Tony met his baby cousin only a week ago, and while formally never taught the word “baby,” he saw Sidney and started saying baby right away. And didn’t stop. In a very autistic way, he has start obsessing somewhat over babies, and everywhere he sees an image of a small child, he says “baby.”

We decided that perhaps Tony would like a baby doll, and so Marlaina and the girls went out to KMart to see what they could find.

They came home with a remarkable life-like tan baby (who smells slightly of lavender) and after Tony woke from his nap, we presented the baby to him.

They have been inseparable ever since…with Tony ‘manding for the car (pronounced crraa) and the baby (said very clearly). So we took Tony to Chik Fil A for some french fries (gluten free…after the trauma we suffered last month with McD’s now-revealed gluten-laden fires, Burger King and Chik are it) and then headed home. It is a special treat for Tony to go for a ride, and we always reward his particularly good days with fries. While in the car Tony spoke to his baby, pointed out different parts of the baby’s body, and even had the baby “jump,” “shake-shake-shake” and wave “hi” and bye” to us.

TOTALLY AMAZING.

But it gets better…when we got home and put Tony in his high chair to eat, he wanted the baby next to him. Tony then proceeded to feed the baby french fries, saying “yum yum yum” and also put the cup to the baby’s mouth saying “kkkkkk” which is his short word for cup. He continued doing this throughout his meal, and again made the baby act out specific actions.

We were completely blown away.

Tony is demonstrating that he knows this baby is another person, and needs to be cared for. He has demonstrated empathy for this baby, which totally contradicts (at least from what I have read) the Theory of Mind in Autistic children (especially young toddlers like Tony).

But it gets better…

He continued playing with his baby, and added the girl baby (in pink) to the mix, and sat them down in his recliner (the THINKING CHAIR) and started playing Blues Clues with his new students!

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is actually interacting with them as if they were other kids. He even came over to them and point out some different objects, which he brought to them.

This type of play is SO ordinary for TDCs (typical children), but for Tony at the tender (Autistic) age of two to be picking up UNPROMPTED on his own indicates that he is really starting to “learn to learn.” His mastery of words grows every day, and now he is displaying emotional interaction and demonstrating imaginative play on a 12-18 month old level. Maybe higher.

I guess I can’t express in just mere words how huge this is for us.

It is a funny thing…prior to having an Autistic child, I always though the term “special” as it applies to developmentally delayed kiddos was “nice” and a good way of avoiding odious terms like “mentally retarded” or “slow” or “handicapped.” But the larger reality is that these kiddos ARE special and that with each new developmental milestone, a very special learning moment is displayed…and that is TRULY special. There is simply no better way of looking at it.

Any how…that is my February update for now. I may write more as this month moves forward. In fact, I need to recap Tony’s second (and MUCH better) camping trip at Edisto during the full moon. I’ll do that later this week, I think.

Love,
Dad/Anton

MANDS = 14

Today Tony was very hyper and very excited. We didn’t finish an entire session today (speech came after about 45 minutes) but we did get through a lot of mands, animals, and colors. Tony echoed “door” again today for “open door” and also echoed “play-dough.” Tony sometimes will say “squeeze” when requesting play-dough, so I’m excited that Tony has started to echo ‘play-dough.”

Tony did really well with the animals today. He was very eager to get started with the speaking puzzle game with animals. He tacted “sheep” on the first time and echoed most of the other animals. He also got a “yes” with making the noise for cat.

For motor imitation, we only worked with his dolls. He didn’t want to make the dolls do much else other than “jump” today but again, I think it had a lot to do with his hightened energy level (he seemed distracted). We did however work on putting the dolls in his shopping cart and “pushing” the cart with them in it.

We worked on colors as well today. While Tony was stacking his blocks again I blocked the access again and Tony manded for “block” (which I haven’t heard in awhile). After i prompted “what color do you want?” Tony didn’t ask for a color so I prompted with “Do you want red?” and offered him a red block. Before I let him have it I said “Say red.” Tony echoed “red” after this and continued stacking. We did this for all the target colors (except for black). I got Tony to at least echo all the colors of the blocks (which was good because it was paired with a visual stimulus). We also worked on his magnetic coloring book. Tony readily picked out the black wheel magnets and put them in their correct place on the “black” page. He also did this with other magnets in the book with no prompting.

