Team Meeting 6/17

Now that summer has started and everyone has more time we are going to have a team meeting for everyone involved in Eric's ABA therapy every week. This meeting will supposedly take place every Wednesday afternoon. The meeting for tomorrow has been cancelled since the senior therapist can't make it. We will see how often this happens. This meeting was a week ago but I think I remember most of it.

Two of his line therapists were present, there are 5 on his team. We waited a good 10 minutes for the others, but decided to get this over with since Eric had a session after this. His senior therapist was there and the person in charge of his case at the providing agency. The first thing discussed was the increase in the amount of words he is using. This is great. He knows the alphabet and numbers, colors, shapes, various animals and animal sounds. Now they want to start working with his pronunciation. We know what he is saying, he really tries but to be understood by others he has to work on pronouncing some words. They will also be working on compliance programs such as come here, and sitting in a chair for 2 minutes. He is doing better with those, but since he is an active boy it is hard. The idea is to increase his attention at a task and staying on track for a longer period of time. His school requested this. The other 2 major issues were haircuts and the cup. I had to cancel his haircut, it was too late, I was too tired that day to deal with it and the money was an issue. The senior suggested I purchase a clippers and she will help me do the job. This makes me nervous, considering how he acts during a haircut and my skills are not the best. I trimmed Eric's hair when he was a baby, after that his dad would not let me do anything with his hair. So I was paying $25 a pop for a haircut. That starts hurting after a while. I am willing to give it a go, but I am not looking forward to it. I guess the worst that can happen is that he beats us up and I create railroad tracks on his head. At that time I remembered the vibrating toy that his speech therapist gave us to use with him. It is designed to be used around and in his mouth to desensitize him and help him with movement to speak. We turned on this toy on and let it vibrate on his head. He had no problem with that. Then a buzzing sound was made with it, that bothered him. After that he did not want the toy by his head. I am sure they will find uses for that device. The cup has been up and down. They think he is using his tongue to block the flow of liquid from the spout, hence him not getting much liquid out and inside of him. They think that is quite ingenious. He knows he will get his other cup because he needs nutrients and hydration, so this is his way of protesting. The next day as I worked with him, sure enough I see him bringing the tip of his tongue under his teeth to his bottom gum and uses the bend of his tongue, or the underside to block his drinking efforts. We are considering trying a straw or a sports bottle and squirting water in his mouth while we play with water, like while playing in the sprinkler. or bathtub while the water is clean. This will be brought up at his feeding clinic appointment on Thursday. I'm hoping if this tongue issue can be resolved we can finish up this cup transition with no problem. Why am I worried that it won't be this easy. Getting back to the feeding clinic, I was asked by the senior if I talked to their dad or anyone else about the care of the other children so Eric could be hospitalized. The case manager told me if we were offered the opportunity, we should have taken it. This set me off. I stayed as calm as possible and firmly told them how it was. Finally they understand I think but I have a feeling this issue won't be put to rest. I wish this would just be left alone!

I will write an update after every meeting as long as time permits and it isn't too boring. I'm thinking this will just be a summer deal since the line therapists are college students and take classes during daytime hours, and have very little time for therapy with Eric being in school full time when summer is over. We shall see...