DT

So - THATS what a good DT is like.

Suzanne asked me about 15 min's in what my biggest concern that the other DT wasn't working on was and I said 'You've already done more than she did in 4 weeks'.

She came in and asked DS to sit under a little lap table. Game #1 was a peg board. His job was to choose which color peg he wanted, say 'Push In' as he puts the peg in, say 'On Top' as he puts the peg on top, and then follow her directions for 'in' and 'on top' as directed. She got a good feel of his hesitancy to answer choice questions with new objects. He also struggled to say the phrases and required prompting each time. When she asked him to 'push in right here' in a specific hole, it took a LONG time for him to follow the direction, but he finally got it. He was very good to look at her each time he knew he wanted help, but never asked for help. He reverted back to echolalia in his speech as she asked various questions today, but it seemed more as a coping skill to the hesitancy of doing something wrong for the new person. She said part of her strategy (this is different than the way we do speech) is to NOT repeat a task over and over and over. She wants him to LEARN not to REPEAT when possible. She said once he got the in and ontop correct she would stop, play something else for a minute, let the brain rest, and then do it again. She said this would facilitate her knowing when he actually learned something instead of him just repeating what she was doing. Second, we did a puzzle with firetrucks and dump trucks. What she did with this goes so far past anything I've ever tried, I was impressed!! She really got a good feel for where he struggles today. She said she wanted to see him match up the puzzle, but more importantly she wanted him to identify with different parts by her prompting. So, she let him assemble the puzzle and then asked him to hand her different pieces. 'Can I have the dump truck? What color is it? What kind of sound does a truck make?' 'May I have the yellow truck? No, the other one.' 'May I have the truck with blue windows, the ladder' She really pushed him to LOOK at what he was doing before just jumping at the first command. She allowed him to take his time and think. She allowed him to make a mistake and then corrected him. She was very graceful with him, and at the same time VERY firm and didn't back down once she asked him for something. We let him play free play while we chatted a bit. She noticed that he had taken the piggy bank toy over to the side. She engaged with him and told me that she sees that he is at risk to isolate himself while playing. At his developmental age, she wants to see him coming in between our conversation to interrupt us because he wants to play WITH us. She wants to see him improve on choice questions - yes/no for accuracy - more abstract choices with more language. She wants us to move the toy bins up out of his reach so he has to ask for them SPONTANEOUSLY. I think that is a KEY for him. Jen has gotten him to the point where he can say 'Mommy, I want juice please.', but he does it VERY choppy and it is 90% prompted - 100% prompted when the object is out of site. Suzanne wants to take him the step further where he KNOWS he wants something and he finds his OWN language to get it. This is another example of taking his language from 'repeated' to 'learned'. THIS is what he needs!!!! She said that our major challenge with a High Functioning child is to help him to NOT stand out in a crowd. She said that already, he fits in very well... but she NEVER made me feel like that meant he DOESN'T have a form of autism. She said that he will do really well in a classroom, she doesn't see any real behavioral issues, and he is very social. She caught onto him really quick. Before she left, her observation had told her that his eye contact was great, but not used the same way as typical children. She knew that his jumping/gross motor skills are lagging some. She knew that he is very social but he needs to learn more appropriate communication. She even knew that the little 'marching dance' that he sings to in the same pattern around the house was one of his coping skills... she said 'awwww' when she saw it and immediately knew... Every single motion, word, etc.. that she made was for a purpose. She made me feel like a great mom. She made me feel like we're going to get A LOT of work done. This is an awesome day!!!