DawnL

and somewhat PMSing, too.

Jeran had his OT again today. He goes every other Wednesday for his Sensory Processing Disorder. I haven't really learned anything from his OT sessions. I think it's kinda hard for the OT to get a good feel for Jeran and his issues, since we only go every other week. What I've been hoping to get out of OT is some ways to help Jeran learn to cope with his SPD. His biggest issue, by far, is his poor impulse control.

So today, I was telling his OT about the past 2 weeks. Things have calmed down a bit for Jeran with his allergies, so he's starting to be more "regular Jeran" rather than "complete body overload Jeran" so that's good. Last session, 2 weeks ago, his eyes were puffy and he was having random tanturms, because of his allergies. His eyeballs were swelling up at least every other day, but sometimes as often as twice per day, so he was pretty miserable.

Today's session, I was telling the OT about Jeran's impulsivity. Yesterday, he went out front to play after lunch. He knows the rules, so I didn't follow right after him. After 15 minutes, I went to check on him, as I grabbed some lunch for me out of the freezer. Jeran was nowhere in sight. I figured he was down the street at the neighbor's, and I was going to grab my lunch from the freezer, then go look for him. Suddenly, I hear him run up behind me, all out of breath.

Apparently, he had run down to the skate park that was 3 blocks away. This is across the busiest street in our little town, too. I didn't even believe him at first, but I do now.

Anyway, I told this to the OT, and about Jeran hitting, etc, his siblings, just to get a reaction or get attention.

So, the OT said she had a program to try with Jeran, and that we'd read the book together at the end of his session. Basically, it tells the child that they have 2 choices. The A choice, which is the good choice, or the B choice, which is the bad choice. With minimal discussion with me, she told him that a B choice would be a timeout and an A choice would be 10 minutes on his xBox. This was after I had told her that we only allow the xBox on the weekend.

As I left, I realized, I wasn't happy with any of this. In fact, I felt overwhelmed and rather upset. It's taken me most of the day to figure it out. First, I realized that the xBox is a terrible choice for the positive behavior. We are trying to limit video games, and there is a reason we only allow the xBox on the weekends. When Jeran was in preschool, he would often get to play his xBox in the afternoons, after school. The baby was sleeping, and this kept him occupied and happy. After we pulled Jeran from preschool, I told him he could no longer play on school days. I didn't want him to play xBox all day eveyr day. There is no reason to play it, except on the weekends. It shouldn't be an every day thing. He has his DS he gets to play all the time. He doesn't need to play the xBox all the time.

Then I realized I had an even bigger problem with the "timeout" the OT recommended. See, the OT told me that Jeran's time out should not be in his room, because he has toys. So he should have a designated timeout spot. A timeout is the most BASIC of parenting skills. Why am I being told to do this? Like, I"m so stupid that I've NEVER even tried it?

Okay, more on this post later....