8/19/08

This morning was the first play group session for the second part of the study. Although I was a little anxious about how things were going to go, I felt comfort in knowing that Tyler was already familiar with the room from our Friday clinic sessions. Right now there are only 2 families in the group and the other little girl was late so it was just Tyler at first with 3 staff members from U of M. He did great at first showing off his communication skills.. sounds/gestures/eye contact. He also did well at handling frustration. I was going over some paperwork with the leader of the play group and another person was trying to engage Tyler in a game. It was frustrating him and he kept coming tome gritting his teeth and I'd give him squeezes, but he was able to maintain his frustration there and go about with the activity. This was great because it was all new people in the room and he kept seeking comfort from me but continuing the activity.

They had a sensory table set up with beans. Beans are one of his favorite activities but it can sometimes be hard to keep him engaged socially because he likes them so much. Around this time the other girl showed up and things got a bit trickier after that. Tyler didnt' like someone else playing with the beans and got a little frustrated but then seemed to want to go back and play but would get frustrated again. I requested that beans be an activity we get out towards the end of the play group vs. the beginning. It's very hard for me to get him to engage as I said before as well as get him to end the activity on a good note, especially when there isn't something more motivating for me to transition him too.

Which brings me to what happend today. We were all trying to end the bean activity to move towards a group activity; parachute. I gave Tyler many warnings that we'd be ending soon and then tried to transition as best as possible but there wasn';t much available yet (they were transitioning activities in and out of the room), So I held him and tried to swing him around in the air and up and down which usually he likes but it wasn't working today and then wham! I got a big head butt to the temple...ouch... luckily right after that they had the parachute ready and we started to play parachute. Then we moved to ring around the Rosie. Tyler is used to pushing down the players on the "all fall down" part" of the song. anyway, he got frustrated when everyone fell down w/o his pushing them and that led him down a spiral of over stimulation. I tried to calm him with juice. They were doing a calming group activity with books and stuffed animals but if Tyler isn't actually touching the book, he isn't interested in them yet, plus he doesn't sit still long enough to gain interest! So I kind of tried to keep him playing around the rest of the group and do things in reference to the book that i thought he'd enjoy like making duck sound when that part of the book came and making doggie sounds, etc. but this wasn't really working either. He lead me to the door at point which is his way of telling me he wants to go. I told him we'd go soon. Anyway, when class ended he was definitely ready to go. On our way out, he was walking at first but just seemed beside himself and wanted up so I picked him up and we were walking out and another head butt to the mouth, ouch...didn't see that one coming since he wanted to be picked up. Tyler was definitely not happy that we stayed at playgroup as long as we did and he wanted to let me know. Can't blame him for communicating right! Mom gave him some juice which not only helped to calm him down but also preventing me from receiving any further injury. We got out to the parking lot to an eagerly waiting dad who was taking him back to daycare.

Tyler also is beginning to get a cough, Ben's is still not gone and I feel like we are no in this vicious cycle of illnesses/injury that we can't get of. We haven't all been healthy at the same time in over 6 weeks. I'm hoping it is just pollen in the air that's bothering Tyler right now.

Go Tyler's Angels. Tyler's Angels are currently in 4th place for fundraising for the Autism Speaks Walk, yeah! Steve is the 5th place fundraiser!