Our Top Homeschool Accommodations

Homeschooling with special needs is challenging, But one great plus is that you can make available to your child any needed accommodation without a fight. Here are a few of the accommodations we use.

 

Hailey’s Medical Story

 

Hailey is 8 years old. She became a part of our family through the miracle of Adoption January 16, 2009. She had a very difficult life filled with more obstacles than most adults could handle, before God brought her to us. I have seen Hailey overcome and fight through major issues. I have seen her change and grow. She is a very optimistic child and takes life as it comes. She truly takes the lemons life hands her and makes Lemonade. Life has handed her more than one medical issue, but she has never let that get her down.

 
Eyesight
Hailey was born with an Astigmatism, Amblyopia, Hyperopia (Farsightedness), and poor eyesight in both eyes. Unfortunately, nothing was done to help with these issues until Hailey turned 4 years old. Hailey wore an eye patch full time for one year. She is no longer patching, but still struggles with her eyesight.

ADHD
Hailey was diagnosed with ADHD spring of 2008. There were several things that lead to this diagnoses including; Inability to sit still, Lack of impulse control, overly friendly, Lack of social skills, and Extreme frustration. At the time she was attending day care and she had a lot of problems there. She began seeing a therapist for some other things and then she was diagnosed.

 
Reactive Attachment Disorder
Hailey has recently been diagnosed with RAD. We have not done any formal treatment of this as of yet. I think just providing a stable environment has helped the most.

Chiari Malformation & Syringomyelia
On 9/22/09 Hailey passed out and it appeared that she was having a seizure. I took her to her pediatricians who referred her to a neurologist. We had an EEG done and then had an MRI done. The MRI showed Chiari 1 Malformation with Tonsils protruding 10mm. She then had a full spine MRI done that showed a Syrinx from T5-T7. Hailey's headaches became a real battle for her, and after seeing a Neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt, we decided to proceed with Decompression surgery. Her surgery was performed on June 1, 2010. About 6 days after the surgery Hailey began running a fever, Mother's intuition had me take her to the local children's Hospital ER. We found out there that she had Meningitis. After 5 more brain surgeries, and a month stay at the hospital, we were finally able to bring her home. She is doing really well. As of now we will have her scanned every 6 months, and treat symptoms as they come.

Vision Improved

Last week we went to the eye Doctor to for Hailey's monthly check up. We were supposed to be patching half a day, everyday. I had done some research about patching, and I decided that Hailey would benefit from patching less time, but adding some vision therapy. When i told the Doctor that we had been doing this, he was less than pleased, and went into this huge spill about the importance of patching. (like I didn't know, she been patching since she was 4) Anyways after he did her eye exam he reluctantly said, "De spite your not patching as directed, she shows improvement". VICTORY!!!
We are praying that after we move we can find her a good vision therapist. If what little I have done at home has helped, I can't imagine what a professional could do.

Eye Turn

I'm always worried when we go to the eye Doctor. There has never been any consistency in the reports that we get, and I'm always scared that things are getting worse, and not better. However, the last report was so good and we made several changes in our treatment, and so I was not sure what to expect.

Poor Hailey had only one thing on her mind. She was going to march in and demand a new pair of glasses. The new ones we got are to small on the bridge of her nose. They hurt her and she complains everyday about them. Even though I told her that we were going to save to get her a new pair, she still felt that she could somehow demand that they give her a different pair.

This past Monday we went to the eye Doctor. Hailey's plan went into action. While they did not give her a new pair they did work very hard to make them more comfortable for her. The report was both good and bad. The good part was that there has been no change in her eyesight good or bad. I'll take that.

Now for the bad news, On Saturday I noticed that Hailey's eyes looked strange. It looked like the eye that turns out was turning in. I asked the Doctor to take a look. First he told me that does not happen, I made him look anyway. It has in fact turned in a little bit. He didn't say much about it other than we would keep with what we are doing.
We have one more appointment before we move and then we look for someone else. We are hoping to find a specialist that offers vision Therapy.

Getting the help others seem to be getting

Do you ever feel like Doctors or Therapist's don't listen to you? I do. I hear other people talk about all of the things their doctors and therapists are doing for their children and I have to try really hard not to envy them. Sometimes I feel like there must be something wrong with me.

I do study up on my children's health and mental issues, and I don't go into the appointment with no knowledge of the situation. I am usually pretty studied up. Someone once told me that, that could be why they blow me off. But, that should not be the case. Regardless of what I have researched, or if I have a basic knowledge of the situation at hand, the Doctor, Teachers, and Therapists should help my children. I feel like I have to fight for everything for them. It just shouldn't be this hard.