For intraverbals Tony got “handy dandy NOTEBOOK” on the first time. Tony was very interested in his books today and was having a great time with his Sesame Street book that had flaps. At one point when we were looking at the book, Tony flipped open a tab and saw a picture of cookies and clearly said “COOKIES!” It was so clear it totally blew me away. I also noticed that his “clean up” song sounds a lot more clear. Today it sounded like he was really making the “cl” sound in clean-up.

So today was decent considering the fact Tony was so hyper. I’m very happy about the improvements he is making.

Mands=49

Tony’s verbal repetoire continues to move along. He’s echoing to “say_” well and said “cloud”, “bus”, “train”, an approx for “paper” (pape). And, as you can see, Tony manded a lot today, such as “throw”, “roll”, “crayon”, “blow”, and we worked on putting two words (ex, “roll train” and “blow bubble”) together since I saw that Jill is doing this. Outside we spent a lot of time working on the receptives with “do this” and “grab your_(body part)”. Tony responded to “do this” with the clapping and stomping and putting his hand to his cheek. With “grab your hand” while pairing a gestural prompt with the SD Tony completed this by grabbing his hand on the first attempt. For the other body parts Tony needed physical prompting but did label his body parts independently. He also saw the ducks outside and said “duck” and quacked. He manded to throw objects into the pond and wanted to go to the water so we (Parker, ABA, also working w/me) redirected him by walking somewhere new. Tony was really fixated on the water though and anytime we came across a puddle Tony wanted to put his hands in it and throw objects into it.
Once inside the therapy room Tony manded for “crayon” and it wasn’t an approx. He’s really enunciating his words more clearly. We colored and Tony independently drew a circle and tacted it. He also tacted alphabet letters. He manded for “draw”, “color”, and “crayon” quite a bit. Tony also manded for “book” and pulled out his magnetic one and placed the objects in the correct spots to “where does the_go?” With color tacts Tony labeled the colors incorrectly except for “green”. He did say “red” correctly but before I asked “what color is this” and when I did ask he said nothing and was prompted. He was prompted “say_” to all the colors except green and we didn’t work on black. I really need to mention this, too. Tony took three blocks and built a house then said “how” (approx for house) and did this several times. Marlaina (mom) said that she has been playing with Tony, building homes with his different blocks and apparently he’s learned it.
We worked on the attributes hot/cold, long/short, hard/soft, loud/quiet, and big/little. For hot and cold I brought a frozen potato and a microwaved one. Tony tacted “hot” correctly and echoed very well “cold”. Unfortunately the temps of the potatoes seemed to freak him out a little whenever he touched them. For long and short I used his play-doh (he echoed the word) and rolled it into two pieces of different lengths. I letting Tony do things with the two pieces like roll them and tap them while saying there attributes. I need more examples for this, along with hard/soft. We worked on this by simply touching different objects and saying their attributes. With loud and quiet I yelled “loud” loudly while getting Tony to echo it and whispered “quiet” and made the gesture for “shh”. Tony whispered but didn’t echo the word. He did well w/big and little by throwing the little ball. Other things Tony did was play w/Mrs. Potato Head (new one) and performed a couple of actions with the body parts such as “put the ear in the box”. Tony played with his dress up game, too, and tacted some of the clothing. He had fun making his dolls spin, bounce, kicked, and other activities. We didn’t have a lot of luck with tacting animals or their sounds today. Tony responded to a couple such as “duck” but he did echo the names and sounds. Lastly, Lane, Tony wore his weighted vest several times for a few seconds each. He held out his arms each time so I slid it on him. Then we he said “all done”, I removed the vest. At first Tony was a little distracted and outside he was really fixated on the water. But despite these things, Tony was responsive and I’m pleased that he did the “grab your_” with the gestural prompt bc pairing the visual prompt with the verbal SD seemed to work. I also tried this later with just the SD but had to use the gestural. We will work on this until we can fade the prompt. Good day!

