Practicing PRT

I had so much fun with Buggie tonight!

Sunshine and KofC wanted to stay to sister#3's until it was time to read Harry Potter at 8, so DaddaHub and I gave into Buggie and let him play in a pan of water on the deck. May as well have let him get into the pool because by the time we were through he was soaked. First I just let him play in it without prompting because I wanted to go in while he was out and run a mop over the floors(something that hadn't been done all week). I looked out and DaddaHub was engrossed in a book and Buggie had dropped the whole pan of water down on his lap. i got him more and finished the mopping.

I went out and got the water soaker gun and sucked up some water with it from the pan. Elijah immediatly took his hand out of the water and got all excited over the gun. I gave him a tease, and then I prompted, "water". Instantly on cue he made an 'aaa' sound and I soaked him. I did that for a whole pan full of water and only twice did I have to prompt more than once. When it was all through I refilled the pan with warm water and splashed him a little with it on the belly. Squels of delight sounded. And I said "water". Instantly he responded. there was only enough water in the pan to do that three times But each time he just squeled but always calmed down enough to give me a great vocal request. Reluctantly we took him in the house, because it was 7:30 and getting chilly. not to mention he had seven visible new misquito bites.

When we got inside I took some toys upstairs and Elijah followed. I'd already cleaned up his room and mopped it, but he found the light chaser. I got control of it and prompted and he answered, but that was it. He jumped up on his bed. I got on the bed with him and held his arms at his side in such a way that he didn't know that I was holding him and I placed the light chaser to his nose and let it spin. He loved this and we got about 10-15 one try exchanges alternating from nose to tongue.

I personally think he's getting the connection, just not sure if he gets it more when there's not a crowd. We shall see.

~R

Day 4

NAME IDENTIFIER:
~The IWK trainer will be named: curly
~The Occupational Therapist will be named: Gungho
~Elijah's primary prt worker will be named: friendly
~The behavior specialist will be called: Dr. Flirt
~Elijah will be called: Buggie
~my husband will be called: DaddaHub
~My daughter Evie will be called: Sunshine
~My son Arless will be called: KofC (king of crazy)
~the early interventionalist wull be called: Tender(just cause she speaks so tender)
~The speach Therapist will be called:p-n-p (prim and proper, just cause she seems so together)
______________

Usually I'm a night person. You know yawning and tired all day and then at five, ZAP, I'm wide awake and can't get myself to sleep. Well, yesterday was not that way at all. I zonked out in Elijah's cushion hole yesterday. Buggie was in his room playing and the cushion hole is by the stairs, so it was a safe place to sleep right where I could hear him if he went downstairs. So you'd think I'd be juiced but I was so tired for the rest of the evening.

Tender came last night and stayed for two hours. She didn't really play with Elijah since it was on her free time and really just wanted to visit and see how things were going. She's hoping to get some time in with Elijah and see how PRT is doing. I usually clean up at night so that i can get some writing done in the morning, but it wasn't working that way...my mistake was telling DaddaHub that i was just gonna rest my eyes a few minutes on the couch.

So on to todays session. Friendly came in the middle of all the rucus of me suiting Sunshine and KofC up to go to sister#3's. (just stepping in here to say Sunshine accomplished our goal for the summer to teach her to ride her Bike!!!Yippee!). Anyway, Friendly had the fun of dressing my naked Buggie, and then she got in a few responses, which I missed.

Buggie woke up totally hoarsed this morning, but it went away after a bit and was only slightly noticeable. However I think it still bothered him and maybe effected his ears to, cause after everyone left he seemed to really favor his right ear, pushing his hand into it and kind of wincing in pain. However I've already been warned by the doctor that they can't treat it(even if they see it's red) until he gets a fever, incase it's one of those incidences where it will get better on its own.

So soon after the rest of the team arrived and because Friendly was already playing with him, there wasn't the usual discussion right away. Friendly got some time in with him, although he wasn't that into it which was probably due to his throat being sore(he'd sceam and the last end of the scream would fade out with hoarseness). She did get some spinning in though.

At one point Buggy took off upstairs, so I made my request that maybe water play be off today because of his hoarseness and Curly took her minute to tell us what she decided should be done for the day. There was a lot I missed today cause I was kinda zoned out for some reason, but I think I caught the basics.

Firstly she said that perhaps today we could record his sounds(ex. mmm, baa, ia sounds) so naturally because she's the speach therapist P-n-P took over that job. She was looking for sounds the frequency they were used in, if the sound was applied to a certain toy, and how many prompts were made and which promps he actually answered to. So for example if you prompt for the ball ten times and he responded verbally on the third and tenth prompt then he'd she'd put 10 ticks beside ball and circle the third and tenth one.

