Randy had speech therapy today with Vanessa. He said she was very impressed with how organized he was as well as with his follow through with things such as doing his homeworkl. He is definitely making improvements! She talked to him about reading. He said he loses track of information by the time he finishes a chapter and mentioned that he has trouble following movie plots. I really noticed this when he and I rented a movie a couple of weekends ago. By the end of the movie, I was having to explain what was going on. Then again, I am sure it didn't help that we had watched the movie over a 2 day period.

Vanessa then read a story to Randy and had him retell the story with the main points. She then had him do a question sheet without reading the printed information. He had 3 questions that he was unsure about and said he would like to read the printed info to help with him. While he was reading and completing the questions, his mom noticed that his tremors were quite pronounced. They seem to appear more when he is really concentrating. She then had Randy highlight the info which would hlpe him answer the questions he didn't complete. He had to read the questions over a couple of times before they made sense to him. In the end, he did a great job.

Tonight, Randy and I went to the brain injury support group down in Puyallup. There were some people there from last time. The coordinators were there ~ the man who suffered a head injury over 20 years ago and his wife. Also, the man who suffered a head injury in the late 80's was there. He was almost 22 at the time. He has no short term memory. He tried to live on his own for awhile but was unsuccessful. He and his dad come to group together. There were also some people who we hadn't met yet. There was a man who fell off of a roof 4 1/2 years ago. By looking at him and talking to him you could not tell he had a head injury. There was also a man who has had two head injuries. The first was from rock climbing and the second was a collision on highway 18 involving a hit and run driver. He lost his son in the accident. I am not sure how long ago the accidents were. Then there was a lady who was hit by a drunk driver over 2 years ago. She is on her 20 something surgery that will be taking place December 20th ~ she will spend Christmas in the hospital. She is missing the top part of her skull. Randy walked out of the room feeling very fortunate.