9:00-12:00 ABA with Rachel
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 Nap Time for Des and ME
4:00-6:00 OT and Speech Therapy
Needless to say, Monday was a long day for this Momma. Desmond did great though! He made it through the day with no meltdowns and no tears! That is a win in my book!
ABA: ABA has been going well these past few days. Des has been doing good transitioning to 3 hours Monday-Wednesday. They split up his session into two parts; 9-10:30, take a little break, and then back at it until noon. We are still working on imitation. Imitation is the key to getting Des into our world. So they do a lot of Rachel showing Des how to do something and then his job is to imitate what he has been shown to do. This can be done with toys, with signing, with gesturing, really anything. Rachel told us today that Desmond still has a long way to go in this area. Of course we're seeing improvements, but in the area of imitation Desmond is still VERY behind. What I get from this is, we're doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing...it's just going to take time. As he gets going, doing more and more ABA (The end game is to get him able to do 3 hours Monday-Friday) we will see more progress. However, with the positive outcome is always that lurking "other outcome". When all is said and done....we have NO IDEA (yet) how severe his Autism is and where he will lie on the spectrum. I take heart in the fact that for now, we're doing all we can do and that is enough.
OT: In the world of Occupational Therapy, Desmond rocks! OT is still a lot of getting Desmond to move in extreme ways. We are still doing a lot of swinging (that would make any normal human being vomit!), messy play, spinning, running around, going up and down stairs, all of it. Desmond LOVES OT!! I mean who wouldn't just love getting to play in a giant gym for a whole hour? I think Desmond loves OT so much because he gets to just play. Nothing is really required of him like in ABA and Speech, which requires a little work on his part.
SPEECH: Out of the 3 I feel we see Desmond struggle the most in speech. I think the reason for this is because speech is his biggest deficit with imitation closely behind. Desmond is still in the 6-9 month range for his language. In therapy our approach has changed a bit. Last year we focused a lot on teaching Desmond sign language and getting him to imitate/use those signs. We have seen miracles in this area. There are a handful of signs that we use to communicate with Des, but he continues to struggle with being the first to initiate those signs without being prompted first. We know he knows them, but he doesn't use them on his own. For this reason, we're making some changes to his therapy sessions. We'll still use and teach Desmond sign language, but we're switching our focus from sign language to verbal communication. This means that we're going to be doing a lot of what we do in ABA, but put that towards language. Let me explain better! In ABA (I think I've said this before) the basis of what they do is reward and reinforcement based. It's a horrible analogy, but it's much like training a pet. Using Desmond as an example in his session on Monday: Our therapist would give Desmond a treat (veggie straw) every time he used any kind of vocalization to show that he wanted a treat. Last year we would use treats (or reinforcers) if he signed for what he wanted. Now we're trying to get Des to understand that if he uses his voice (even if it's just a grunt, moan, cry, gibberish) that he get's what he wants. Just like when you're trying to get your dog to roll over, you give them a little treat when they do to reinforce the "good behavior". I know it's horrible to compare my child to training a dog. I know it is. However, his brain is wired much like an animals brain. So what do we do, we do what works and hope it continues to work.
Moral of the story for this week (at least from this Momma's perspective) we've got a long way to go. And I say this with all the hope I have in my heart. After talking to Rachel today I got a bit of a "reality check", which I think is good. Our Desmond is 2 years old. We have only just started this journey and we are in it for the LONG hall. For today I will celebrate the victories of today and hope for the victories to come. Just because we're behind today doesn't mean we're going to be behind forever. We will continue to move forward. Slowly, but surely, moving forward.