Today was our meeting with Jay again to review Tony’s program. We made a few adjustments to the program including taking away some of the colors we had targeted. We decided to stick just to primary colors and black (since Tony is already tacting black). Jay also decided to take away some of the adjective drills we were going to work on. The adjectives that we are going to work on now are “big/little” and “long/short.” We practiced how to present these things as well as different SDs. We also changed the receptive activities that we are working on with Mr. Potato Head. Since Tony has not been responding positively to “touch (body part)” we altered it to putting Mr. Potato Head’s parts in a specific place or asking “where does his nose go?” We were all in agreement that Tony would respond better to this.

Another great thing that happened at the meeting was having Jay interact with Tony in his playroom. This was so that he can have a better understanding of Tony’s abilities and how all of the ABA therapists are working with him. He gave us some tips on redirecting Tony and clarified how to present teaching colors. Jay also decided to add some imaginitive play to the program. Tony really enjoys playing with his dolls and puppets and has really taken off with engaging in imaginitive play lately.

I think today was very productive. I am so glad Jay was finally able to get to spend some time one-on-one with Tony. Hopefully this will be a routine on every visit. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow to test out some of the new changes in the program.

MANDS = 35

Today was an excelent day with Tony. There were several things that Tony did today that need mentioning. We started out drawing as usual with crayons and Tony started manding for me to draw “thinking chair” and “paw” by handing me the notebook and crayon. After, he said “baby.” I tried drawing a baby, but I don’t think it really looked like one. Tony said “no” after I gave it back to him! Tony really says “baby” very clearly.

Tony manded to go for a walk, so we went out and he manded for “duck” as he dragged me in the direction of the lake. Here, Tony sat himself up on the bank and started handing me things. Last time we were at the lake, I threw a stick into the water and Tony thought it was the funniest thing. So today, I think he was trying to mand for me to throw it. I prompted him with “Do you want me to THROW it?” “Say THROW.” Tony echoed throw and I quickly threw the stick into the water. He laughed and picked up a leaf nearby and handed it to me and I asked again, “What do you want?” and Tony responded with “THROW!” This went on for at least 10 times (probably why I have an inflated number of mands for today). We’ve also worked on throw in the room with balls, but I never had him consistantly manding for it like today.

Back inside, we worked on all the activities. I still had no luck with the colors today. He tacted “green” correctly when we were playing with blocks, but later also tacted a yellow shape sorter piece as green. I continued working on the colors with Tony by trying to get him to mand for certain block colors. He did want to just tact objects I was presenting him, so I decided that while he was into stacking his blocks, I gathered them up and got him to mand for certain blocks to use in his stacking. I thought it was a good idea, but he only manded for green again.

I tried bringing out Mr. Potato Head to work on the receptives, but Tony again had no interest and finally signed for “all done” before I could get any response. So, instead of Potato Head, I used the dog doll again that sings when you touch his parts. I still had to do hand over hand with everything, but at least he was paying attention. I also did hand over hand with all of his body parts.

For motor imitation Tony only got a “yes” for opening his mouth. But I tried using his dolls to play and do motor imitation. I made my doll jump and said “do this.” Tony did the same with his doll and then I also got him to raise their hands and kick their legs. After we finished this Tony did a really interesting thing. He took the Miss Piggy doll and put her in the thinking chair, gave her a notebook (he was really trying to put it into her hand) and then he put Miss Piggy’s hand up to her face (trying to make her think). This kind of imaginitive play is great! Its so amazing to see how appropriately Tony was playing with his dolls.

All in all, today was a really good day. Lots of imaginative play and manding today.

Mands=20+ (sorry, I wasn’t on the ball with the clicker)