We are moving later this year and I am hoping to start all of their stuff over. A fresh start is what we need. I pray that God would put all of the right people on our paths, so that my kids can finally start getting the help they need, without me having to fight the state tooth and nail.

Disclaimer: Sorry for my mini vent. Dealing with special medical, and mental health needs is harder than anyone could ever imagine unless they have first hand knowledge. It all gets overwhelming for me at times.

Clearing up confusion

In my last post I celebrated our success with Hailey's eyes. While we are so thankful to the Lord for His healing and know that he deserves all of the glory, I seem to have left out a few details that have confused a few people about why Hailey would even need glasses. I would like to take this time to clear things up.

Hailey's vision score of 20/30 and 20/25 is while she is wearing glasses. Hailey has other vision problems that will keep her in glasses. The typical knowledge of the different vision problems and how they affect your eyesight is usually very little. Most of our lives we are told that if you have 20/20 vision you have perfect eyesight. However, there are other contributing factors to vision such as, Astigmatism, Tracking, Wondering eyes, Depth Perception, and many more. For instance, you can have 20/20 vision and see things Backwards due to weak muscles in the eyes. This Problem could be helped by wearing glasses with a Prism in the lens that pulls your eyes to the correct place. So while we are thrilled with the results we know that only half of the battle has been won.

In the photo blow you will see what 20/20 vision with an astigmatism looks like.

 

It’s a miracle!

We went today for Hailey's one year check up on her eyes. I had expected the worst. Hailey was very optimistic and was so cooperative with the tests. When the Dr. did her test he couldn't believe it. He did it two more time to make sure he was right and then he told us the good new. Hailey's eyes had improved so much. Her vision is better now then it has ever been. It was 20/30 in her right eye and 20/25 in her left. with her glasses on. I can't even believe it!

On top of that news he said that we could begin patching for only a few hours per day. This made Hailey let out a squeal. We have been patching Morning till night for one year and though Hailey has been a great sport about it, she was thrilled about not having to do it all day.

I asked the Dr. about other forms of vision therapy since she still has practically no depth perception and he said that we should get the book 45 Lazy Eye Exercises. Hey said there were things out there to help with the depth perception. I will just have to look for them.

I wish you all could have seen the look on Hailey's face when they brought out all of the glasses she could choose from. Until now her selection has been pretty limited because of her prescription.

There are still things we will have to do to help with her eyes. Her Farsightedness had gotten worse, and she will always have the terrible Astigmatism in both eyes. We will have to work on her depth perception. And only time will tell about her eye turning. But for now, we could not be happier with this visit! thank you all so much for your prayer!

Is there an eye under there?

Hailey has been great about patching ever since we got the patches from Patch Pals. She has one to match almost every outfit. She has to wear it full time so we felt it was important to get her some she would be happy with. For the most part everyone has been great about asking her why she has the patch. The kids used to make fun of the band aids, but have never made fun of these which has made patching a whole lot easier.

When we started patching full time the eye Dr. told us that he would check her every month for one year, when that year was up we would see where we were with things. Hailey took that to mean that we would only be doing this for one year. On Monday one year will be up, and we are going for a full eye exam. Based on the months of checking I don't think we will be done with patching.

I had prepared Hailey for another year of patching and, she was starting to be OK with it. And then it happened, we were on vacation and eating at a restaurant. Hailey had gotten up to go to the restroom and when I turned around to look for her I noticed that she was talking to a man and had a horrified look on her face. I immediately got up and went over there and realized that the man had asked Hailey if she had an eye under her eye patch. REALLY?! I couldn't believe that he would ask her that.

Now, Hailey is determined more than ever that Monday will be the end of patching. I'm afraid she is going to be heart broken when she finds out that we will continue.

Some people are just plain stupid!

Patching for how long? And Encouragement

We have been going to the eye Dr. once a month for about one year. We started going monthly when we began patching full time. There has been no consistency in Hailey's eyesight. There was one month toward the beginning when we thought she was making progress. She seemed to be seeing better. She was reading so well and was not running into things. When we had her checked that month her eyesight was actually worse. We started out patching for only 4 hrs. a day and then moved to all day.

The emotional journey that patching has been for us is more than you can imagine. This past week we had yet another eye exam. There was a little bit of improvement but not enough for the Dr. to mention. (I only know because I asked the assistant) That means yet another month of patching full time.
I asked the Dr. how long children with this condition patch and he said that he has had kids in eye patches for up to three+ years. This broke my heart. I have been searching the web for even one glimmer of hope when I ran across this great blog post about a nine year old boy who finally saw results. Check it out Here. I am so proud for this little boy and his family. I know that one day will be Hailey's day.