Now We Stop...Now We Stop

I had an exceptionally good speech day with the 320s. :) There was a class staff meeting and since J320's 1:1 was absent and he was being a bit too much for the aides in the meeting to watch on the side, they asked me to take J320 for speech instead of M320. I was nervous since the 320 consultant was watching and it could potentially be a bad transition, but thankfully, J320 made a super-easy transition. I did the usual first/then strategy (first speech, then take a walk) and the kiddo put his shoes on and then we walked over to the Speech Area.

We did a little lesson on Basic Concepts (hats), and I had him follow simple directions as we worked. It was my first time having him do this activity so it was comical to watch him choose a color crayon and then "color." All of the 320s "color" in their own crazy way. N320 draws one line at a time, and we have to keep prompting him to color more. D320 colors a whole object but doesn't stay within the lines; extremely thorough though. J320 colors with a vengeance...he was so enthusiastic that he started coloring the table. Afterwards, we reviewed function-match-ups, but I worked on expanding his utterances. Not too shabby. Lastly, we practiced Quiet Sitting. Considering I just read a chapter on shaping and created a Quiet Sitting Shaping diagram (that I thought we had to turn in but apparently not), I thought I'd give it a try and start with my first step, which is working at the first successive approximation of Quiet Sitting -- Quiet Feet. Prior, I'd prompt him on all three components -- quiet mouth, quiet hands, and quiet feet. I instructed that we would count to 60 and then we'd be all done with speech and go on his reward walk.

I was thrilled at the results! Usually, we quietly count to 10 while I prompt him every second or two to stop moving. Oh, when I say we count together, it's more like he attends and chimes in with a few numbers every so often. He also counts in chunks. Like I start counting slowly, "1...2... 3...." and he'll chime in, "456......9, 10." LOL So we started counting "together" and 1) I was amazed that he counted into the 50s; 2) I prompted him a total of 5 times for quiet feet during the 60 counts; 3) during the last ~20 counts, he had quiet feet with no prompts!! This was monstrous b/c this is a kiddo with extremely high sensory needs. It's hard for him to sit still!

Afterwards, we went on a walk around the track. Rewind: I am always trying to think of something functional to sing and I haven't been successful at creating nor recalling any good songs. During Christmas, I sang "Oh Christmas Tree" with him and he actually "sang" with me (chimed in a word here and there); very entertaining and fun for me, but nothing too functional. Today, I recalled a song/video that I saw on a website where children responded to a song sang to the tune of "Frere Jacques" -- Walking walking walking walking, hop hop hop, hop hop hop, running running running, running running running, now we stop, now we stop. I know I looked like a fewl b/c I was the only one acting out the whole song around the track b/c J320 moves on his own time and terms. I thought I could get him to act it out b/c a few minutes prior, I asked if he wanted to run and he actually started running (first time! Could've been a coincidence, I know). He also likes to jump when he needs a sensory break.

Oh snap! I should change the song from "hop hop hop" to "jump jump jump"! Maybe he'll respond to that part next time! (Imaginary high-5 to myself.)

Anywho, I was pleased, though b/c I only sang it once and the 2nd and 3rd time around, he actually "sang" a few words with me! Very nice. :) We went back in for group therapy (i.e., snack time) and my good speech therapist day continued.

I look forward to snack time with the kiddos, but it's also really hectic b/c 3 of the 5 have anywhere between 2-5 different snacks! The other two get class provided pretzels and/or popcorn. Sometimes, it's hard for me to keep track of whose snack is whose and then there's P320 who only wants his own snacks 50% of the time; the other 30% of the time, he wants one of J320 or N320's snacks; remaining 20% of the time he just sits there. Today, I worked on J320 communicating "no thank you" as opposed to "all done" (one of mom's requested IEP goals). He also demo'd much better quiet sitting. It was awesome.

Not only that but I started working on getting P320 so sign "more." He signs an approximation of "please" for "I want" so I wanted to expand that (I also talked to mom about incorporating more signs/gestures since he is so dependent on visual and gestural prompts as opposed to verbal prompts). After about 7 models from me, P320 clapped, and we took it as his successive approximation for signing "more." As in, we practically threw a 3-second party! (We cheered him so loud and I differentially reinforced by giving him not 1 but 3 gummies.) (Wow, I guess learning about shaping a behavior has really come in handy.) Even N320 was on the ball; I barely prompted him for a louder voice as opposed to the past weeks! Lastly, D320 surprised me during his speech time. D320 is extremely echolalic and often appears catatonic but aware of what's going on. During our activity, he responded to a few Wh-questions without any cues!

It was just too much excitement for me. By the time it was lunchtime, I was exhausted. I caught up with my grad student assistant for some good comic relief on how our kids are doing and then I rushed over to see the SDC kiddos. I guess the more appropriate label for those kids would be LC (Learning Center). Even though the school year is almost over, I'm still learning the difference between Special Day Class (SDC) and Learning Center (LC). I think I finally get it.

Oh! On my way over to the Learning Center class, one of my high-functioning autism kiddo (the one that actually said, "I don't want to socialize! I hate socializing!") bum rushed passed me and said hello to me! I was very pleased as he was one of the 3 that didn't fulfill their speech assignment carried over from last week. Woohoo! Point for HFA-D!

I know I vow every time to never see 8 of the LC kids together, but I still do from time to time when I have to make-up sessions. It is uber-drop-dead exhausting to do that b/c of how much attention half of them need!

• Barrettes Girl (turned into Beads Girl) picks on everyone (she is such a bully! Both physically and verbally!) and she gets all up in everyone's business. For a week now, she has come in at least 3x to ask if I've been seeing one of the other girls.
  
• I'm-Not-Programmed-To-Lose Boy who draws the craziest things for me (he'll hand me like 10 drawings every time he sees me) always looks like he's about to cry b/c he feels like everyone yells at him. His group mates kind of do b/c he doesn't keep up with where we are so when it's his turn, all 7 of the girls yell his name out to get his attention and 3 of them will point to his paper and/or flip it over to tell him where we are. So we had have a "time-out" from the current activity and I had to do a mini-social-skills-crisis intervention.
  
• The talkative girl cuts everyone off so it makes the quiet girls feel less confident about talking so I have to cajole the quietest two to talk (thankfully, they flanked me today).
• The quietest gets so upset when she actually has the courage to ask a question or respond and the talkative one cuts her off to steal the spotlight. This one is also on the autism spectrum.
  

It's a circus whenever I get them all together. I didn't even call my TBI kid in b/c it would have been out of control. I would have gotten the, "he never talks! Make him talk! Make him talk!" and then we'd sit there in silence waiting for him.

~ ~ ~

BF was going to bring me out to dinner tonight but he had a lot of work so instead, I came home and instantly hopped into bed for a 1.5 hour nap. It's going to be a busy weekend of ABA reading, research article reviewing, and hopefully helping bro and FBIL out with some moving.

Oh, last bit of news -- it's confirmed for now that N320 will not transfer. Phooey. I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have to see him 4 x a week!