From Facebook:
"We had a good end to the week. Continued the positive momentum of the past few days, and Ryan was wow-ing us again. :)"
Thankfully, Ryan overcame his upset tummy last night and had a decent sleep, and seemed to be in pretty good form today. He was a little tired and floppy at first, but we ended up having another great day.
In the Blue Room we wanted to start off with "pat the floor" (imitation), but he just wasn't interested. He kept wanting to watch the other children, and to get up and walk away. So, L. decided to give Ryan some tickles to get his attention. Well, he grabbed her hands because he wanted more. Okay, so we followed his lead, and switched to the incidental goal of requesting "more" with the sign. L. was tickling the inside of Ryan's thighs, and he was giggling like crazy and rolling all over the floor! But every time she paused, he was right back in her face/grabbing her hands. Every time, she made him ask for "more tickles" with the sign. Usually we HOH the "more" sign, but we've been testing Ryan's independence the past three days and focusing on seeing whether he really needs a prompt, or if it's just habit for him to wait for someone to help. In this case, L. moved back from HOH and wrist prompted him for more. She did get him to put his hands together 3 or 4 times with just the wrist prompt, which was really nice improvement. Of course, Ryan was enjoying the tickles so much that it was hard to get him to focus enough to ask for "more"!
We noticed that Ryan was having a high-level mouthing day. For the most part, he was concentrating on his chewy (which is good), but it was distracting our efforts to engage him more in the programs. L. said it might be better just to let him chew for a bit because he wasn't focusing on us until he had that need met (so to speak). So, Ryan got frequent chew breaks today. It seemed to work, though; after we let him chew a bit, we tried "high fives" with a wrist prompt, and I think we got a good three out of 5 pats in our trial.
We also noticed Ryan seemed to be seeking harder objects to chew on too, today. I still had a piece of wooden train track in my basket from yesterday, and L. suggested Ryan might like that for a reinforcer. Well, ya! It ended up being our go-to reinforcer all morning. L. made a comment about Ryan being "addicted to track," and well, we kind of got the giggles from there. All day long, we kept coming up with sayings like "Ryan's track addiction," "He's a track addict," "He needs his track fix,"and making sure "we have a good supply of track for him." The adults need a laugh once in a while, too, you know!
We tried a little "go play" again, using Ryan's "track addition" as an enticement for him. He didn't want to go play with other toys, but when L. moved the track away from him and said, "Go play!" he generally went to it with no other prompts.
Now, obviously, Ryan will not always be able to chew on the track as reinforcement! Eventually, when it's time to teach him how to push the train on the tracks, he will not be allowed to mouth the tracks anymore. We'll have to find something else he's interested in chewing on.
Next we worked on a play goal with the Winnie the Pooh piano. L. said she'd like to see him start using the other functions of the toy, besides the piano and the spinner. On one part, there is a little book where you can turn the pages. L. showed him how to do it, then HOH'ed and wrist prompted a few times. Then, she lifted the one page and let it stand up (it's stiff) to see what Ryan would do. He immediately reached over and turned the page, with no prompt! So, we tried it a few more times: while he was playing with the spinney parts, we would set up a page to see what he'd do. Every time, he'd reach over and turn the page on his own! L. then showed him how to press the buttons to cause the characters to pop up. He also did that, independently, once or twice. Then, he reached over to the book part and flipped a page on his own initiative; we hadn't even set it up for him! He still enjoys the spinning parts most, but it was great to see him exploring other functions of the toy, independently, once he was aware of what was there. L. said we might move to a more basic piano next week, and use the Winnie the Pooh one as a reinforcer now, since he likes it so much.
Back in the Yellow Room, we worked on the shape sorter again. Ryan wanted to mouth all the pieces, but L. was the blocker today, and she did a great job showing me how to block Ryan from mouthing the shapes, with a flat hand. We had to HOH most of the shape sorting today because he was so into mouthing that he wanted every shape in his mouth, but at least he cooperated and even tried to put the circles in by himself once or twice. He got to have his "track" to chew on when he let us help him put the shapes in appropriately.
We also went into the Rainbow Room and practiced "kick the ball" today. And here's where Ryan became a "superstar" (L.'s term). It took a few tries to get him to sit (stay) in the chair, but L. only had to help him kick the ball the first one or two times. Then, she just set it on the floor by his foot, and said "Kick it!" and he did! Several times after that, we just set it by his foot and he automatically kicked! It was like "kick the ball" clicked today. That's pretty amazing, considering that one was new this week! Also, at one point, Ryan crawled off the chair and was sitting on the floor as L. and I chatted/made notes. The ball was near him, so he picked it up, and rolled it away with his hands! When L. put it back near him, it was closer to his foot, and he kicked it away! She said, "Do you know how long it takes some of my kids to figure out that we roll it with the hands and kick it with the feet?!" Her excitement is infectious. :)
Next, we were back in the Yellow Room, and decided to work on Ryan's pointing for more. We worked with the dry noodles again, since we'd had success with that yesterday. Remember, when Ryan had been grabbing the bin for more noodles, L. had been wrist prompting the tap on the lid to indicate he wanted "more." Today, we did that maybe twice with him, and suddenly, he reached out and tapped the lid on his own--no prompts whatsoever--because he wanted those noodles! Then he was tapping with both hands on the lid . . . again, and again, and again! For about 10 minutes straight, it was a noodle extravaganza! L. said when he's totally independent he gets extra reinforcement, so the noodles were flying. And we knew he'd made that connection, and it was exciting for him, because I could barely keep up with opening and closing the lid; his requests (taps) were coming so fast! L. and I were both breathless and laughing because we could barely keep enough noodles in the bin for him because he was doing so awesome requesting: tap after tap after tap!
[By the way, notice all the exclamation points today? It was very exciting. :) ]
Before I knew it, it was time for research and theory. Ryan went off with the students and volunteers to play. From their reports, he continued to do some great manding for bubbles, and also enjoyed a string of Mardi Gras-style beads. We have some of those beads around here. I'll have to dig them out and see if we can use them for our manding homework.
Theory started off more with a side discussion of sibling issues. It was actually a great conversation; I felt like it brought to light even more similarities between our two Unity families, and Dr. G. had some good insights on the situation. Actually, I'm also planning on attending an information session at Autism Services Inc. in March that is focusing on that topic. I hope it will give me some resources for Andrea. I know she loves the monthly Sibling Group at Summit Centre, but I wish I could do more for her. Imagine having two little brothers on the autism spectrum; she's naturally sensitive and anxious, so that has to be an extra burden for a seven-year-old girl to bear.
The rest of our theory session focused on the importance of recording data and the principle of positive reinforcement, two essential components of ABA and what we do at Unity in working with our boys.
Overall, the week started out rough, and we've had a few chaotic nights at home, but in the end, Ryan's had an amazing week. He's shown astonishing progress the past three days.
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