28 Neurofeedback Sessions so Far

It has been a while since I wrote. My life is very hectic at the moment. And I don’t see the big gains anymore, so I am not as motivated. But it is very therapeutical for me, so I’ll try to get back into the routine.

Jonathan has completed 28 neurofeedback sessions. We started back on January 6th. I feel he has made some progress. His language is more complex, his thought process is more complex. He seems to think things through a bit more than before. For instance, this weekend we went to visit our friends and Jonathan started playing the Wii with his friend C. After while, they sat down to eat and when Jonathan was done, C asked Jonathan to go back and play one of the level by himself. Jonathan must have thought that it was odd because he turned and asked him “why?”. C. told him that it was because he wanted to see how he got past a bad guy while he finished his dinner. And Jonathan said “ah, ok. Sure”. In the past he would have just said sure instead of thinking about the reason behind the question. I find that to be positive.

He had the TOVA test done this past Saturday and the Dr. believes that his attention span has improved. His agility has slowed, and that is because he is now thinking things through more than doing things impulsively. She is going to concentrate on the frontal part of his brain to speed that up a bit.

We are looking into moving Jonathan from the public school into a private school that will give him all the therapies that he needs throughout the day. I am very excited about it. We are in the registration process. In the meantime, I need to find summer activities for him.

Improvements:

• Language (expressive): intonation is better, thought complexity, he can express his needs better.
• Comprehension: I believe this has improved since January.

Areas of concern (besides language):

• Language (expressive): there are words that he is having trouble pronouncing.
• Stims: He is still humming. He also walks in his tip-toes more frequently lately.
• Auditory Memory: Even though his attention seems to have improved, he is having a hard time responding to people when people ask him questions if his attention is not grabbed first. If I walk by and ask him to put his shoes on while he is watching TV or playing something, he completely ignores me. But once I call his name (sometimes loudly) and he turns to engage me, he can often do what I ask him to do with one or 2 prompts.
• Sensory: he still needs sensory input. He keeps moving. And he is very sensitive to haircuts again. I thought we had overcome that issue, but it is back.
• Lazy: I don’t know if it is laziness or low muscle tone, or other issues, but he doesn’t like to do things on his own. And when I confront him he tells me that he is tired (brushing teeth, changing clothes, biking, climbing). But as soon as I give him the ok to play the Wii, his energy is back.