Mands: 9

Alright, today was a day for rest and relaxation for our little Tony. Since he was slightly on edge, Marlaina decided that we should just do what we can tell he wants to do today and give him a little break. He started off the day a little perturbed that neither of his girls were present at the regular time. Still, things were going well and we went into his room. He wanted ‘up,’ so I picked him up and he reached into the top compartment of the hanging giraffe and pulled out the red fingerpaint jar. We put on his smock and got to painting. After a little painting with just the red he was ready for the blue. We mixed them together and made purple. Soon he was ready for the yellow jar of paint too. I attempted to alert him that there was an easy way to bypass the ‘up,’ serching and reaching grueling process by simply saying “want —– ——- [yellow paint.]” Of course, a three word combo is kind of a stretch at this point, so we just got the yellow paint the old fashioned way.

Tony had fun painting and I’m not sure, but I think he wanted to start painting on the table (on paper) because he toted the blue and red jars to the table. It was when he went back for the yellow paint that we ran into the problem . . . poor little Tony! He dropped the jar of yellow paint onto the floor and it splattered all over the place. Tony was completely distraught about the mess and cried and squealed unpleasantly until there was not a drop left anywhere. I saved what paint I could and sang the clean up song while I worked on the mess to ease his pain.

We went for a walk and encountered the little girl once again. This time we met her mom too. Tony seems to like Chaira (girl’s name) and I think she wants to be friends. This is a great chance at socialization with peers for tony. She is about twice as old as him, but that is good because she will be more sensitive, gentle, and empathetic than someone his age. We played out there too long and almost missed the field trip that was in full swing.

I heard the honk of Marlaina’s car horn, expressed my apologies to Chiara for such an abrupt departure, and whisked Tony away. In moments we were off for a car ride for fries and errands with Whitney and Marlaina. After the field trip, Tony was ready for his nap.

Mands: 12

Tony had an ok day today. We enjoyed the lovely out of doors and brought his new bag of musical instruments out there to play. We went through all of the phase one trials in his room, but he was unresponsive to a surprising number of SD’s. I pressed him to do two word combinations, but it semed like ‘instant gratification’ was the name of the game he wanted to play. I realize he has autism and this is part of it, but I’m not going to reinforce “uh-oh” and whiny noises or throwing things. It is hard to wait for the correct mand when he is getting upset, but I just remind myself how much easier it is going to be when he can mand clearly and specifically for whatever he wants than if he sticks with temper-tantrum symptoms and the guessing game. He has come so far since Whitney started and he is SO SMART!!!! It would be a complete sellout to Tony himself as well as his family and friends if we let him think that nonsense is going to achieve anything. So I hope he can bear with me and be patient while everyone hones his communication skills.

Halfway through the day he manded for ‘craa,’ ‘corrrr,’ (we knew he meant car.) I tried fetching his Wiggles car to play outside, but it was no substitution. Marlaina exclaimed “field trip!,” and we embarked on a Whole Foods and Dollar General expedition. When we got home, we watched Tellitubbies and then played with play dough in his room until Whitney arrived.

We all went for another walk and met a little girl by the broken hammock. Tony was really excited to see another child and jumped up and down with joy. She was a little on the wierd side, and Whitney had prompt her to say ‘hi’ to Tony. We also played with a tennis ball that someone left in the courtyard.

Today Tony was out of sorts. His gross and fine motor skills were off and he was relatively irritable most of the day. Whitney and I thought it seemed like he was displaying symptoms of a gluten infraction, but to Marlaina’s knowledge there has been no such infraction. She suspects he is allergic to soy.

We started the day easy with a walk right after a very light breakfast (only 2 fries). I did some motor imitation and he did almost all of them on the first time. Parker joined us on our walk and we had some more fun exploring the great outdoors going under, over, around and through things.

Back inside we worked on a few animal tacts. We used the puppets, but Tony had no love for them today. He was more interested in jumping and play-dough. He’s improving on his mand for “play-dough” though. We’ve also been trying to incorporate Jill’s two-word-combo with Tony like “want cup” “give ball.”

Jill came and Tony had a fairly good session. When he came out, he was reluctant to go immediately back inside to work. Instead of letting him get out of all his work for the day, Parker and I brought the tunnel out to the room to get some more out of him. Although we were competing with Mr. Roger’s, Tony was still responsive when we asked him something.

After playing for awhile, Tony manded for “car” and Marlaina thought it would be good to take him to the park for some exercise. We stressed prepositions with him during this field trip, going “over bridge” “down slide” and “up stairs.” We also did some swinging and running! Yeh!