Secondly, we were asked to watch for the possibility that he may not really be interested in anything at all. For example if he was playing with a block, and you took it from him and prompted for it and he took a long time to ask for it chances are he wasn't really interested in it anyway. .. which is so typical of Buggie. At one point she even said maybe he likes the fact that we are there so he's not leaving not because he wants the toy that your prompting for but just really likes the social aspect of it. So if he wasn't really making an effort for the prompted toy maybe we could remove ourselves away from him.

Thirdly, Curly said that the impression she got from Buggie was that he really didn't understand that he can do physical things. For example, if the opening to the blocks is visible from the front he understands that he can open them, yet when they are turned he doesn't comprehend that he can actually still get the blocks it's just that the block tote is turned. She used an example similiar to this: if us, as normal people, go to a door we know that we can turn the door knob, but Elijah just can't seem to make that connection with some things. She suggested that maybe not so much now but as he gets better at it we could help him get that connection that even though something has changed he can still do the same things with it.

Gungho got her time with Buggie upstairs in his room. She got some nice exchanges for a light chaser toy he hadn't played with much. And she did some tickling with him. I kinda missed it all cause i was downstairs having a quick breakfast. i did happen to catch the blanket game and he liked that for awhile. i was surprised that Buggie ddin't try to get the whole five of us on the bed with him, which is usually what he does! Typical male behavior!

So I got the hard part today -the tail end of the session. he'd had had his snack and we'd had ours(thanks Friendly for the yummy muffins!!) Buggie was sort of all over the place, seemed aggitated although he wasn't crying. i tried the blanket with him, but he just was too toned out. Although P-N-P did notice that I did get the quicker responses. Which is neat, such a nice change from a year ago when he couldn't stand to be in the same room as me.

So the morning went ok, not as good as yesterday, but still a success. Curly noticed that each day he seems a little more accepting of them. His self-stemming(spitting, chewing on hair) seems to be less frequent and he seems to stay quiet instead of all the humming he usually does.

seems like I'm missing something, If I think of anything else I'll be back.

EDITED TO ADD:

As soon as the team was out the door today Elijah came to me as oppsed to my usual hugging him and telling him he did a good job. He wanted me to bounce him on the trampoline. I think he was testing me to see if I would give him freebe's now that the others were gone cause when I prompted him he dropped to the trampoline and cried and cried. Afer a few minutes of tears he got up and very aggressively vocally sorta bully-like asked me to bounce him, which I did. Kind of interesting!

~R

Day 3 of PRT

Today was a huge success!

NAME IDENTIFIER:

~The IWK trainer will be named: curly
~The Occupational Therapist will be named: Gungho
~Elijah's primary prt worker will be named: friendly
~The behavior specialist will be called: Dr. Flirt
~Elijah will be called: Buggie
~my husband will be called: DaddaHub
~My daughter Evie will be called: Sunshine
~My son Arless will be called: KofC (king of crazy)

To start off the session Curly said she and the rest of the team had analyzed the tapes from yesterday and she was gonna be a little contribicting of what she'd told us the previous day. She had told us to let him play with the toy without immediatly taking control of it and then putting a verbal antecedent on it. BUT because Elijah has such a small time limit of interest in any one thing that probably that wouldn't work. So now we have to for example if we have a balloon and bubbles and he chooses the bubbles, we kind of clear the balloon away and gain control of the bubbles with only allowing a few second to him having his freebe. Then once we get the bubbles, we say "Bubbles?" at each opportunity and then when he finally makes a verbal sound, because he's worked so hard, the consequence is for him to have a longer play time with it. Instead of blowing the bubbles once and then stopping for a verbal prompt, we may blow them two or three times. That way he's more motivated because the reward is so much better.

Not only was that to change but she noticed that about 10:30 he got antsy yesterday so perhaps at 10:30 I could step away and get a snack prepared and set it on the table and then if he was hungry he could just get a snack. Assuming that in his mind that's when he usually drags me to the kitchen, but now there's all this people playing with him and he forgets that he needs to grab my hand and take me to the kitchen. So we had to establish a schedule.

We got started, Friendly(I really need to find a better name for her)got first go and being the resourcful gal that she is she'd came equiped with balloons. Not having had balloons since July 4th(Sunshine's B-day) Friendly instantly had Buggie's attention. He did some really good "b' sounds, of course all when i was out of the room. The balloon was a huge hit and he played with it for a long time. He started doing crazy sounds with his cheeks which I instantly knew was a sound i do with him, so she told me to jump in and get my ten minutes. The check pushing was not a success, but pushing on his feet were and he did a lot of verbal response for that.

