Sam's Busy Summer

Sam and Grace had quite a busy summer! They visited their aunt and uncle in Houston a couple of times, played outside a lot, swam in their grandparents' pool, went to the zoo, and lots of other great stuff.

Summer school for Sam went well...at first the teachers put him in a more severe class, but quickly realized that he needed to be in with his developmental peers, some of whom he had as classmates in his regular school year. He did not seem to regress at all during the two week breaks before and after summer school, even though we had an up and down behavioral therapy schedule, which we try to do everyday.

On Sam's Houston visit, he had fun swimming, but was really afraid of the lake, especially the sea-doos. They tried to get him on one, but he really freaked out and didn't even want to swim after that. He seemed to have problems for a number of weeks with machine sounds in general, like motorcycles and our mower, which he previously had no problem with. We suspect there were sensory issues with the sound of the motors, related to the heavy metals in his system or something.

However, the sound sensitivity also can be a good thing; he seems to respond exceptionally well to music and songs. When we have therapy songs, he gets the concepts in the songs many times faster than by rote memorization. We started occupational therapy, where the therapist tried some sound therapy with headphones, and he responded really well to it. A lot of kids don't like to wear the headphones, but he doesn't mind them. We'd like to pursue a program run out of grapevine where you rent the cd's and he can listen to them at home. Maybe we have a Beethoven or Bach Jr. on our hands, who knows?

We now do horse therapy at Rockytop Ranch here in Keller. He was skeptical at first, even though he's ridden before, but in a few weeks he took right to it. He also loves looking at the farm animals they have there at the ranch, and he's especially fascinated by the chickens.

He swims now with just floaties, and after all the swimming he's done this summer he's gotten pretty comfortable with the water, as long as someone else is swimming too. We use caution with the chlorine in the pool, and his doctor said that as long as he takes vitamin C and takes an epsom salt bath afterwards, it will flush whatever chlorine is in there out of his system. Lots of verbal expression accompanies swimming, and he will say "I want swimminy" repeatedly to voice his desire to take a dip!

We are continuing his dietary and nutritional interventions, in addition to biweekly chelation visits to take out metals...he's still excreting lead from his body in disturbing amounts, but we're just glad it's coming out. And he does really well at these visits, sometimes watching the needle going in his arm with mild interest. (I myself experienced inner turmoil while witnessing this for the first time, but managed to not let it show!)

He still gets pretty hyper, a lot of times we think this is dietary or chelation related. He does this high-pitched scream when he's excited and jumping around, which can be pretty piercing! We're redirecting this by giving him words like "I'm happy!" to say instead of screaming.

He seems to open up more and more to the world around him, and the people in it. He gets very excited around other kids, which we take as a very good sign. On Wednesday nights at church he runs around when the other kids are, and even looks at them. When another kid runs into him or touches him, he smiles and seems very happy. He is also interacting more with his sister, by looking at her and even gives her hugs from time to time. She's also getting very fond of her bubba, and calls for him across the hall in her bedroom when it's bedtime, so she know he's there.

Even at home, he remains very active. He loves to play in the water or sand in his backyard, play on his computer, watch movies, ride his bike and he has been playing with toys more. We found it very interesting that although he had trouble with machine sounds awhile back, now he seems to like car and truck toys.

As mentioned, his verbal expression continues to slowly but steadily improve. He can pretty much say "I want ___" now for pretty much anything. We sometimes have to decipher what word it is he's saying, but usually are able to figure it out. One example of this is when he said "I want Incredibles" (the pixar movie). I'm stoked that he can even attempt such a difficult word! As he notices his surroundings more, he's saying "I want ____" a lot, which we're redirecting to have him say "I see a ____" or "it's a ____".

And this fall, a huge blessing is happening that we're extremely excited about: Therapy House is starting a preschool! And Sam will be a part of it, along with Melissa who will be a teacher's aide. More on this will come later, but suffice it to say that God is EXTREMELY good in providing this, which will bless not only Sam and us but also other families affected by autism.

Please continue to pray in the following areas:
- That Sam will continue to notice others and be motivated to have relationships
- That he will continue to develop speech, in his enunciation of words and his conversational ability
- That his body would continue to heal, especially in the detoxification of metals like lead
- That God would continue to guide us where to go and who to talk to about Sam's healing
- That Sam would have a blessed school year, and that God would bless the Therapy House preschool program