When we returned from our outdoor adventure, Tony seemed tired and irritable. We kept working with him on some more tacts and receptives but Tony had other plans (coloring). Tony requested “walk” a final time holding his cup and turtle. We took him out for only a few minutes until he laid down in a pile of leaves. Both Turtle and his cup were dirty as a result and this did not make Tony happy. He whined until we headed for home holding our hands. After that it was night, night. A long day for Tony considering his upset in diet (soy?)

Mands: (approximately 18)

A new week and back to phase I. Tony had a pretty good morning. He was eating chicken and hot dogs and clapping along with Martha Stewart’s studio audience when I arrived. I changed the channel to Blue’s Clues, but before the Noggin song was over Tony manded very clearly for a ‘walk.’ (I can’t find the clicker, that’s why I recorded an approximate number of mands.) In order to get out the door for our first walk, Tony told me what we needed to put on his feet: “shoes!” and manded ‘over,’ so I would pick him up over the gate. He also echoed ‘gate.’ Then he said ‘open, open, open . . . I played dumb as Whitney reccomendede until he put two words together, like we all know he can do; “open do,” he said, and so I reinforced him by opening the door and saying “yes! Open door! Yeah Tony!” and rubbing his head.

He surprised everyone by being completely out of sorts for his friend Jill. They had a hard time today and I suspect tiredness is the culprit. Tony still wnt on one more walk and waded through some more phase one material before he completely lost it and we knew nighty-night was the answer. I tried the experimental receptives drill with a crayon and a toy VW Beetle. He got the ‘pick which one you write with’ exercise, but not the others. I’m not sure whether he understood or it was just luck and a 50/50 chance. We’ll keep working on it. We at least tried almost everything in phase I, so I’d say we can’t call it a bad day, just not great.

Get some rest, little smart one . . . tomorrow we will start again! Yeah!

Mands: (approximately 18)

A new week and back to phase I. Tony had a pretty good morning. He was eating chicken and hot dogs and clapping along with Martha Stewart’s studio audience when I arrived. I changed the channel to Blue’s Clues, but before the Noggin song was over Tony manded very clearly for a ‘walk.’ (I can’t find the clicker, that’s why I recorded an approximate number of mands.) In order to get out the door for our first walk, Tony told me what we needed to put on his feet: “shoes!” and manded ‘over,’ so I would pick him up over the gate. He also echoed ‘gate.’ Then he said ‘open, open, open . . . I played dumb as Whitney reccomendede until he put two words together, like we all know he can do; “open do,” he said, and so I reinforced him by opening the door and saying “yes! Open door! Yeah Tony!” and rubbing his head.

He surprised everyone by being completely out of sorts for his friend Jill. They had a hard time today and I suspect tiredness is the culprit. Tony still wnt on one more walk and waded through some more phase one material before he completely lost it and we knew nighty-night was the answer. I tried the experimental receptives drill with a crayon and a toy VW Beetle. He got the ‘pick which one you write with’ exercise, but not the others. I’m not sure whether he understood or it was just luck and a 50/50 chance. We’ll keep working on it. We at least tried almost everything in phase I, so I’d say we can’t call it a bad day, just not great.

Get some rest, little smart one . . . tomorrow we will start again! Yeah!

Today was a short day with Tony. I came early and worked on the food. He chose to eat hot dogs and I started prompting him to say “eat hot dog.” He echoed this a few times and I got about 5 strong mands out of him during his breakfast.

After eating and watching some of the Wiggles, Tony headed in to work and Parker started with “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Jay, how should we record data if Tony is doing the actions during the song, but not making the verbalizations to “pat tour head” etc.?

We got through some of the activities and even tried a new receptive drill. We had Tony put Mr. Potato Head parts in cups of different colors. I asked Tony, “Put the ear in the red cup.” Tony did well with this and really enjoyed the hugging and bouncing as a reinforcer. I think we’re going to try this again tomorrow since it went pretty well.

Tony was getting tired very early and because speech was cancelled, we decided to give him a change of scenery and some exercise at the park. He had such a blast swinging and sliding. It was good for him to get all his energy out before the car ride to Myrtle Beach to see his sissy. That’s all for today!

MANDS = 16

Tony had another great day today. He was very excited to get started with everything and was having fun playing with his new can of noise putty (aka “flarp”). Parker and I worked together on most of the activities and Tony especially liked our game with the ball. We rolled the ball on the floor to each other and Tony manded who would get the ball with “ball Parker” or “ball Tony.” We played this game with Jill before and Tony absolutely loves it. We took this game outside later on and worked on differentiating between “roll” “throw” and “kick.” He got lots of exercise this way.