After 10:30 once he'd had a sandwhich, and a couple ritz crackers we decided to move out to the patio, because no one was dressed for the pool, we filled up a small tub with water and let him play in that. It was Dr. Flirt's turn to take over so she stood gaurd at the water tub and everytime Elijah came to her she'd try to keep him away without allowing him to touch her or struggling with him(because for reasons that I forget right now that's not good for Elijah. I'll ask that tomorrow if I remember). Because it was difficult I got my cutting board to cover the water tub. When Buggie noticed the cutting board he instantly went to the patio chair and began to lick it. Curly instantly let us know that as soon as the wanted behavior got harder(by the cutting board) he had to seek out a stimulate to sooth himself and that's why his licking the chair became much more frequent.

After a few good attemps, Gungho took over, her task was much harder(poor Gungho, she always gets the brunt it seems). We'd brought out a few more toys so he was jumping to fruit loops, water, chair, squirt gun and bubbles and at one point she said, "I need more than two hands'. It was getting harder by then and they'd filled up nearly 2 dvd's and he was ready for a break so they finished off the prompt: saying that since gungho had prompted 'water' and he wasn't interested they still wanted to make him say something so that they could leave without him thinking,"wow, look at that, I didn't say anything and so they left me alone." Makes since to me. Finally he gave a good indication with a verbal sound and he got a load of water on his face.

The session ended on a good note!

Tomorrow Dr. Flirt is going with another family for the day so that the speech therapist can have a day with Buggie.

So til then
~R

DAY 1&2 of Pivotal Response Treatment(PRT)

2.00 yesterday began the journal for Elijah and us. The four woman showed up(I've attached little names to them instead of giving their full name).

~The IWK trainer will be named: curly
~The Occupational Therapist will be named: Gungho
~Elijah's primary prt worker will be named: friendly
~The behavior specialist will be called: Dr. Flirt (just cause she's worked arly over into loving her so keenly)
~Eliajh will be called: Buggie
~my husband will be called: DaddaHub

I was given a 21 pg. stappled together computer paper type book and Curly went over about 10 pages. Which was plenty. Basically all she said in those ten pages is: if Buggie gets interested in a toy you let him play with it awhile to determine that he is really interested in it. Let him know what it is. So for example: If he's playing with blocks you simple use the one word "block." as opposed to "You have a block"(too many words will confuse him). then you take the block gently from him(that's shared control), and you use the one word prompt in sort of a question, "Block?"(but that's only when he makes an attempt to get the block, or makes eye contact with you.

So we did this for about an hour until they said let's wrap it up and leave him while he's happy. Of course all of us interacting with him was recorded.

So this morning, after analizing the cd lastnight, Curly had a change she wanted to make. Because Elijah does a lot of babbling and humming, she said if we except that as a verbal behavior then he's gonna think we are rewarding the humming etc. Not only that but because Elijah's motivation is so short she thought maybe if we let him have a choice of activities. so we had to regroup and all be sure we understood. Gungho took the first shot, first she'd gone up and gotten peek-a-block toy, and she tried to get him interested. he wasn't so i ran upstairs and brought down adonut stacker type toy, a squeck toy he likes, some blocks, and a popcorn popper thing he likes.

Gungho took them and gave him the option to choose, once he reached foreward and chose the donut stacker, all the other toys had to be taken from his sight so he wouldn't do the basketball approach(which is sort of tricky you into thinking he wanted that so he could spring around and grab the one he really wanted(which he did a lot of yesterday))

But today was a bit tricky, he just wasn't interested or motivated or whatever. then DaddaHub (having got a few minutes off from work) came in. It didn't take Buggie long to spot him and he began tugging him to the trampoline. Gungho stepped aside and DaddaHub took over. He got in lots of "bounce' Prompts and then "bubbles", and then Buggy had had enough and he just cried non-stop.

We tried lots of things to get him motivated again, but it was 11 and he was hungry. While DaddaHub got him some frenchfries and water he cried and they wouldn't let me sooth him at all, until they were sure that abtecedent/prompt was lost. When he'd went upset DaddaHub had prompted for "bubbles" and they didn't want to interfer with that until they were sure he'd forgotten about it. Finally she said, "Now it's ok to sooth him a bit", and I hugged him, massaged him and did joint compressions. the joint compressions worked for a bitm but he was hungry.

