My daughter had the same thing. We waited too long to get the helmet so the falt spot never fully went away. At 6 months of age, you are not likely to correct it with repositioning only Repositioning works best before 4 months of age. The ideal time for a helmet is between 4 and 8 months. Please look up your local helmet place and go for an eval to determine the severity. I did not and I will forever regret it. We did  not band until 14 months and that is very late so my daughter will always have a bit of a flat spot.

I am on several lists for this condition (plagiocephaly and brachycephaly) and spent many months communicating with other moms dealing with the same thing. Many pediatiricans are not knowledgeable on this topic. Please look up starband, hanger band, and doc band. These are the three most popular helmets and there is likely one of these in your location.

If the head is mild, then they probably will not recommend a helmet (or band as they are sometimes called). Moderate to severe cases typically need a band at 6 months. Plus, it will probably take a month or two to get the whole process done. Please don't delay.

Also, the issue is not purely cosmetic as many doctors say it is. Right now, my daughter wears an eye patch for strasbismus. The eye doctor says that the flat head can cause problems with the eye muscles and eye nerves and cause this. Other difficulties can include ear infections, sinus problems, jaw problems, and some others that I don't remember. Luckily, her ear infections decreased after she wore her helmet.


A helmet may seem hard, but it went by quicklky. It is not all that heavy and is made of plastic and foam. The foam is shaved to shape the head as it grows. It does not push on the skull, but directs the area of growth. That is why it is less effective as they get older - the head growth slows down.

I also used YBCR in combination with the Doman materials.  When my son (2.5) started to lose interest I went back to something that had worked before:  Making the books myself, a la the Doman method.  The difference was like night and day!
 
 Use your own photos-- of family members, places you have been, etc. etc., and make simple sentences for each photo.  Keep the type fairly large-- an inch and a half high, and not too many words on a page.  Typically the photo goes on one page and the sentence goes on the page facing it.  How you make the book is up to you.  I know people who do them on MyPublisher, where you electronically create the book and they print it and send it to you (and its not that expensive).  Or you can make the book by hand-- print the photos and paste them onto pages (actually clear packing tape is best- prevents the edtes from peeling).  For pages I used the blank 12'x12" cards that you can get from the Doman website.  The advantage of making the book by hand is that you can use photos from anywhere-- last year's calendars, second hand books, old posters, etc. 

I'm not sure why this made such a big difference.  The obvious explanation - using images that are a part of his own environment-- may be part of it, but not all of it.  My son vastly prefers the books I've made regardless of subject.  Doman focuses a lot on type size and so forth, so that may be part of it as well.

Another thing that helped -- making my own DVDs. VERY simple, just little 5-minute setments- set up the camera and go through the flashcards as if your child were in front of you, (Doman method/made my own flashcards). I guess it may sound a little silly, but I work full time and doing this also served as a way to connect with my son.

Hope this helps!

All wonderful ideas. I did make a book out of some YBCR cards, but it was a photobook and kiind of expensive. I haven't tried the other kind of book. I'm also not sure I have the tech savy to do my own DVD.

After only a week, my daughter seems back on track. I just backed up in the curriculum and she stopped fighting me. So, we are basically doing review and her confidence has increased. I think she is enjoying the success so I'm going to slow down with her.

Natalie did better last night. I just let her guide what we did and helped to feel that she was in control. She asked to do the computer so we went on Headsprout. She got her teddy bear and had the teddy bear point to the answers while I clicked on them. After a while, she clicked on a few and then asked me to do it again. I think that the issue is that she's scared to make a mistake so I put her back on the prevous episode. It did take about 20 minutes to get through 5 minutes of material, but I justed waited for her to be okay with responding. Afterward, I did a quick assessmen with her on sight words using the Dolsch preprimer words. She handled that fine and knew 13 of the 40. Then, we did a scissor activity and that was it. I got through a lot less than I would have like to, but I think that she is telling me that I need to slow down.

