2/3/09

Everytime I pick up Tyler for school, they tell me how great he's doing, how happy he is, and that it's so much fun to see how far he's come already. I'm not sure if this is the type of response they get from all kids and therefore give the parents or if our little guy is doing exceptionally well for how long he's been there, but either way, it's hard to leave there feeling anything other than satisifcation knowing that making the change was the best thing for Tyler. Yesterday the teacher told me that Tyler was going to play with a toy when he heard the music that indicating the beginning of cirle time and he came running for circle time. He used to be just be so focused now hat he'd want to do, you'd have to go physically get him if you wanted him to do something new. He's also trying so many more food types and touching his food. Today he touched his mandarin oranges. I'm not aware of all the steps to list them but food group time exposes kids, especially with sensory issues, to new foods through a long process that eventually has them touch it to their mouth. But it spends a lot of tim ejust exposing them to the food first before they have to put it in their mouth. Tyler is touching a lot of his food now which is great!

i'm also really happy with how well his signing is coming along. He signed "squirrel" spontaneously the other day when he was in teh kitchen and in the living room baby sitning time was on and the squirrel part was cmoing up, Tyler recogonized the music from the other room and started signign squirrel.. smart guy. Many parents of kids with autism will report that when one area advanced with their child, they may see regression in another area. It may be just my imagination but I've noticed a lot less babbling in Tyler recently. However, he's learning to communicate with his hands right now so he may be focusing all his energy there. They say once one skill then gets mastered the other comes back. As TYler approaches his 3rd birthday, I'm really hoping that very soon, our little guy will start talking, even if it's just random words here and there. I'm ready to hear his cute little voice. Which brings me to teh next subject.

Anyone that works with or plays with Tyler, needs to make sure they are on his level when playing with him or speaking with him or asking him to do something. It's really important that if TYler wants to talk to someone or get their attention that his hands are visible so he can communicate effectively, rather than by using behavior to communicate. Example...Dad picked Tyler up from school the other day. He asked the parapro was kind of bike Tyler was riding. They both concluded that it would be too confusing for Tyler to walk back with them to the class to get the bike so dad and tyler waited while the parapro went to get it. Dad did a great job of occupying tyler while she was away. it's hard for Tyler to understand why he wasn't leaving for the car when that's what he normally does every day after school. Once the parapro came back, Dad was holding Tyler's hand and talking to the parpro.. Tyler started acting up a bit and pulling on dad's hand. Dad kept saying..one minute Tyler and lookin gback at the parapro and talking. After he told me this story we both had the "ah hah" moment of.. we need to make sure that since he only talks with his hands that we are able to see his hands when we are asking him to do something that isn't "normal" for him. Tyler didnt' understand why he was waiting and he also didn't have anything to do to occupy his time and dad was standing up so he couldnt' see if Tyler was trying to talk with his hands so tyler was acting out and pulling on dad to say.. hey, why aren't we going? in that situation, when we have nothign to occupy Tyler's attention, and it's out of the normal routine, we decided it would be best to tell Tyler what is happening and then pick him up so he can be at eye level with us as we finish teh conversation. That way if he is trying to use his hands to communicate, we can see it right away and reinforce that communication, rather than reinforcing the other not so pleasant behavior. So for everyone that works with TYler or has any expectations of him... make sure you are always watching for him to be talkign to you with his hands.. even if you dno't know what it means and we are trying to share as much as possible about the signs, at least you know he's signing something so you can try to figure out what it is he wants or is trying to say.

I think that's all for now.. we have our parent meeting on Thursday and I'm hoping to have lots of good news after that.