5/5/08 Update

If anyone is interested in learning more about the biomedical treatment of autism, there is a teleconference next Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. I plan on calling in since the boys will be in bed by now. Attached is the website you can register online and they send you the course materials. http://www.innovativehealing.com/teleconferences It's free, they just give you a phone number and password to join the call. We are just in the beginning stages still with the biomedical treatment and I know we aren't always able to answer all of your questions, so if you'd like to learn more from an expert, this would be a great opportunity. We have received our first set of enzymes in the mail for Tyler which we are to give him at meal time so we hope to start that program tommorrow. We have to wait until Sunday p.m. to re-do the urine test becuase they can only pick it up Mon - Wed. That will let us know what else we need to put Tyler on/or remove from his diet. If any of you noticed, there is a comment in my last blog update from someone in the UK who says that their son has been on biomedical treatment for 2 years and cannot be distinguished from his peers in the public school due to the success of the treatments. Read his brief comment, it'ts very uplifting and could not have come at a better time.

Both boys received successful haircuts from mom last night, without any problems. Dad bought some new (quiet) clippers and they let me clip away. They are so cute. I didn't get a chacne to get a picture of the two of them however, it was a busy morning.

Both boys went to floor time and Ben did great on sharing time and sharing mom. Tyler was easily frustrated today but in a good mood. Hard to explain. They are both getting really good walking and holding mommy's hand. We got back home around 10:00 and it was time for Carrie's visit. We were videotaped today as well. We worked on snack time and did a lot of hand over hand signing for Tyler and a lot of song singing for Ben. I tried to do songs that Ben would like that woudl allow me to make gestures for Tyler's benefit.. tricky.. because Ben doesn't like some of those songs like itsy bitsy spider and asks me to stop singing. We then moved on to bathtime and that routine is also coming along well. Both boys are helping to take off their clothes, Ben is a little more independent in this area than Tyler. And both boys carry their bucket o' towels into the bathroom which helps give them another independent task during bathtime. We wash hair and body and then move on to song routines/free play, then bubbles while water is draining and then exit from tub. All of these steps help Tyler transition out of the tub which is hard for him since he loves the water so much.

Today, however, we had to do an emergency exit from the tub since Tyler decided to go poo, which lead to a melt down on Tyler's part. He did however recover quickly and never once partcipated in any self stimmulating behaviors such as head banging or teeth gritting, etc. He just cried. So it's good because although he was frustrated, he acted appropriately on that frustration. From that point on we tried a few other activities, ball, parade, but really didn't get to spend much time on those things.

Tomorrow, the new speech therapist is going to daycare (after our morning U of M clinic session) so Tyler can spend a little more time with her before we start therapy and to get used to the daycare surroundings as that is where we intend to have sessions at least in the short term. Her name is Lisa and I'm really excited to get moving on speech again.

Tyler has one of his monthly evaluations next Monday at the University of Michigan and then another school district evaluation on the 21st. Lots of evaluations going on.


Here are Tyler's current objectives/goals:

• Child follows the reference of another person's point at a distance (3-5ft) by turning the head and directing gaze or getting tan object wher the persoin is pointing at least 2 times.
• Child follows a simple instruction with at least two different gestural cues other than a point (i.e. "come here" wth open arms or "give me" with palm out.
• Child uses at least three different distal gestures that are conventional (wave, clap, distal reach distal point, head shake) in that they have shared meaning that is widely recognized.
• Child follows a simple instruction in a fmailiar routine with a tleast two different situational cues (i.e. partner says "wash hands" when standing in front of hte sink and child holsds out hands under faucet).
• Child uses at least two different vocalizations that must included a vowel sound and may also include a consonant sound that procedes or follows the vowel.

Tyler mastered so many skills the last time, it' s too much to type so I'll just give an update on the number, to date, 16 mastered skills and I've mastered 19 so between us we've mastered 35 skills! All of my goals are of course to support his so really they are all Tyler's goals :)