When I arrived Tony finished his breakfast and then requested to walk. He said “open” but not “door” but after prompting him echoed it. The remainder of the session he was on the ball w/”open door”. Once outside we worked on some “do this” motor imitation. With standing on one foot Tony lifted his leg but then switched legs. I’m not sure if he lost his balance or if he was going to stomp. He did respond but I left the data for this blank. With “do this” Tony also clapped and opened his mouth. We actually went outside three separate times today bc he kept requesting it so much. We had to redirect him away from the direction of the water many times. Once inside the therapy room we worked on tacts w/animals (including sounds), colors, letters, shapes, objects, and objects. Tony tacted “what’s this” to pictures and objects of a cow, dog, sheep, and also animals in maintence. He didn’t tact rooster or it’s sound. He also only tacted on the first try the animal sound for the cow. When I drew letters such as “E” and “U” Tony tacted this quickly along with shapes such as “moon”. W/colors he didn’t tact “purple” or ”black” but he did very well with blue (with multiple objects and drawings). Tony also tacted “tree” both on paper and outside. After having him tact “book” I used both a small and a big book to work on attributes, along with a big and small ball, and a big and small car. I had Tony do different things with the objects calling them small or big such as “throw the small ball into the basket (his grocery cart). I held up both the big and small balls. Tony grabbed the small one and threw it into the basket. He seemed to enjoy doing this. With the cars, he rolled them and made “beep” sounds. He seems to be getting the idea of big vs small. When I went onto long and short, however, I used his tubes again but he said “no” and didn’t want to play with them. Moving onto receptives with body parts, Tony played well w/Mr. Potato Head, tacting the different body parts as he put them on the spud. However, when asked to “touch Mr. Potato Head’s__”, he only did “nose”. As far as touching his own body parts he did touch his ear without prompt but not on the first try. He also didn’t touch his other body parts and said “no” and “all done” to this. He tacted his mouth, ear, and nose with the mirror (he also kept kissing the mirror). Tony had a great time w/Intraverbals, doing well with his songs and with “you cut w/scissors”. He also had a blast playing w/his “head, shoulders,…” dog–doing the motions of touching his body parts w/amazing speed. He loved this and did it several times. All in all today was really productive. I did have to redirect him from the door several times but it was easy to get him back on task.

MANDS = 8

Tony had a fairly good day today considering the fact that he was very hyper. I had to do a lot of redirecting today with him but nontheless, we still got through about half of the activities. One of the first things Tony manded for when we started was to ride on his wagon with “ride.” Tony also requested to draw with crayons at the beginnning. We worked on tacting animals and making animal sounds. Tony did “cat” and “monkey” sounds correctly when I asked.

I had no luck with Mr. Potato Head today (as he started screaming when I brought out the basket). I did however, get Tony to work with his dog doll that sings and speaks. I asked Tony to “touch his tummy” and “ears” which Tony did on the first time! Although this was not a great day, I was really happy that Tony was listening and understood the SD with this. I didn’t have any luck with having him touch his own parts, but I know that Tony’s getting there.

Tony completely rejected the adjective drills today, so I still don’t have a lot of data to report on that (or the colors for that matter). Today since he was being a little irritable, I couldn’t get him to tact colors. I did a lot of redirecting with the “wheels on the bus” song. Tony has started singing this song very frequently when he encounters any kind of wheels (toy cars, trucks, or pictures of wheels). He even does some of the motions in the song too.

Tony manded to “eat” before we had gotten to any motor imitation or intraverbals, so we ended there. Tony ate in his high chair watching Blue’s Clues until his Grandma, aunt and cousin came for a visit. Although Tony had been cranky earlier, he was extremely excited to see his baby cousin, Sidney. He was laughing and walking over to her and echoed “baby” multiple times (and later used it as a tact when approaching her). He played with her bonnet and kept climbing in and out of the baby’s chair and putting he blanket over her. He also echoed Sidney’s name very clearly during the visit. It was obvious to everyone that Tony was elated to see the baby.

Although today was not one of Tony’s best days in therapy, it was amazing to see how well and appropriately he responded to the company.