Up until October, I was really doing the YBCR cards, but she got resistent so I switched to a phonics based approach. Now, she has forgotten about half of the words. In the end, many of the YBCR words are not the most common words that she will need to know so I am not that worried about it, but it does mean that going back to that won't guarantee that she knows what I show her.

I think that this may just be a phase. She has also been crying more at dropoff for daycare and is having separation anxiety in places where she didn't used to (gymnastics and swimming).

I realize that this is an old post, but...

Six months ago, my 4 year old was doing the same thing. Then, I found Headsprout and reading eggs and now he loves our time.

My daughter is almost 3.5 and she is suddenly resisting everything. She can do some basic reading. She learned about 100 YBCR words in the last year. We did pre-k HOP and started the K. In the last few weeks, she is shutting herself off. She is on the verge of really reading here, but she no longer wants our learning time together. Instead, when I suggest something, she starts crying. Some of it may be my fault because I have insisted too often since we only have one time a day for it.

Last night, we were doing Headsprout when she said that she was thirsty. I had her sitting on my lap so I told her to finish this one thing and then I would get her some juice. She put her head on the desk and said, "No" and then shut down. Perhaps I should have just gotten the juice, but it then became a power struggle. I waited until she decided to put her head up and finish a little bit more. Then I got the juice. Tonight, she did not want to do Headsprout. She also doesn't want reading eggs, HOP, I See Sam book 1, YBCR, or the sight word cards. She did agree to do a scissor activity and then wanted to pretend to write words. She basically scribbled on some paper. I gave her a choice between several different things and she finally chose to write one line of letters on a tracer page and then I told her we could go to bed.

When she did not want to do Headsprout, she said it was too hard. My daughter is a perfectionist and she hates being wrong. So, I sat her on my lap and purposely missed a number of my responses and showed her what the computer did. Then, she went and got her teddy bear and had the teddy bear point to the correct answer and I clicked on it. We did a brief clip, but it took quite  bit longer because she was playing around. I feel like I screwed up by engagin in the power struggle last night.

I don't want to stop our learning time, but I don't want tears either. Suggestions? Should I ust go with the scissors stuff right now? The crazy thing is that she could not get enough of all of this six months ago.

Just saw Stanford Binet IQ test kit on eBay. You might want to get it and "pull apart" see what it is about...

Are you sure? A person can lose their license by selling this. It is called test security. . Showing everything off breaks test security and is a violation of our ethics. After all, if anyone could get a test kit, then the results would mean nothing.

Learning all of those things helps to develop the cognitive skills that will show on those tests. After starting your baby can read with my daughter at 2 years 4 months, her visual perception and memory skills went through the roof. She is monitored in a longitudinal study as part of the control group (typically developing child) and she scored in the 99th percentile on a test that measures those things. At age 2, she was only around the 50th.

I would also do puzzles and talk talk talk. Language is highly associated with those verbal tests. I'll have to think about the reasoning tasks.

In other words, what you do at this age will affect the test scores more than what you could do 5 years from now. The brain is more plastic right now because connections are being formed.

I just purchased the first 40 episodes since it is the same price if you buy 40 and 40 as if you buy all of them. I bought for both my son and my daughter. I did the payment plan. We will see if the interest continues. In the meantime, my son is now able to read the "at" words in the HOP kit. This is an improvement for him.

I checked out the I See Sam books and found a few online to print for free. I will test these with my kids to see if they like them. If they do, I may get those as well.

As a school psychologist, I can tell you that practicing for an IQ test probably is not possible. Many of the tasks asked of one are not traditionally academic in nature. They do have to do with word knowledge or information and lots of other things that memory and visual perception. I supposed that you can practice stretching the memory or make sure that the vocabulary is good, but that is something that must be encouraged and nourished for years. A crash practice will not help much.

I do not give the Stanford-Binet, but even if I did, professional ethics would not allow me to comment on specifics about how to do well.