Finally his food was ready.

First when he sat down at the food he was still quite stressed, but he eventually picked up the sippy cup and swished it around in his mouth. Curly told me that that Buggie understood what he needed to calm his arousal(which is basically his stress) and the water did that for him, cause he swished the one bouthful around on his toungue and teeth for about five minutes and slowly calmed himself. then he swallowed it and gave us all a huge grin.

All in all it ended out a good session cause when they left, he was happy, and that's important, so that when they arrive tomorrow he can remember that he was happy.

Well, it'll be a challenge for me as well as him, and I'm hoping to have a talking child when it's through.

~R

Zoo

We went to the zoo yesterday. On the way to the zoo we stopped to this big lawnsale bash thingy. If you pay 5.00 for a table you can set up there, so there was all kinds of people(including my mom, which is why I stopped in the first place). Anyway I found some fubies for Evie at the table next to moms and so of course I had to find something for Arless. I began to search the tables and when I got to the last table I was shocked. There was a lady sat up with a mixture of two things: Toys and Pornography VHS's. The thing is there were kids there looking at the toys and right in the box next to the toys were some tapes with the picture's turned up to attract people. you could certainly see where the porn table was, it was the only table surrounded by men. Well, we made it tot he zoo and thinking Elijah was gonna have a blast like last year we were anxious to get started. SURPRISE! He was in misery. I tried getting him to feed the goats and he just wouldn't even look at them. We hurried through, because Elijah just cried. Well I managed to stay within my points yesterday and actually went to bed with some left over, which shouldn't happen. PRT starts in a week. This Thursday is video recording day(to tape elijah for later comparison) and I'm hoping I won't have to be hear since my writers group is having an all day writing spree and I really want to go.

The pool

Our place is small outside so we can't afford an egstravagant pool, but we went out and got a smaller one for the kids. we were so excited to see how Elijah got along with it because he is morbidly terrified of the tub.

Well, as we guessed he wasn't too thrilled. I'm the impatient one in the family and Clifford knows this so he warned me: don't you force him in either, or you'll ruin him for good. But as soon as Cliff was out of sight I lifted him and walked in the pool with him just letting his feet dangle. and sure enough he ran in the house and didn't come back out. I know I need a slap upside the head. Well that was about teo weeks ago.

Last week he would go around the pool and splash his hands in it, but the second he caught sight of the big bad momma he'd run back in the house. Last Saturaday Clifford got in and offered his hand to elijah who willingly got in. That was it he was in there for 2 whole hours, just walking around. Sunday he worked his way into sitting down and then yesterday he laid down.

I'll never understand him though, he'll play in there and yet, he's still terrified of the tub!

weight watchers

I started weight watchers on Wednesday. It's a bit different from before, much more flexible.

I've added a counter to keep track of my progress. I only weigh-in on wednesday.

~R

Rescheduled PRT

I can not believe how fast the year is going. We're in month seven. My daughter turned 9 on the 4th of july and almost stands my height.

Prt has been rescheduled and I'm told that the date is fixed, there will be no more changing. Well, because it starts August 14th my life has been hectic. The new workers are trying to get acquinted with him before the training starts because they want to be able to just focus on the therapy and not have to worry about winning him over.

Elijah is such a perfect canditate for it, he's already quite vocal with his babbling and near talking(not words but loads of sounds).

I'm anxious for the whole process to start, and struggling with wether i want to spend the time before cleaning or trying to get as much written as i can. After the PRT starts my writing will all but cease to exist.

Will keep you all informed.

~R

Me, Buggie, and my disgusting kisses

Buggie's a good little boy, but yesterday while I was in the middle of writing an email, with my tea and two very tiny loonie sized cookies). He marches over to me, pulled the cookie from my mouth and threw it over his shoulder and then demanded I pick him up. Once on my lap he proceeded to rub my face and neck and offered his lips to me for a kiss.

That was a change from this morning.

He NEVER hits, but that morning I grabbed him and tossed him on the 40" ball and then kissed him all over(he usually loves that). After I was through he followed me to my desk and requested I pick him up. I knew he was either mad or excited cause he was biting his lip and shaking. I picked him up and he placed a hand on each side of my head and just shook all over like he was fighting not to and then had to give into the desire and started punching me.

Usually if I kiss him(and I confess I do kiss him too much), and he doesn't want to be kissed. he'll make out that he wants to kiss me and then present me with a whole glob of spit right in my mouth. YUCK! But cute.

Lastnight was fitful. Elijah was still up at three when I became really sick and cliff took over for me. i am so hoping that the fact that he woke up earlier than i thought he would this morning that he will go to bed no problem tomorrow.

