10/2/08

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, seems that I get so far behind, and then I can't remember everything that we are doing. So this past weekend was very unique. Dad was away at a conference and Ben went to his Aunt Susie's to get spoiled for the weekend so I could spend some time with Tyler and get some things done around the house. We were able to purcahse the tv we needed to use as reinforcer for Tyler, however we weren't able to find a good table yet so that created some issues, as did the tv eventually. What I wanted to work on last weekend was getting Tyler to sit at a table. Currently, he cannot sit unless he's strapped in his booster chair at meal time, other than that he doesn't sit unless he's drinking his milk and tired, he's always on the go. So we were going to apply the verbal behavior approach and get him sitting at a table for short periods of time (on his own free will) so that we can prepare him for instruction settings. So the remote to our new tv was giving me such a hard time, and it's hard to reinforce good behavior with a video that won't play when you want it too. But Grandpa came to our rescue, Grandpa found us a new, better working tv at Sams and came down and installed it on Tuesday. Tyler and I tried it out this morning and it worked great. He's not sitting through an entire video, but he'll sit now for a good 10 minutes and maybe only try to get up a few times. Once he decides to get up and stay up, he just doesn't get the video any longer. I was able to get him no video sitting today. It may not look like much but it's huge, beleive me. Usually he's standing on the armoire nose to tv for an entire video. Oh, and we are still working on a table. the one you see is quite flimsy and eh can easily push it around while he's fidgeting so we are hoping to find something much nicer soon and hopefully it will be one that moms tush can fit in too!

Over the weekend, Tyler said Da-Da on his own when looking out the window. He also started to use a gesture to get down from the table when he's done eating. I was really excited about this. Typically he gets frustrated, starts shoving food away and if you don't catch these signals, he'll bang his head. This time he was using a very distinct down gesture adn wans't upset at all. So I rewarded his request by letting him get down even though he hadn't had enough to eat yet. I just followed him around later giving him a snack and some milk. I immediately told Steve to make sure to watch for the gesture becasue we want to continue to reinfoce it, even if he hasn't had enoguh to eat yet. Once we think this is a regular part of his communication, then we can start pushing him to eat a little more (if he hasn't had enough) before we let him get down, but for now we just really are focusing on reinforcing his communication.

Since we had so much time alone this weekend, I also worked on our skills being out and about. Having both Ben and Tyler out in public with one parent can be a nightmare, especially if Tyler breaks down, but having just Tyler, we can really focus on skills so Tyler and I ran a lot of errands together this weekend and he did great with all the people, lights, sounds, being the car, etc. We also went to the park which is the first time I've really been at the park with just Tyler and it was great! Even when there are other adults around, when Ben is there, I'm also making sure that everyone is safe and getting attention, etc. and never feel like I'm 100% with either kid. It was nice to be able to just relax and have fun with Tyler. Don't worry, Ben gets alone time too, Mom took just Ben out to Big Boy last night and he had his first sundae and discovered how fun salt and paper shakers are!

We are also working on some fun new bathtime routines, we turn the water on and off, upon Tyler's request, and that seems to be fun. At first, he had a hard time ending the game but he's doing much better now. We also play row row your boat inteh tub which he asks for by getting into a certain position. We are trying to get sounds now intermittently through the row row boat song.

From a biomedical standpoint, we made a decision to not implement a completely yeast free diet. After much research we realized that we would not have enough food options for Tyler if we completely eliminated yeast (and sugar) so we are going to limit it where possible, i.e. found bread, ketchup and syrup replacements already, get juice with splenda which we already water down. and see how that goes. We'll also still use the anti fungal medication to rid his body of yeast. Once he gets older we may implement a 100% strict yeast free but for now we just don't feel he'd get enough nutrition.It's a tough decision but one that we feel is best for Tyler right now.