his star was for focus.  I said, “So how do they test your focus?”

He said something like, “It’s not fair, really.  They give you like the best chair for the computer exercises.  It spins and rolls and everything.  So even when I’m focusing, they say that I’m not.”

“Because you’re playing with the chair?” I asked.

“Yes.  How can someone not play with the chair? I’m still paying attention.”

“So you got a star because you didn't play with your chair today?” I clarified.  And he confirmed.  His star was for not playing with the most awesome chair ever.

I would like to comment on how he is progressing with homework, but I have messed up the control of the experiment.  I had a hissy last week regarding all the homework, and had it out with both his teacher and the head of lower school.  Surprise, surprise: there’s been absolutely no homework this week.  I suspect this is a passive-aggressive answer to my concerns after I refused to talk to the teachers any more.  I’m not proud.  But it’s been a great homework week.

in need of a supplemental income

Homework continues to be a struggle, just FYI.

So the past two weeks were about buying the supplements that were recommended for Whit.    We bought him Vegetarian Liquid Omega 3 by Douglas Labs for almost $35, and Alpha Lipoic Acid 25 mg hypoallergenic capsules by Kirkman Labs for about $15, both from www.pureformulas.com.  Whit decided, and rightly so, that the Omega 3 is too disgusting to take.  He almost threw up (literally, no exaggeration) after half a teaspoon.  His recommended dose is a full teaspoon.  So of course there’s no making him take that any more.  He did learn to swallow the tiny lipoic acid capsule by practicing on candy.  That has worked out really well.  He had never taken a pill before.

Just today I was finally able to get in touch with Metabolic Maintenance which has limited hours on Pacific Time.  They are blending a powder to the BB nutritionist’s personalized recommendation for Whitman.  He will have to drink it in orange juice.  This cost about $110 (for a 90-day supply), so I reallyreallyreally hope that it won’t cause Whit to vomit and that he’ll take it religiously.  That should arrive in about a week.