Taking the Scenic Route

Zora is saying good-bye to the student ST she has had all year, both at preschool and individual therapy.  Luckily, it won’t be a total good-bye for me because she will have Zane as a client this summer in a new literacy component we are planning on adding to his schedule.

She has done a fabulous job with Zora this year.  I was truly impressed.

I am happy with the progress Zane made this year.  He is quite a bit more verbal, is learning to manage his emotions better (not perfect, but better), and he is just generally showing a lot of growth.  I am very proud of how hard he works and how far he has come.

Rosie did a really nice job with him this year.  She had the right amount of support and pushing him, something that can be challenging to manage.  We will miss her.  Here she is helping Zane get ready for his “Show and Share”.

They made play-do as a cooperative activity.  It smelled really yummy because Kool-aid was one of the ingredients.  Made me hungry.

And here is the whole crew (minus the Clinical Educator who dashed for her camera so she wouldn’t be in the photo.  stinker.)  If anybody in the group wants an unmodified photo, let me know.   This wasn’t the best shot of Zane, but the better shots of Zane were not a good shots for at least one of the adults each time, so I am posting this one instead.  We all know Zane’s head isn’t attached to the play-do bag.

At Zora’s conference I saw something I have never seen before in the stack of papers and testing.  She is actually improving, as in moving to a higher level of functioning on her speech abilities.  I am accustomed to making sure they are staying on their own unique learning curves (that they are gaining skills at a steady rate, trying not to stress that they aren’t following the ‘norms’), and after years of being used to seeing scores that tended to follow the same path, it was almost weird to see results that changed the severity level.

Granted, most parents probably aren’t tempted to start dancing when they see “Low Moderate” functioning, but I sure as heck was.   She is pulling herself higher, and I am SO proud of her.  This is what Early Intervention can do for Phonological delays (totally different set of issues than the Autism I am accustomed to dealing with.  Ironically, Zane scored at and above average for a lot of the phonological stuff that Zora struggles with so much). 

(blue was a year ago, brown is current tests.  It is a test where they evaluate how she pronounces words.)

Between the two kids, I am getting quite the education in communication disorders and speech therapy.  lol

Zane goes to a “Friendship Group” twice a week.  I snapped a few pictures this time.  They start the day with a “circle time” sort of thing where they greet each other and ask questions like “How are you today?”, with visual supports/PEC cards to ask and answer the questions.

They usually have a craft (often done cooperatively to develop communication and cooperation skills), a game (turn sharing and, in theory, how to win/lose gracefully…although the ‘gracefully’ part has a way to go, it is MUCH improved), a “show and share”  (usually a toy, but this day Zane brought the book “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus”), and some sort of special activity.

About the hair.  Zane refuses to cut his hair.  He has always hated both the process of cutting hair and having short hair.  In the last few months I noticed that he was starting to approximate eye contact behind the bangs, and knowing how he feels about cutting his hair it occurred to me that maybe he doesn’t like short hair because it doesn’t provide the sensory screen that long hair does.  I waited until I felt like he had developed the habit of initial eye contact/visual referencing (not sustained eye contact, just letting people know he is talking to/listening to them), because I didn’t want to mess with that, but finally I couldn’t take it any more and started putting his hair into a ponytail to get it out of his face during ST.  (I actually came into the room one time and pulled the holder out of my hair and put it in his when I just couldn’t take it one more minute.  He was pulling his hair purposely in front of his face that day and it was causing issues, and I had made him start putting into a ponytail the week before for swimming.)  From that point on, when he has either ST (because they need to see his face) or swimming (because of my own experience of coming out of the water with a wall of hair suffocating me so I know that it can be panic inducing, even with an experienced swimmer) he has to let his hair be pulled back unless he agrees to cut it.  He is allowed to pull the ponytail out as soon as those things are done (and he usually does almost immediately).  It is a comfortable truce for both of us.

The only down side is that boys do not have long hair in this part of the country, and you can imagine how on top of things the STs had to be to keep the comments to a minimum with a group of boys who don’t have a polite filter.  lol.  Right now I am just waiting for the hair to grow just a little more so the ponytail looks a little more boyish and lower on his head.

Ready to leave

Zora was stoked.  The fire department came by the preschool and gave all the kids a ride.  The fireman even gave out hats, which has been played with nearly every day since at our house.

On a “bad mom” note, I noticed the jacket she was wearing.  It isn’t ours.  I am guessing that she didn’t wear her jacket to school, and they gave her one that they had sitting around for such occasions.  The really embarrassing part?  I think Zane wore the same one years before, at the same preschool, for the fire trucks coming.  At least I am consistent.  (we are all warm blooded and since both kids reject coats, we only push the issue when it is cold enough for frostbite risk or, in situations like this, when we know that we will get a stink eye from people who get cold much faster.  I just didn’t pay attention when she and Zach left for school)

At Speech Therapy/Friendship group they did a sensory/science experiment with cornstarch and water.  Of all the kids that had done it that day, apparently Zane was about the only one who thought the resulting substance was cool, and, being the nerd I am, I mentioned that we should make some when we got home to see if we could do the Big Bang Theory speaker experiment, and they gave me all their goop to take home.  (I must be crazy to have been excited about it…if you can imagine me carefully driving home to avoid spilling it all over the car).

Well, the experiment didn’t work, probably because our subwoofer isn’t powerful enough, but we did manage to contain our mess enough not to ruin the speaker (truly an accomplishment for us).  The goop was then banished outdoors for further experimentation, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

I did have a moment of panic the next day when I was putting Zane’s hair back for gymnastics and discovered what I thought was some horrible skin/scalp condition, called Zach over, and after some worry suddenly realizing it was dried cornstarch caked onto his head.  Duh.

