When we arrived at the church, we were pretty impressed with the size of the church and the organization of the daycare facility. They explained that they have a program where parents can drop off their kids with Special Needs and their siblings twice a month from 6:30pm until 10pm. They wanted us to drop Jonathan off that night to evaluation how he would do in a group of other children and with the different activities. We decided to drop Vanessa off as well since she asked to stay.
Jonathan cried quite a bit at first. Vanessa walked right into the room and said bye to me. When we came back to pick them up, the told us that Jonathan stopped crying a few minutes later and that he had a very good time. They told us that he would do great at camp and that we are all set. That really made me happy. They are going to expose him to many environments and situations (not just inside classrooms and playgrounds, but parks, pools, zoo, etc.) and that is exactly what he needs and I cannot do. This camp will last 5 weeks.
One thing that I wanted to include in today's blog is pictures of Jonathan's paintings. The public school psychologist had evaluated Jonathan on a test that assesses Visual Motor a month ago and had given him the lowest possible score because he did not do what she asked him. She asked him to draw the body parts of a person (and when they do that, the expect the kids to draw a self-portrait). And Jonathan drew an oval with eyes and nose and mouth representing a head. He was asked to draw body parts, and he decided in him mind to draw a head. When I argued that that did not capture Jonathan's capabilities (because drawing represents a way for kids to express themselves and they were telling me Jonathan did not have that skill), they re-did the test and introduced different questions and he scored in the superior range. Although I feel very proud of him for doing that, the tests were based on shapes and that is something he knows since he is 18 months. It did not represent his ability to express his feelings in drawings or what he had in his mind. When we picked him up at the church, they gave me his paintings and I want to post 2 of them because it makes me feel comfortable that he "can" represent his feelings through drawings. There is one that I cannot find where he drew himself with a sad face. When I asked him what that was, he told me that it was him sad because he was sad when Mommy left.
Jonathan and Vanessa - by Jonathan
Jonathan going home with a happy face - by Jonathan
Again, this shows that Jonathan is capable of drawing his feelings and what is in his mind. I am not sure why he did not draw Vanessa's arms, but he clearly represented that Vanessa is a girl. She never wears skirts, yet he knew that she is a girl and girls wear dresses.
Here are the kids playing in a feria outside the church. I was shocked that Jonathan really enjoyed it and had no sensory issues.
Biomedical:
In addition to the regular dose of supplements, today I put 2 squirts of MB12 in his nose and I put the B-12 patch in his back.
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