05-29-08 Update

Tyler is still acting like he's not 100%, however, we think we have figured out what was going on with him during Thursday's taping because he exhibited some of the same behavior today. Although it may not "look" like it's a good thing on tape, Tyler is beginning to understand behavior and independence, etc. like a typical 2 year old so he's beginning to test us when we put limitations or rules on him. For example, when playing with a puzzle, I make Tyler put all the pieces in before he can pick his favorite one to put in repeatedly to hear his favorite sound. He has to cmoplete the puzzle first, then he can listen to it a few times, and then he has to do the puzzle again. He is not so thrilled with theserules anymore and is starting to tantrum. He also is trantruming when I tell him he can't wash his hands for the 3rd time and he's started to resist taking his dishes to the kitchen. So as much as Tuesday was hard for me, it's great to see that he's beginning ot understand human behavior and how he fits in because there is a huge social and communicative component to all of that. So we are instructed to hold oru ground. When he wanted to wash his hands again today, I said no, all done hands, and offerred him two choices of things to play with and then ignored his behavior after that. Most of today's session was spent with Tyler testing us to see what he could get away with, little stinker.

On another good note, I just received a call from Carrie and she said that Florida State reviewed a parent fidelity tape from 2 weeks ago and said that we are doing a wonderful job of pushing Tyler harder, or uping the ante, and I reached 100% fidelity, yeah! So we'll keep that going forward although it's hard to up the ante on days like today. Carrie wants me to consider more "testing"... let's test the waters and see what we can do. We are slowly moving supports away from Tyler when he's eating, i.e. making him take 2 bites (on his own) before he can loook at his book. Soon we are hoping on well regulated days, he will not need any support at all and will be feeding himself for the most part. The biggest thing we need to work on right now, is getting Tyler to touch things even if he doesnt' want too and we've been working hard on that.