Most of those online IQ type things are way different than the real thing. In real life, the child will be using manipulatives, blocks, etc. Those online things are typically knocks offs and not reliable.

Yes, IQ does correlate with school achievement. There are a ton of studies that document that,  but there are many other factors that go into how well one does. We all know that motivation and persistence can be key as well.

Also, IQ at age 5 is not stable yet - I often see 10 to 20 point differences a couple of years later. This is because the kinds of things that are measured in a 5-year-old are different than what is measured later.  In general, age 6 is when IQ starts becoming stable.

So, I guess that private schools can give the test to get in, but I wouldn't worry too much. If you have been working with your child, then the child has developed visual, auditory, memory, and language skills that will influence the score.

Thanks.

We bought a one year subscription to reading eggs.

For the Iamsam.com, when I type that in, I get a message sayng that the site is under construction. Are you sure this is the correct web address?

I was able to find a set of phonics chapter books from scholastic with that name. Is it the same thing?

thank you so much. I looked at your blog briefly and noticed that you are also doing reading eggs. We started that about 6 weeks ago. My son just started the 2nd map. It has taken him that much review to get where we are. We do about 5 lessons a week on there. Anyway, headsprout finally got him to the point where he could read the words. Up until then, he knew the sounds, but every word on headsprout was hard for him to remember. I think that Headsprout's method of teaching the blendinig made sense for him.

My daughter is 3 and is further along than my son. She is on map 3 of reading eggs. We have not needed to review much, but she doesn't do a full lesson every day. She loses interest after a few minutes. I just signed her up for a trial of headsprout and she does a few minutes, but then asks for a break. So, I set a timer for 3 minutes and then we get back to work, but she doesn't always want to return to headsprout. She chooses reading eggs over them. Or, she would rather review sight words or something like that.

We also did the Pre-K kit from HOP. My son isn't all the way through level 2, but now he wants to be on the computer rather than doing the workbook. My daughter is in the kindergarten book, but it has taken two months to get through the first 3 lessons. She has trouble remembering to look at the endinig sound of words so she misreads cap to be cat or can. Because of that, she has no confidence and says that the book is too hard. Right now, we just review one page from lesson 3 and then move on to something else. I am using magnetic letters and having her practice saying the words and spelling them to help her focus on all of the sounds. It is a gradual process, but seems to be helping.

My son has ADHD so his attention span is a huge issue. My daughter is just 3 - I don't think that she has ADHD.
So far, my son has repeated episode 3 of Headsprout about 10 times because he keeps asking for it and I haven't bought more episodes. I contacted Headsprout and they told me to watch facebook for a specail, but I am not sure that I want to wait very much longer.

How do Headsprout, HOP, and reading eggs compliment each other?

I say don't worry about it. It is normal for this sound to come late - sometimes as late as 2nd grade. Speech therapists won't even treat it until 3rd grade. As long as your child can hear the difference when you say it, it's fine.

Has anyone used this program with their child? The first 3 episodes are free and so we have been doing those, but to buy more is pretty expensive. It is 200 dollars for the whole thing and 100 for the first half. It is supposed to take the child up to a middle 2nd grade level in 80 episodes. My son loves the trial episodes and is actually picking up how to blend words. He is 4 1/2.

Anyone use this and have success? Do you think it is worth the money?

Melanie

What is Your child can read?

My kids did the same thing for a few weeks, but it was in the car so they could only watch it once or maybe twice a day. After about a month, they started asking for other videos. In the long run, it was great because both of my kids knew all of their letters and letter sounds after a few weeks. Prior to this, my son had shown no interest in all in learning. Now, he has pride and has gained confidence. We are breezing through the HOP Pre-K lessons and I am wondering whether I should have skipped to K.

We get spinal adjustments to prevent them. They really work. I didn't get sick at all lat winter. Our chiro is wonderful. In fact, we even skipped both flu shots and were just fine.