Our book & Longvida experience featured at Jaden's Journal

Noelle from Jaden's Journal & My Healthiest Life asked me to write about the changes we've seen in Osiyyah since starting Longvida Curcumin. While she was at it, she also mentioned our book (Down Syndrome: What You CAN Do) in her post.

You can check it out at this link ~ "Is Curcumin A Breakthrough Treatment for Down Syndrome?"

Qadoshyah

Longvida Curcumin News

International Nutrition has started carrying UCLA's Longvida Curcumin. Each bottle contains 60, 500mg capsules. The price is $39.95, but INI is having a special introductory price of $35.95.

You can view the product by clicking here.

Here is some more changes we have seen with Longvida Curcumin over the past month:

9/28/09 –

Osiyyah has said a few new words lately. He started saying “Hooee" (one of his sister's nicknames) He can say it really well, unless he starts getting excited and saying it in a fast tone and then it comes out as “hooweewe" or "weewee" ;).

He said “Oops” this morning during speech very well. But, he could only say it with the “p” sound in the middle if I slowed him down and made him say it real slow. Otherwise it was just the “s” sound at the end.

10/28/09 ------ Deeper Progress:

We have continued to see progress and I’d call it “deeper” progress now, as we are into it farther.

Osiyyah asks questions all the time – like “Why?” and “Who?” He has never been one to ask “Who does this belong to?” or “Why are we doing this?” etc. So, it has been neat to have him asking those types of questions. He also asks “What?” when he wants to be sure he’s heard something right or something along those lines. Today (10/28) he started asking “Do?” for “What are you doing?” or “What can I do?”. Wow, that is simply amazing!! I was shocked to hear him say that, as I had never heard him say that before!

Qadoshyah

Straw #3

Sorry for the long break between posting!

At our last speech therapy appointment, the ST suggested that we move Osiyyah up to straw # 3. He had been at #2 for awhile and it was time to move on. So, we decided to move up to #3 and I'm glad we did. I have noticed more improvement in drinking with that straw since we started it.

In case someone is not familiar with what I am referring to when I say "Straw #3" I am referring to the Straw Hierarchy from TalkTools/Sara Rosenfeld Johnson's Oral Motor (Placement) Therapy Program.


The straw hierarchy works on lip close, tongue retraction & lip rounding. In the above picture, Straw #1 is on the left & it goes to Straw #8 on the right (they are in order from L to R). With Straw #1, it takes a little bit longer to "master" that straw than some of the others. Straw #1 has a long tip before the tongue block. As the child is able to drink out of the straw better & better, 1/4" is cut off of the straw, until there is only 1/4" of straw left above the lip block. This will encourage the child to suck out of the straw using his lips, rather than his tongue. By using his tongue, that encourages tongue protrusion and not tongue retraction. Using his lips, it encourages tongue retraction, lip closure & lip rounding.

As to where to get Talk Tools Straw Hierarchy, click here.

Straw #3 is quite a tall straw! It looks kind of funny in the cups Osiyyah uses:




Qadoshyah

Josh & Bernadette's Wedding

Josh & Bernadette, both have Down syndrome. They were the first couple with Down syndrome to be married in Tennessee.

There are a couple videos of their wedding & reception at the link below. What a cute couple and beautiful videos!

http://andycamphotovideo.com/scarritt-bennett/josh-bernadettes-wedding-at-vanderbilts-scarritt-bennett-chapel-in-nashville/

Qadoshyah

Buddy Walk: O's Ranch Hands

Wow, last week flew by! I just had time to sit down and answer a few emails, but not to get a blog post up! We picked my grandma up at the airport last week. She flew in from California and is visiting for a couple weeks.

The day we picked her up, our local DS association (DSAT) had their annual "Kick it off Party" for the Buddy Walk. The party was at Pump It Up. We got there kind of late, but still had a BLAST!

The Buddy Walk was yesterday (Sunday). DSAT has a great turn-out and every year their walk grows! The walk draws 2500+ and this was just the 7th annual walk. DSAT does a great job of putting on a wonderful walk and raising awareness about Down syndrome. This was the first year we actually did the full thing (last year we were only there for the last 30-40 minutes), and it was great. We even got to do some dancing while we were hanging out :). Here's a couple pictures from the day:




Hopefully I can post more later . . .

Goodnight,
Qadoshyah

Coming . . .

I know I've majorly slacked in getting another blog post up. I haven't had much time to sit down and do any blogging. But, I have two blog posts that I want to put up, so hopefully I can get to them between tomorrow and the next couple days :).

Goodnight!
Qadoshyah