Back inside we did a lot of work with the dolls and Mr. Potato Head. He hasn’t had too much interest in these things but since he hasn’t interated with either of these things lately, Tony seemed happy to start play. We went through motor imitation and receptives and also slipped in some echoics. He’s really improving his approximations with colors. “Orange” is becoming very clear and “open door” is almost perfect now. The past few weeks Tony has had so much growth with his verbal abilities.

Another fun thing we’ve been doing is “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” This is targeted in Phase 2 under intraverbals. Tony is averaging pretty close to perfect with all of the gestures. Interactive music like this is very reinforcing for him so I’m happy it can be worked into the program as a learning tool.

Jay, Parker had a good question for me today and I wasn’t quite sure how to answer it myself. For the prepositions, should we be collecting data separately for each one. For example “over” and “under” if Tony only gets one of them correct, how should we record it?

Alright, I think that’s all for today. I just want to say I am so proud of Tony and how hard he’s trying. He’s really making tremendous progress!

Mands: 16

Tony had a fabulous morning in his room, starting while we looked at a National Geographic photography special magazine. First I flipped to a picture of an iridescent blue and purple butterfly. I asked him what it was, and after I prompted him echoically; ‘say butterfly,’ he gave it a try. Then I pointed to the blue half and prompted him to tact the color which he did. I had to ask three times while pointing to the purple side before he said purple pretty clearly. What was really remarkable was his adjective tact. I was flipping through our ABA notebook and the magazine and just about the time I saw the hot/cold category I spotted a picture of a fire. I said “Tony, this is a fire. Is it hot or cold?” He said “hot. hot, hot, hot.” I emphatically reinforced his correct and very clear answer.

While we were still in his room we started in on motor imitation, phase II. Tony almost too easily sailed through throwing a ball, kicking a ball, and making the tube long and then short. He wasn’t keen on shaking his head today, even when I tried it again later. He demonstrated his ability to do this once just to shut me up. He was reluctant to place the toy in the cart, but after we did it hand over hand I tried the ‘do this’ prompt and he did it! Yeah Tony! I guess he’s not ready for the dolls yet, at least not today – I just put them on the table so they could watch him play with legos (and to see if he would pick them up or take interest in them on his own,) but once he noticed they were on the scene he shoved them off the table with his arm.

We went for a short walk outside when Tony manded for ‘walk.’ It was very nice outside and we played in and around the bus. This is where we accumulated at least half of Tony’s mands for the day. During the walk I tried to do intraverbals with “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” He was more than willing to perform the actions but didn’t want to sing or fill in any blanks, even after lengthy hesitation. Any suggestions?

Another cool thing Tony did today was say ‘who’ clearly. He was looking for his turtle upstairs when we got back from the walk because he forgot it was already in his downstairs room. I went and got the turtle and was waiting to meet Tony at the bottom of the steps whith turtle behind my back. I said “somebody’s behind my back,” and jingled turtle in order to produce his unmistakeable sound. Then I said “I wonder . . .[hesitation] . . .Tony chimed in “who!” and I reinforced it by presenting him with turtle and saying “turtle!”

Mands: 16

Another good day for Tony. He had both of his girls with him, as his Mom informed him of early this morning. She said he was excited and said “yeah, girls, girls, girls!” Last night he didn’t get much sleep – there’s a throw-up bug going around. Whitney took him into his room and got down to business with phase II. When I joined them they were playing with play-dough. The next thing Tony wanted when Whitney lifted him ‘up,’ just as he manded, was the watercolor paint. We took down the paint and some construction paper and Tony very successfully tacted two of his new colors; purple and orange. Of course they are just approximations now, but soon. . . oh yes, soon he will be very good at them! Yellow seems to be his least favorite color to say. Whitney had a bright idea of how to introduce ‘who.’ She snuck out into the living room and made arrangements with Marlaina and Anton for one of them to wait a few minutes and then come knock on the door. When someone came a-knocking, we prompted him to ask “WHO is it?” This great idea worked well, and we were able to get a pretty good ‘who’ out of the boy.

