4/10/08 Update

Happy Autism Awareness Month. A co-worker and I decided to wear tshirts on casual Friday to promote autism awareness. I created the image on the left to be used as a transfer. I made our tshirts last night and it worked very well. You just need to purchase transfer paper for your computer and then use an iron for the transfer. If you are interested in creating a tshirt, let me know and I can send you the appropriate "mirror" image document to use with your heat transfer paper. It was very easy to do and the shirts are so cute! Just an FYI, the image will work best on a white shirt.

Speaking in terms of the future, this portion of the study ends in July. The next portion of the study is parent education focused. Although we plan to continue with everything we've learned so far, we are going to have a new schedule and are looking at new therapies for Tyler. Speaking neurologically, this is the optimal time for Tyler to receive therapy, we don't want to miss our window. Therefore, even though we don't have specific plans yet, we are asking for anyone who is willing to help us to please let us know. As for what the "help" entails, I do not know at this time. What I do know is that with insurance bills pending and possible other ways for us to get funding for therapy, we want to do all that we can do financially. I'm pretty knowledgeable with the current SCERTS therapy as well as floor time therapy so those will be the focus of my time and Steve's time with Tyler. We are going to want to hire professionals to help us to work on some of the other types of therapy. This would mean in some instances that we just need someone to be at our house for these, or possible even learn some of the skills to work with Tyler on (saves money if it's us vs. professionals) or possibly have help with transportation from one place to another or all of the above. Currently, all required hours of therapy , have to be provided by one caregiver, but after the study ends, anyone can work with Tyler. As long as we follow the same procedures and rules, this is a great thing because we want Tyler to generalize what he's learning to all people and places. So if anyone reading this is available for anytime during the week, morning (8 - 12) or evening (6 - 8) (afternoons Tyler is usually sleeping) beginning in August, please let us know. This will help us plan for the next steps. I'm not asking or expecting anything, I just know that many of you have expressed your desire to help and if that offer still stands, we could really use it.

I asked Carrie to give an assessment of the degree of severity of Tyler's autism today. I.e. high functioning vs. low functioning. She was in agreement with me that Tyler falls somewhere in the middle. Once we get Tyler communicating well, the road blocks he faces in social situations will diminish, which will increase is overall function level. Now is the time for us to act. Since the beginning of the study, Tyler has came SOOOOOOOOOOOOO far (in only 6 months), imagine what his future holds if we continue to do everything possible for him.

Tyler was fantastic today. You can tell he's definetly feeling better. He was in wonderful spirits and a lot of what he's learned in at home therapy is beginning to generalize into his social group setting. He was making sounds today as initiation to go down the slide. He also participating in the dance routine at the end of the session which usually I have to hold him in my arms and we dance together. Today I just held his hands and danced and he didn't pull or anything. In fact at one part during the "freeze" portion of the song, he made a squeal, indicating he wanted the dancing/music to continue, yeah Tyler! He also participated in the "row your boat" activity with the other kids today which he has not done before.

Sessions with Carrie also went well. Tyler said "bub" for bubbles and was making a lot of eye gaze and sound requests. in fact, we were able to almost get a request (sounds, i.e. squeal or "sh" sound) for the car to be pushed each time along with an eye gaze and he was able to remain regulated, even though we were putting a lot of demands on him. Even at snacktime, when we let him play with his toy truck so I could get him to eat more, he still wanted me to play with him, even though it's something he can very easily play with himself.

Anyone wanting to help Tyler move to the next level should really be using big gestures and help Tyler to use these gestures, including reaching, pointing down, pointing up, etc. Use gestures as much as possible when communicating with Tyler. Also, allow him time to respond to a request to exhibit his receptive language. I.e. today I said, Tyler, let's eat. Do you want to eat, and signed "eat"... he proceeded to walk to the table to his chair, yeah! Next step is to more routinely have Tyler put away his cup and then eventually plate into the kitchen after snack/meals. During diaper change, Tyler should have specific roles, which right now includes, throwing away his diaper after the diaper change. Or if the changing station is too far away, have Tyler sit it somewhere near by just so he can get used to having that role at the end. We are also going to try to play "pat a cake" with his feet at the end of diaper change and then have Tyler pull his pants up at the end.

His big haircut is this Saturday. Carrie will be coming with us to that to help us make the process as easy as possible for Tyler.