Mands=31

As soon as I arrived I noticed that Tony has a new Blue’s Clue’s magnet board. Immediately when I asked “who’s that” Tony said “Steve”. I said “Touch Steve’s foot” and Tony grabbed it. He also echoed “clock” and later tacted it, along w/”notebook” and “thinking chair”. He also sang the “Blue’s Clues” song and plopped down in his chair. Tony sang throughout the session. I used Tony’s post-its and drew the letter “A” and asked “what letter is this”. Tony responded “A”. Then I pulled out a box and gave Tony the paper and told him to “put “A” here”. Tony twice threw the paper towards the box (unfortunately the wind kept catching the paper and it wasn’t going in the box so I should have chosen something else). Then I asked Tony if he wanted to go for a walk and he said “walk” so I used hand-over-hand to get him to pull up his socks and then said “push” which he echoed when putting on his shoes. Tony whined a little but I took his magnet “Steve” and praised Tony with it. Tony thought this was funny and clapped. Also, I did hold up a small shoe and a big shoe and said their attributes. I said “Tony, touch the big shoe” and he grabbed it. I only did this once and am not sure if this was simply coincidence. Then he manded for “walk”. Once outside Tony pointed and said “duck”, then pulled me toward them. I asked “what’s that” and Tony said “duck”. Then I asked “what sound does a duck make” and Tony said “quack, quack” a lot. We walked around to the grassy area and I said “Tony, do this” (standing on one foot) and Tony put his hand on the wooden fence and stood on one foot. When it was time to come inside Tony manded for “open DOOR”. He got a “no” for this bc he didn’t do it on the way outside but he got it right the second time. Then Whitney (respite/ABA) and Parker(ABA) showed and we worked in the room together.
In the room Tony was very distracted, moving from one toy to another, but happy and singing. I did the “what color is this” w/different objects but I don’t feel comfortable keeping data on what I did today (w/colors) since I am still unsure as to exactly how you want this done, Jay. I understand that the goal is to get Tony to generalize but I am looking forward to you explaining this more in our training. Sometimes Tony answered correctly, other times not, and then sometimes he simply didn’t want to do the activity. This happened with a few of the activities today. We did have luck with Tony’s magnet book. He tacted the color “black” in the book and when his bowling ball was held up and he was asked “what color is this” he said it again. With the attributes, we did use a big ball, a small ball, and a big and small tube. This is another area in which I feel uncomfortable keeping data bc this is an example of what I did: I presented the balls and said “small ball” while holding the small one and “big ball” while holding the big one. Then I did different things like “touch the big ball” and “throw the small ball”. Tony had a good time throwing the balls. With long and short I used his tubes and told him to “touch the long tube”. Tony snatched it and said “yea” so I think this too was coincidence. I know that we need more examples to teach these attributes so here is another area that I am worried about, Jay. There are many more things that all three of us did together w/Tony that I am leaving out but today was really up/down. Tony was into activities but briefly and not into some activities that he normally enjoys such as the letter puzzle. I look forward to working more with Tony on Friday!

MANDS = 15

Today went really well with Tony. He was very verbal and engaged during all of our activities. My favorite part of today was when Tony was re-enacting the Blue’s Clues song involving ‘thinking’ in the thinking chair. He was singing part of the song and then would plop down in his thinking chair saying “thiiiinnkk” while making the thinking gesture with his fingers up to his face. It was really hilarious.

Other highlights from today included some great improvement with the motor imitation with “touch your belly.” Today was the first day I was able to get him to do it on the first trial. Tony also did really well with the intraverbals today. He completed “handy dandy NOTEBOOK” (although notebook was more of an approximation). Tony also has been able to make an approximation to “scissors” and filled in “You cut with SCISSORS.”

I also followed Jay’s instructions on the color drill. I wasn’t successful today with “red” and “green” but I’m very confident that Tony will pick up identifying colors as quickly as everything else. He really is learning so fast!

I’m posting this for the sole purpose of asking Jay a few questions about some of the new drills.

1) I wanted to know what the exact SD is for the drill on colors. We didn’t write it down during our last meeting, but to my memory I thought it was “What color is this?” I know we are doing 3 different exemplars for the colors, but what steps of presentation do we need to take before asking him the question. For example, should we just be able to put out 3 different red things and ask “What color is this?” I’m not sure if it would be easier for you to explain it through posting, or we should practice it next Monday (or both). I want to practice the adjectives drill too (just to make sure we’re all doing it right).

2) Since our last meeting, Tony has gotten 3 sequential “yeses” with the puzzle activity (ABC and numbers). I have mixed up all the numbers and letters in both the puzzles and Tony has been able to finish them both unmprompted very quickly. I thought maybe we could do some matching with colors or Elizabeth suggested animals. What do you think?

OK, I think that’s it for now. Let us know what you think when you have time to post. Thanks!