Then we all went outside for a walk, Tony had each of us by one hand, practcally dragging us behind him caveman style. Once outside, he went straight for the bus and manded “open do.” He went in the driver’s side door and climbed over to the passenger’s side. This is the side where he likes to roll the window down. He started rolling it down and said ‘woll’ while he was doing it. I snuck away and hid and Whitney prompted him to say ‘where’s Parker?’ echoically. We also had Whitney hide and he is doing surprisingly well with both ‘where’ and our names! Whitney sounds like Whunuh, and Parker sounds like Paco. Last week we were all in his room with Jill and we had him say the name of the person to whom he wanted the ball to be rolled, so obviously he’s worked on the names before in speech therapy.

We returned from the walk and Tony went upstairs to retrieve his turtle. In the room we had some success with phase II motor imitation: throwing a ball and shaking his head we got with “do this.” After a few tries, he did do a ton of great kicking, but we were asking him to ‘kick the ball to _________.” Whitney tried introducing the dolls a few times, but Tony was just not interested. After we tackled some receptives with Potatohead, Tony accidentaly turned on the CD player by bumping something into it. Interestingly, it went straight to “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” which is one of our new intraverbals. He did a great job doing the appropriate actions as his Mom watched proudly through the window!

The next thing he did was such a complicated mind process that it kind of blew our minds. Tony said ‘car’ a couple of times. We weren’t sure if a car ride was on Marlaina’s agenda, and when we didn’t respond immediately, Tony manded very clearly ‘walk.’ We could tell he’d just put together the fact that getting himself outside would be half of getting his beloved car ride! He’s such a smart little guy! His tiredness finally hit him and he fell aleep in the drive-through line at Chick-Fil-A.

Mands: 26

The weather is wonderful today and Tony is (thankfully) over his weekend long fight with diarrhea. (sp?) He was in a great mood for most of the day, so we took advantage of the good mood and the good weather and went on two long walks over the course of the day. It is funny how he willingly and readily does some things outside that he refuses to even try in the room. I think tomorrow I will bring phase II motor imitation and maybe some other learning activities outside and try to accomplish them. In his room today, I got a purple piece of paper, a purple foam square, and a purple lego block out, held these items in his line of vision and asked for a color tact. I must have asked him five different times with no response, not even an echoic! He told me what shape the purple piece of foam was, but he just didn’t want to say ‘purple.’ On the contrary, when we were out for our second walk, after the unsuccessful purple episode in his room, we walked up to a fragrant blooming wisteria. I asked him what they were and he made an approximation for ‘flower,’ (I will ask Jill how to improve it) then I asked him what color the flowers were and he happily spurted out “puhple” without hesitation!

We waded our way through some of phase II and hopefully we will get through the rest tomorrow. After speech he manded for a car ride. I tried to distract him with a pretend version in the bus, but he wouldn’t have it. Marlaina could see the situation could go downhill quickly without the reinforcer of an actual car ride, so she got the keys and we went. Upon our return, Tony ate some of his newly acquired french fries and watched an episode of Blue’s Clues. After his show was when our second walk took place. After he manded for ‘walk,’ we walked over to the gate at the entry of the hallway and stopped. I said “what do you want?” I was hoping for a two word mand; ‘jump over,’ which incorporates one of our phase II preposition tacts, I got a ‘jump,’ but I had to resort to echoics to get ‘over.’

It is easy to rack up the mands when you are playing with Tony in the bus. There’s ‘open door,’ ‘up,’ ‘down,’ ‘roll’ (window), and ‘shut’ or ‘close door.’ All of these are used repeatedly as he wants their effects accomplished. He can actually roll down the window himself now! While we were in the bus I sang a little bit of “Wheels on the Bus” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It” Tony performed the actions that went with the words but didn’t join in vocally. When we got out and shut the door I said “this way,” and held his hand, leading him to the left of the house torward the root-laden entrance to the courtyard. The whole time we walked, he said ‘this way’ again and again. So when we finally got into it, I said ‘that way,’ and started off in another direction. We covered alot of ground with our new ‘this way/ that way’ game, and he was tickled he could direct me so successfully. We stopped by an orange traffic cone and Tony put some sticks and leaves into it. As he dropped the objects into the hole in the top of the cone, I would say “you’re [or Tony’s] putting the STICK IN the CONE.” Then when he’d finished putting a few leaves and sticks in, I’d pick up the cone and move it about a foot to the side and say “now the leaves and styicks are OUT of the cone!” I knew he was getting tired because he was disturbed to the point of crankiness when he threw his turtle into some leaves and leaves stuck to the turtle. Luckily his tiredness was anticipated back at the ranch, where he had a new cup and transportation to his bed waiting on him!