This is a super site, very heart wrenching as these women sound just like me. Go to the media file under Autism Everyday. If your a family member of an autistic child it'll sound so firmiliar i'm sure, if not please watch it. ..it'll help you understand.

~R

Treatment Log

So I've decided today that as a way to keep track I will basically sum up each session from the treatment log I'm left at the end of each session. I intend to try to figure out how to make a new colum on the side bar so that I can have a quick character reference. Instead of telling each person's name I'll call them by a characteristic. Ex. The speech therapist will be known as a Little miss Prim and proper.

Now when the PRT starts I'm not sure they'll continue with the treatment logs, but until then:

Date: May 19th 2006
treatment by: Little Miss Prim and proper

Purpose/Goals of the Visit: verbal/non-verbal communication play.
Observations/results/progress: canonic babbling/mi mi mi/lifted apple to clinicians mouth to pretend feed with minimal assistance. Vocalization to request tickling x3. Excellent eye contact in play. Mainly interested in bouncing-some play with a ball and blocks.
Suggestions/Ideas given today: Try working on early play-getting Buggie to fed you, rolling cars, balls, cause-n-effect toys. Keep trying to get vocalization for your people games (tickling, etc.)
next visit: June 2nd @9 am

Too funny

cool finger

Outstanding numbers

Autism in USA

Autism in Canada

These are outstanding numbers!

Help Cure Autism

Autism awareness

this is a worthy post but a short post.

I'm in a hurry to get my kids to sunday school.

~R

What is Autism?

This a great explaination of what Autism is.

Last night Clifford and I took Buggie to Walmart. Clifford was finally well enough to go get Jewel's new CD(which by the way is AWESOME). Buggie was just so happy to be out of the house that he did a lot of happy squealing. Everyone just stared at him. I often wonder if people stare because they think he's bad. I do think so. Sometimes I just wanna tell them and if my daughter was with me she would have. She declares it proudly. LOL

Anyway, I finally have a stroller for him. Cost a whooping $1000. So glad that the inhome support bought it. He's too big for a normal stroller so we had to have a special one for him. he loves it! the picture above is basically what it looks like. the only thing is that ours has padding on the seat.

~R

A small dose of info

Well, Erin, The speech therapist was here this morning and she gave me some insite as to how the PRT schedule will work, although she's not positive herself since she will be doing just regular visits.

She tells me it will depend on Pam, who will be the more frequent visitor. Erin says that if Pam decides to come in three days a week that between herself, Kim(the early interventionalist) and Joanne(the Occupational therapist) they will cover the days she doesn't come in.

Their main concern is getting Buggie to make the link between his voice and a request action. Meaning making him realize that when he wants bubbles he only gets them if he makes an approximent sound. The idea is that maybe with constant reinforcment he may finally make that connection.

I'm Excited to get started. Hopefully have the routine in his life will get his sleeping pattern in order. I've been up until 12 every night this week, last night he lasted til 2:30.

I'm quite dizzy, headachy, and exhausted today. Unlike him who's in a bouncy happy mood.

Zzzzzzzzz

oops

chiao

whaaaahooooo

Buggie's been choosen for the Pivotal response training(here on out to be referred to as PRT). I got the official call yesterday and had a whole mix of feelings. I'm so excited. He so deserves it, he's just the most incrediable little boy. It requires some personal sacrifice on my part as well. I will have to set writing aside(somewhat), and will also have to over come my own social disorder and get use to the home invasion.

I intend to keep a little diary here about the progress. Looking at it as a sort of research as well, since I have a harlequin romance story up my sleeve that involves a single dad and an autistic child or maybe a single mom and an autistic child. Not too sure.


~R

Self esteem

Thanks to Fat bitch for pointing me to this...this was a real eye opener

You Have Low Self Esteem 72% of the Time

You tend to blame yourself when things go wrong, regardless of whether it's your fault or not.You're anxious to please others and rely too much on their opinions. Learn to please yourself first, and your confidence will soar.

How is Your Self Esteem?

What type of cat demon are you?

PLayful cat! You are the playful cat! Fun-loving
and slightly crazy describe you best! You
always like to be where the party is and
always are the funny one in groups. You are
probably a very active person and very nice
to ALMOST everybody.

What type of cat demon are you?

mardi Gras starts today

If I were going to Mardi Gras...

















AND:


























Or Would that be a halloween costume?

I remember reading a Janet Dailey novel that focused on the mardi gras.

Always wanted to go see what the hype was about.

R