I went to a friend's house the other day.. She is taking a course on nutrition. She is getting into the keneceology testing. She needed a client or Ginny pig for her home work for her class. She asked me if I wanted to be her Ginny pig so I said sure. So she interviewed me last week. We talked a lot about my past. It was really interesting for me to look back on my past and think of what I was like then and what I'm like now, and how far I've come and how much I've learned since then. The next part of the interview is the actual testing. She knew that I would be an interesting and difficult case. But she didn't know how hard I would be. So when I went to her house yesterday and she was doing the testing on me she figured out just how hard I was. It was a very interesting experience for her. Neither one of us knew that we'd be dealing with my neurological issues as well. She was testing certain pressure points on my body. If there is pain on certain pressure points you know that there is something wrong there. Well, while she was testing me she was asking me if their was pain on certain spots. Their was no pain on any spots when their should have been. Finally she looked at me and asked me if I was doing anything funny. I said no. I told her "I think there is something you need to know." so I told her that I had Dyspraxia, (developmental coordination disorder) PDD (persausive Developmental Disorder)
SID (sensory integration dysfunction) etc. It was the SID that was getting in the way.
Sensory integration dysfunction is a condition that creates abnormal oversensitivity or undersensitivity to physical touch, light and sound. That would explain why I wasn't feeling pain when when their should have been. 


Also when I used to take ballet and tap, I would run into problems where my neurological issues would get in the way. I know if the teacher was telling me to do a certain thing with my body, I would have trouble and I wouldn't know what to do, even though I understood what she was telling me to do. But if she touched the part of my body she wanted me to move I was able to do it. That gets my brains attention. Some how there is a missing link between my brain and my body. 


Also at Irish dance I run into a problem where my brain falls asleep. When my teacher is telling me to do a certain step or go a certain way, I know what she's saying but I'm not able to do it. But if she claps her hands it some how gets my brains attention and I'm able to do what she wants me to do. 


It has been very interesting having neurological issues and learning how to cope with it. It's really helped me to not take life for granite. It's also taught me that we should be happy with the way God made us and not try to be someone else. Just be ourselves. God made each of us different. He made us the way we are for a purpose. God has used my problems to help other people. God has put a lot of great teachers in my life that have really helped me out and been there for me. God has also given me several close friends that understand me. 
For anyone reading this post with special needs, I hope this post helps you understand yourself a little better.

Front Of The Class.

One night about a month ago my family and I were sitting on the couch together when Grandma called to tell us that there was this movie on TV and it was about a boy named Brad Cohen growing up with Tourette's Syndrome. This is a subject that is especially near and dear to our hearts as Mom and I both have a mild form of it and it runs on both sides of our family.  I highly recommend watching it. It's

 Here are some interviews with Brad.







Hope you enjoyed the videos.

Something I wrote.

The increase of special needs children has been well documented in the U.S. For many years. So it would seem that adults working with children in all aspects of life including: teachers, Sunday school and Awana leaders, and coaches would be better informed about how to work with children with disabilities. Adults with children with special needs not only have to deal with their child's needs but they also have to deal with informing the adults in children's programs about those needs. We can't expect children's workers, especially volunteers, to be informed about every disability there is. But it would be helpful if children's programs included a good communication system between workers so that all would be made aware of a child's special needs. They could then work as a team to help the child function as best as possible. That would take the burden off of the family to explain the situation to every single worker or to be constantly solving problems with workers that were not informed. Even if we can't all be informed, let's have compassion for those who are different.


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One Eye Vision

I decided to label this paper one eye vision because I really only see out of one eye. I was born with severe IUGR. I was born with a lot of complications. One of the complications I was born with was amblyopia. It's also known as lazy eye. When I was 2 and 3 years old I had 3 eye surgeries on my right eye. So the optic nerve in my right eye is much smaller than the optic nerve in my left eye. My right eye wanders pretty badly. Since I was very young I have worn an eye patch. When we switched doctors years ago I quit wearing it because nobody told me that I had to wear it. Boy, do I notice a big difference when I wear it. I have made some interesting discoveries. At Awanas I was never able to play and type of ball games. Because I could never catch the ball or throw it because I couldn't aim right. I am not able to catch moving objects or throw anything because I have no depth perception and I only use my left eye because my brain doesn't acknowledge that my right eye is there. So my brain shuts it off. So that is why I wear an eye patch. It forces my bad eye to work and it makes the brain acknowledge that the other eye is there. I used to take piano lessons and I quit because it was to hard to read the music. I kept loosing my place. I have to stop and tell you that I am light sensitive. We thought that was the reason I was loosing my place while reading and playing piano.. So we got me colored glasses and colored overlays to put on top of the page to hide the light. But it didn't work. That wasn't the problem. I was loosing my place because my eyes don't work together and they couldn't track the music on the paper. I now play the piano just for fun. But when I do I wear my eye patch. Now I have no trouble tracking the music on the page. Because I'm only using my right eye. Without my eye patch I couldn't play the piano. I wish that I had known about the patch sooner. I wish I had worn it when I was taking lessons. It would have made things so much easier. I also discovered I had the same problem with reading. I can't read without my eye patch. I also discovered that I can't bowl without it. I have been bowling several times. I always have to use bumpers because I can't aim straight. Again it's because my eyes don't work together at all. I recently discovered that if I hold my left eye closed when I bowl I can aim straight and I get lots of strikes and spairs. I wish that I had known to wear my eye patch at awanas because then maybe I could have played the games without all the trouble. (I'm not sure if it would have helped because I still have no depth perception.)It would have made a big difference though. I also have to tell you that I have tourettes syndrome. I found out that when I wear my eye patch my tourettes is so much better and much more under control. I also feel more relaxed when I wear my eye patch. The reason is, is because the eye patch covers my more light sensitive eye. When your light sensitive the light hurts your eyes and therefore puts strain on your body. So when I wear my eye patch I'm much more relaxed because I'm not dealing with all the light sensitivity which therefore puts less strain and stress on your body. Making you a lot calmer. Wearing the eye patch really helps me when I sew. When you sew you usually have to mark with a pen or pencil where your going to sew. When you sew you have to sew straight on the lines. Wearing the eye patch really helps with this because I'm not dealing with two eyes that don't work together and can mess up lines and stuff. Wearing the eye patch really helps when your doing anything straining on your eyes. My eye patch is a big help in life. I'm telling you, when I don't wear the eye patch I am a totally different kid. A kid that I don't want to be. When I do wear it, I feel like I'm normal again. It's so weird.

My friend Annie loaned me the movie “The Widow's Might.” It was an amazing movie. One reason I loved it is because one of the boys, Gator had to wear an eye patch. He has amblyopia also. He was so cute because he wasn't afraid to tell people that he had an eye problem. I need to be more like him. Also if you've ever heard of Angela Thomas she has the same problem that I have. I can totally relate to her books. Even though I have this problem, I have been able to help lots of other kids because of it. It is a blessing in some ways. It makes you appreciate the little things in life. Don't take life for granite. It's not worth it. I'll tell you that from experience.

Here is a picture of me with my eye patch on. I made it. Here is a picture of me when I was little and me now.

Right Brain Left Brain.

This is interesting. Try this. The brain is an interesting part of the human body.





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Special Needs Special Kid.

In my testimony I mentioned that I had special needs. Well, talking about special needs, watch this. It's pretty amazing.

One of my favorite worship songs.

Remember I said that I would be sharing one of my favorite worship songs every Sunday? Well, Here is one of my favorite worship songs. You Are My King, Amazing Love.