Stop, drop, & roll

I saw both of my kiddos today and both went a lot smoother than Monday. Yay!

Bawler displayed her usual Dissociative Identity Disorder so I quipped with a charade of Bipolar Disorder. (I'm sure my assistant and observers probably thought I was the one with DID) Every time she got up and talked about doing horrendous things, I warned or punished her. Every time she sat down, I kicked up the mania and praised her like crazy for Speech Rule #1 (i.e., good sitting) and gave her a token.

At one point, she really wasn't being nice so by the authority invested in me, I wiped out all 4 of her tokens with one hand. I think she has a love-hate relationship with me.

I thought today's session would end without incidence, especially because I altered her social story but I was wrong. Unfortunately, both of my kiddos cried today. One of the other kiddos (the one that asked why nobody wants to play with Bawler -- b/c he hears her bawling so much), walked out and started mocking Bawler by saying, "but I don't want to say good-bye!!!" I almost LMAO, but the professional me bit my tongue.

My 2nd one was faking the crying though, but that was definitely a first. She was actually doing really well today (vs. Monday) when the fire alarm went off! (Why couldn't it go off in class?) I am so glad I had Flapper instead of Bawler because I don't know how Bawler would have reacted with the fire alarm. The alarm usually signifies that it's time to go home and then we have a whole different (unpredictable) routine after the alarm (usually when the bawling really gets out of control).

So I took her hand and we walked out but when I saw her Mom, I gave her up and ran back into clinic to grab my $1200 backpack (well, backpack full of materials adding up to $1200). On the way out, I also grabbed my classmate's backpack and my other classmate's purse. The things I "risk" my life for. =P

After that, I bum-rushed to our staffing meeting where we had a guest speaker on accent reduction. Dude, that is totally the route for me (and all of us who are autismed-out)! Ok, on the reals, corporate SLP is not the way I'd want to make a living, but I sure wouldn't mind doing it on the side! I think my Dad should be my guinea pig. ;)

Our guest lecture for tonight was extremely interesting. We had a prominent researcher in fluency present the latest developments in theories about stuttering. This guy and his wife are like the top researchers in fluency right now. I feel like we caught up on 50 years worth of research. It was soOOoOOo cool. The un-cool thing is that he resembled the Berg-man from my first job out of college. That guy was a terror.