Bubbles!!!

This is one of Eric's new reinforcement objects. All the boys enjoyed the show. Definitely a universal hit :-)

Too bad Andy liked this a little too much. He went into a major tantrum after this show was done. We all ran out of breath! Good thing these are an easy, inexpensive way to have fun.

The Last 2 Days

We are up to full 3 hour therapy sessions now. The time does not drag anymore. I am so greatful everything came together. Here is some of what we did the last couple of days.

Eric reading a book. I've never known Eric to be a reader. This is a book that Andy's teacher brought home for him, but Eric is reading it. He was even moving his finger along the words and trying to say words. I'm impressed.


The weather here has been gorgeous the last couple of days. Yesterday evening Eric's therapist decided to take him outside in the front yard for a while. She had him play ball, pick up leaves, dirt, ect, sit in the grass, then they played the game where they have him follow a series of instructions to see how far he goes. They ask him to jump, run in place, touch his toes, turn around, clap, amoung other things. He was having a blast. It started getting dark and raining a bit so they had to come in. Transitioning from activities that he enjoys is a struggle for Eric. There was a big tantrum when he got in. Lots of yelling/crying, throwing things, throwing his body to the ground, hitting, kicking. It lasted about 20 min. Eventually the therapist asked him to label his nose and he came back, asking for tickles.

Here's my Eric. He got over it :-)

Eric playing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with the therapist. He was loving this, and identifying the body parts well.
This has been a busy week for Eric. All in all he has handled it well, better than I thought he would. This is going to be his life for the next few years, might as well enjoy it.

Back on Track

We now have a regular therapy schedule. Everyone is healthy now so we are back down to business. We are working heavily with a new cup and a spoon. We finally have a developed program for that. The senior therapist is going to instruct the line therapists on it this week. We are also working on following simple instructions. He can go up to 5 in a row. That really surprised me. He will now tolorate a hat on his head for a short time. He isn't thrilled about it, but when it's cold outside it is needed. He is putting on and taking off his shoes and socks. He is starting to use the toilet again :-) I had him potty trained for daytime until all the sickness set him back. He will be happy to wear his underwear again. They are working on color identification. Remember this ball?

He identified blue, red, yellow and green on the first request. It is amazing what he knows. Now he is learning to communicate it. It's really awesome. He is now saying a few sentances. The most common ones are "I want tickle please" "Hug me please" and "I want to eat". Wow! I never thought I would see the day he would be talking this much. He repeats many things I say or the therapist says, even things we don't want him to repeat. With that, mommy has to start watching my language.

The senior therapist set this up to simulate a dining area with a bowl of cheerios, a spoon and a cup for Eric and the therapist. We would like to get him to eat at the dining room table with the family in time. We don't have much children's furniture, so this had to do. This was too much for Eric right now. He would go nowhere near this. That is OK, I am impressed with the creativity here. I am feeling much better about what is going on in my home during this therapy. It is great to see everyone on the same page and progressing. They are able to keep his attention longer too so we can do the 3 hour sessions very soon. That is a long time but necessary to meet the state's minimum hours.

Vantage

This is Eric's new electronic communication device. Sometimes they are called voice output machines. Basically this is a complicated computer that will help him with communication. He has made extensive progress with verbal communication, and this is not going to be used as a substitute for that. This is a tool to help him until he can consistantly communicate in a meaningful way. He learned his first words that he used with meaning during his trial with this machine at school. Now he has one all his own that will be with him at all times. Too bad the battery is dead right now and I think the school has the charger. I just took everything out of the box and sent it to school so they could set it up. At this time I know how to power it on. I was supposed to do an online training on this but never got the info for it. Last fall when we had the meeting about this Eric was using this thing like a pro. Go figure. He will probobly be teaching me. The assitive technology coordinator and his speech therapist will program this to keep up with his needs. I am glad that this is available for him.

Eric Meal Time

I have been assigned by the psychologist at the feeding team and Eric's senior therapist to videotape Eric eating a typical meal. A couple of goals that we have is to 1. Get him to accept a different cup than what he drinks from. The only one that he will accept now is no longer made. and 2. tolorate a spoon for eating. We are starting very slow here. The first step is for him to accept these items in his space, aka on his tray. Next is to get him to touch the objects. The cup has vanilla carnation instant breakfast in it, the spoon is a typical table spoon with nothing on it. As you can see we got some accepting and touching. I don't know if it has to be without a fuss, but he did it. Keep in mind that I am working with him while I am taping this and I am by no means an expert at video production. This went better than I expected, no major tantrums.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

There you have it folks