Apologies for the radio silence. I run my own business from home; supposedly working full time (in addition to the previously mentioned film stuff) although it tends to get a bit tricky during school holidays so I have to play catch up once the boys are back at school. This term’s catch up has taken longer than usual due to a lot of meetings and disruption due to (of all things) hail.
However, we’ve had a good January. One where Archie’s progress has been noted. It started well with a visit to the dentist. Years ago, when we took Archie to our family dentist he refused to open his mouth, and if the dentist tried to open it would bite down on his finger. Our lovely dentist referred him to the special needs dentist instead. I think my first visit there is etched on my memory forever. We had to wait in a crowded waiting room with Archie becoming ever more feral. He refused to set foot in the surgery and so was taken to an office upstairs where he just screamed. The wide open mouth did at least mean his teeth were reasonably easy to check. Gradually, with repeat visits he became happy to open his mouth and they became slightly less traumatic.
We were visiting the dentist regularly (every 3 months) but seem to have fallen off the list. At any rate I realised with some horror that my sweetie obsessed eldest son hadn’t seen the dentist for about 18 months. I have no idea why, but while we’re waiting to get back on the list I asked our family dentist whether he would take a look. All seems well, and as can be seen from the photos below Archie particularly enjoyed the chair.
So that was success number 1.
Success number 2 was big. His annual review. As usual everyone said nice things about him (in between talking about the problems). But the big celebration is in his academic progress this year. In most areas he has progressed two p-scales. I must admit here that I tend to switch off when people start discussing p-scales (I do the same when teachers start talking about national curriculum levels for the younger two boys as well), but it was apparent from everyone’s reaction that such progression in one year is way above what might be expected. So wahay for the talker – and it demonstrates very clearly how important it is to work on giving these kids a voice.
A Life Unlimited 
Love the pictures – Henry likes the dentist’s chair too. In fact, if he could go up and down in it for the entire session without opening his mouth he’d be a happy boy! Luckily he likes biting on the little mirror, so they give him one to chew and usually manage to sneak a look at his teeth in the mean time. Last time the dentist had the brilliant idea of giving him a hand mirror to look into as well, and this seemed to make a big difference.
Great about the review – two P scales in a year is amazing!
Archie wasn’t allowing the mirror anywhere near his mouth! 🙂
Excellent news, Christianne!!! Being able to communicate will change many Many things for the better you will find! Sydney actually ASKED US !?!!! if she could wear braces on her teeth and astounded the orthodontist with how well she cooperated. Prior to communicating, it was not pretty 😦 I don’t know what p-scales are, but it’s apparent that Archie is demonstrating his intelligence in school AND it’s being acknowledged ! I’m SO HAPPY for him!!! Wonderful news!
I don’t really know what p-scales are either 🙂 That’s amazing about the orthodontist – well done Syd. We have been very worried about A needing braces (both Richard and I did), but so far so good and the dentist said it looked as if it should be ok. A long long way from the days of screaming and refusing to allow a dentist near him.