Taking the Scenic Route

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

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.

Idioms and autism can be a frustrating mix.  All kids have hilarious interpretations of idioms, but neurotypical kids are usually able to learn or infer what the meaning is without explicit instruction.  Because Zane does not learn this way I am always looking for resources to help with issues like this that engage him.  Last week’s library trip yielded a big success and I thought I would share.  (it took about two days of “strewing it in his path” before he picked it up, but once he did, his nose was in the book for a while every day since which is ALWAYS more successful than presenting it in a “schooly” way) I even learned a few things from the book.  Zora keeps wanting me to read the pages with the spiders and bugs on them.  (and, by the way, it isn’t an easy book to “read”, it is more of a “sit down and study” type thing because there isn’t a narrative)

A few randomly chosen pages:

And the link at Amazon (there are both hard and softcover versions):  There’s a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me

This semester we are, among other things, trying to get Zane to give imaginary names to things. So, during the craft they are asking him what the object is named. He usually responds with “Zane’s *craft*”. For instance, the groundhog mask, he would only say “Zane’s Groundhog Mask” and would look at you like you had two heads when you asked what the groundhog’s name was. Today, with some help, decided that today’s craft was a “snowman”, and that his name was “Frosty”.

I thought it was a pretty cute little guy.

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!

Well, she is making improvements and is much easier to understand, but we still have a ways to go.  She is actually shy in preschool, which just stuns me, but was starting to offer answers/initiate interaction as the semester came to an end.  Next year they want to increase her ST hours, using one time to prime her for the preschool a little more (similar to what I did with Zane, but not as intense), and the other for pure speech & language development.  I hope to get her into Reading Explorers as well.  She is moving forward.  I proud of how hard she is working.  She is actually adding the “S” and some of the other clusters she is struggling with to her words and it is starting to generalize, so I expect that she will catch up with peers reasonably soon, so that is great.

They did discover the same thing I realized when I heard she was not actually understanding (during testing) some basic things (like over/under…those type of things).  I thought that she knew that stuff, but didn’t realize that she was just following body language.  She is so good at following body language that they found that they have to cover their entire face during auditory discrimination work because she can figure out what the right answer is by looking at your eyes & even just eyebrows.  *snort*  She is absolutely awesome at reading body language, which is really a bit novel to them, since they work with so many autistic kids, and me, who’s first child is all but blind to body language.  (he had to be taught explicitly how to read common body language, but he does have the capacity to learn at least the basics, which is good).

She instinctively follows gaze to an astonishingly accurate degree, even a fast unconscious glance, so you really have to hide your face to make sure she is listening to the words and she can read your face like a book (well, better than a book for her.  lol).  It is going to prove challenging as a parent, but what an amazing gift for regular life.

In OT today Zane took the “Oops” PEC card velcro’ed to the OT’s computer (he is working on typing) and put it upside down, then giggled and said “Oops!”

Which reminds me….

Last Saturday, at the ROCKO event, when they were playing outside a ball got stuck in a tree. Zane noticed it and Terese was trying to get him to have a conversation about the ball. He misinterpreted what she was saying, took a ball and walked to a shorter tree and proceeded to work to get it stuck in the tree too. She then had to tell him to not do that, and he turned to her and said “Ball stuck in tree all done?” Yes Zane, all done. Such a Zane-ism.

When I was buckling Zane in after ST at WSU I asked him (as I usually do) what he did today. For the first time he was able to tell me the entire sequence of the hour, occasionally backtracking to correct himself if he got something out of order. He did it with no visual support at all too. One of the last things was him playing a game with “L”. I asked him who played with him, and he first answered “both of us” (another eyebrow lifter…a pronoun used correctly), and I asked him again (I had heard him rehearsing “”L” and I played a game” under his breath, so I wanted to give him a chance to use the sentence) and he was able to dig the rehearsed sentence out of his brain. It took a while, and he struggled with word recall, but he DID IT! WOOHOO!

I just thought I would share the materials I am creating to help teach the “Why-Because” relationship. They are designed for kids who can read, and you can expand the scope by addressing the vocabulary as it comes up (for instance, I discovered that Zane didn’t know “skyscraper” so we did a quick sidetrack to show him what that meant). When I thought about it, I included words with “L” so that he could get more practice on that sound, since he is struggling to handle that letter.

I made them so that you can print them out, cut out the visual prompt sentence and lay it on the table for reference. In the first few I also cut out all of the words and presented them in word pairs to fill in the blanks. The last one, I just cut out the top part and lay it down and the word pairs are given verbally. I also have the word “WHY” written out to point at as I give the prompt sentence, then point to the word “because” as he reads back the answer sentence to further emphasis the relationship.

The prompt sentence I use is “Why are the words ____ and ____ related?”

I included a picture of the page, followed by a link if you want to save a copy.

why-because-because-a

why-because-rhyme

On this one, they can just respond that they are opposites, or expand the sentence, such as ‘they are opposite speeds”

why-because-opposite

why-because-part-of

why-because-used-to

This one just uses the top section as a visual reference. The other part is for me so I am not fumbling for word pairs to give him.

why-because-both

After this, I have a list of nouns I can reference to help make it easier for me throw some paired words at him. I have the prompt sentences available (along with a peice of paper or chalkboard to write up a quick new one) to help if/when he struggles with retrieval.

The next step is to try and get him to give you the second half of the word pair. Start by saying “What goes with *noun*” (referencing my list if I get stuck for a random word), then letting him supply the other word, then prompt “Why do _____ and ______ go together?” / “Why are ______and_______related?” and let him give an answer, prompting the “because” if I need to. The main problem I ran into the first time I tried this was that every word I gave him, he paired with a word that rhymed, even if it was a nonsense word, just so he didn’t have to work hard to answer the question. I would then supply my own matching pair before giving him another chance to complete a word pair. The next day, I took a few steps back and had some different prompted sentences so that he didn’t just rely on “because they rhyme”. (and if he is still doing the “rhyme” thing when we get back to this point, you will see more drill sheets with different sentences as I try to get him to expand his language)

Eventually, I want to be able to do a word association game, where I supply a word, then he supplies a word, then we go back and review why each pair are related.

Zach and I need some stuff for a project, so we split up. I took Zora to Office Depot, Zane and Zach went to Home Depot.

Zora inherited some “skipped a generation” genes for shoes, because as we are walking into Office Depot, she got really excited just SEEING the Carnival Shoe store next door and wanted to go in to look at shoes. This did not come from me.

Zane loved Home Depot. He walked through every door, opened a bunch of windows, and studied the staircase railings, rang all the doorbells (a note here…the store was empty), loved the sinks and bathtubs, looked over each refrigerator (decided he wanted the kind with a water and ice machine in front) and as they were walking down another aisle, he told Zach “Daddy, let’s build a house”. Very cool.