2/20/08 Update

Tyler is doing great! We are continually looking for ways to "up the ante" as Carrie puts it. We did that with great success yesterday. In fact, Tyler took me by surprise and luckily we caught it all on video. From 10 - 11 each Tuesday, Tyler and I are videotaped by students at U of M (in our house). Yesterday, midway into the session, i stepped into the kitchen to make Tyler's snack. I could tell he was looking for me so I peeked around the corner to make sure he wasn't getting frustrated and he saw me and then initiated the "musical parade" routine. This is a new routine that we began about a week and a half ago in the clinic and at home. This initiation on his part, met one of his objectives. So I decided to forego the snack for a few minutes and join in the fun. A few times around the table (our parade route) Tyler stopped. He went over to the book shelf w hich has bins of toys in it (so he has to ask for toys rather than just get them himself) and he pulled out the bin with the musical instruments! I didn't say or do anything in reference to us missing the instruments, he just realized they were missing and went over to retrieve them so we could continue the parade with music. I WAS THRILLED! He's never pulled bins off the shelf to play with the contents, let alone realize that something was missing and initiate this effort no his own.

He's also been making more new sounds such as "la" "sh".... which I actually think he is using in for his version of "push"...... We use that command a lot when playing with the wheely bugs. His eye contact has been fantastic.

One tip for everyone working with Tyler is to imitate whatever sounds he is making. if he says "da-da" then you say da-da and just keep saying the sounds back to him to try to get back and forth conversation.

Thursday we are going to try to start bathtime as a routine. Carrie will help us find ways to get Tyler to interact with us in the bathtub. Should be fun.