Sequencing is an important language and pre-literacy skill.  We have done a lot of sequencing work with Zane, and now Zora needs help in that area too.  She was having problems with the sequencing activities using more abstract pictures, so we decided to take a step backwards and make it something that was very concrete for her by taking pictures of “real life” sequences that are relevant to her.  This is something that is easy to replicate by parents, so I thought I would share the concept.

As you can see, the pictures aren’t all great quality, but it is functional, is working, and it is easy.  Take a series of pictures, print them up (doesn’t have to be on photopaper for this), cut them into individual cards, and have her put them in order and “tell the story”.  I took longer series of photos that allows for growth.  The first time she does this, just use 3 from each batch, and later you can build the sequence by adding more photos from the set.  When taking pictures, try to take pictures that have some clues in them to help her determine the sequence.

(click on pictures if you want to see bigger images)

Drawing a picture

Making a PB sandwich a note here: with a super literal autistic kiddo, I would have been more precise…use a proper plate, the most used brand of PB, etc, because you are inadvertently setting “rules” in place when you do stuff like this with a child who is super literal.  I didn’t bother with Zora because she doesn’t think like that (although she is amused by the lack of a plate).  I also wouldn’t have taken pictures of her destroying the sandwich afterward because then it would have permanently been part of the sequence, but, again, she doesn’t think that way and it amuses her, so it is actually more effective for her (because it is engaging), but would be a real problem for Zane.

Swimming Lessons

Brushing Teeth

So, you can see the pictures aren’t fabulous or anything (and you could easily use even a phone camera), but it is simple to do, very cheap (especially compared to the board games/puzzles that target this skill) and effective.  Going back to concrete pictures is good because you can teach them how to look for “clues” within the pictures to determine the order, and that skill can be generalized as the sequences get more abstract.

After we took Zane to his last day at Heartspring, I left Zach and Zane at home to go to Zora’s Valentine Party at school.  She handed out the valentine cards with the conversation hearts (which seemed more appropriate than usual at a “speech-language-hearing” clinic) to all of her friends and the teachers.  Since she can barely write her name, and can’t really write it small enough to put on the cards, I did the writing in a crayon of her choice and then she put stickers on the card.

Then she made a 2 cards from all of the fun supplies.

This is the Clinical Educator and Student ST in charge of her individual therapy.  The valentine’s cards that Zora picked were those hologram ones where there are two pictures that change as you move the card.   In her ST sessions this week they had similar hologram stickers  and called them “teasing” stickers (they were stickers in the session, and they were talking about teasing), and when Zora saw these valentine cards she wanted the “teasing ones”.    Here she is showing them the valentine’s card she bought, plus the one she made (the white paper with the “writing” on it), connected to the baggie of conversation heart packages.

She had fun and it was good to see her at school.

We have been at Heartspring since before the autism diagnosis.  The main reason we are leaving is a combination of the services offered and finances.  When it came down to a choice between Heartspring and WSU Speech Language Hearing Clinic, there really wasn’t much of a contest.  Heartspring was 20 minutes at a time, one on one, twice a week.  WSU is an hour at a time, also twice a week, but is a social skills/friendship group, plus coordinating other testing, plus where we have Zora in ST and the preschool for language delays.

It was really hard to tell them we were going to leave, and I have been teary as I have watched the last sessions.  It is a major change in our lives and we will miss the people there.

His good-bye present in hand, he answers Lacy’s question “Who are you here to see?”.  He can answer that now.

First they cut out a snowflake, an exercise in following directions.

Next they practice having a conversation.  Today Zane wanted to talk about the painting.  It was actually very fitting.  Diane’s daughter painted it and he has always loved the painting.

Then they talk about saying goodbye to each other

Then I slip in to get a picture of the two of them together.

Before we leave, Lacy brings out a stuffed Zebra and balloon for Zane, and a pink Teddy Bear for Zora.  (she was at preschool though, so she wasn’t there to get it).

Giving a last “high five” before leaving.

I knew it was coming, but I still can’t believe it.

To start with, an AWESOME spontaneous comment by Zane.
As we were pulling into the parking lot of the building where Zane’s ST is held (at the University), we pass by a sign that said “Italian Door J”. I noted the sign, and in my brain immediately wondered what made “J” an “Italian” Door, then realizing that it probably is where the language class “Italian” is being held. As I am laughing at myself and the strange little conversation in my head, I park, and hear Zane pipe up in the back seat (now keep in mind, this entire conversation has been in my own head). “How about English Doors? Or Japanese?” I was stunned and SO glad I noticed the sign so it wasn’t a total non-sequitur. I thought it was awesome.

I brought my camera to Speech today. It was actually the second day of the semester, but the first day I was having the dental day from Hades and barely remembered he even had Speech. (Thankfully, Zach was on top of things for me that day). The group of kids and the clinical supervisor is the same, with a new group of Speech Therapy students. Zane’s new person left me with a good first impression. Yay!

The craft: making a groundhog mask. (in the second picture he is looking at the one-way mirror that I am sitting behind to see himself in the mask).

The activity: bowling. He made sure they knew that he got TWO throws. (except that he actually threw it, so they had to remind him to roll the ball)
Waiting his turn.

He didn’t really want to wear his mask at home, so Zora happily volunteered. (He did give his permission for her to wear it though)

Happy Groundhog Day all!