Lane (OT) showed up today to do Tony’s evaluation. He was not very happy about this (maybe just the change in routine) and sang the “clean up” song and said “bye”. But then he wanted his mom or dad to walk w/him outside so Anton and I took Tony on a walk. Tony ran up to a tree and I asked “what’s this” but Tony didn’t respond so, while having his hand touching the bark, said “tree”. After he ran around awhile we couldn’t dodge the doggie doo any longer so we came inside and worked in the playroom. Tony stacked his blocks and I was able to get him to finish a pyramid. He also stacked his blocks really high, congratulated himself, and then had fun knocking them over. He counted his blocks and approximated some of the colors. While he was working on this I pulled out the tact cards and Tony said “ball” and “turtle” and approximated “grass”. With receptives (touch the) I used physical prompting bc Tony wasn’t reaching out for the cards. We then moved onto his Magna Doodle. I drew lines and then gave him the pen and let him do this then scribble all over the page.
We sat at the table today with his magic dough for a long time as Tony squished and rolled the dough. He also almost licked the dough a few times but always stopped himself and he made eating sounds. While sitting there I sang “Twinkle, Twinkle” and let Tony finish the words. When I sang Tony would fill in “star”, “far”, and keep singing the song. Although some of it were sounds, others were words and approximations. He also sang the “clean up” song a lot (which sounds more like “rollit, rollit”), especially when he was finished w/an activity. For instance, when Tony didn’t want to match pictures he sang the song and put the cards back into the envelope. This is when we moved onto something else and came back to it. When Tony was sitting at the table w/the dough I decided to pull them out and see if he would work there. Tony at first wanted to pile the cards together but then when I said “put with same” and gave him a card he matched them. Then I let him continue playing with the dough. After putting up the dough we threw balls and I tried to get him to string a board with holes in it but he didn’t want anything to do with this. Later Tony wanted me to open his different boxes of toys and would ask each time “open” and he also clean up his toys when I sang the “clean up” song. When he was finished w/something he would sometimes say “all done” and when he was hungry he signed “more” (we then said and signed “eat”), and he said “bye” when he went to sleep. Tony was a little thrown off by the change in routine but he got back on task after getting to relax in his room for a while. Pretty good day.

It has been a week since I’ve worked with Tony but despite the lapse Tony was very cooperative and everything moved smoothly. He loves his new work room and even sat and worked at his table. At the table Tony played with his shape sorter and a slinky. We also went through his tact cards and he said an approximation for “turtle”, “dog”, and said “ball” when he saw the objects and I said “what’s this?” Tony also requested the “aah choo” game and filled in the words, along with “wake up” and said “choo choo”.
At the beginning of the session Tony counted numbers, saying most of them clearly as I used the dry erase board. He even ran and got his own marker to write. He mainly scribbled and also did this on his Magna Doodle. We also played with blocks and Tony approximated the colors red, blue, yellow, and green and the shapes triangle and square. With “do this” Tony stomped, rolled and threw balls, jumped, and drummed. He manded “open”, “tickle”, asked to go by saying “bye”, said “all done” when finished eating, and asked for “mama”. We played the “head and shoulders” game and we also pulled out a baby book with pics of kids eating, dressing, etc…and Tony went through the entire book, excited. He made eating sounds when he saw the kid in the high chair and I had him point at the pics of body parts while saying the words.
We also matched cards and 3-D objects, using his rubber lizards and his cards. At first Tony matched with positional prompts before he matched w/out prompts.
Outside Tony stayed on the sidewalk and then went to the park. On the way back to the house he saw two neighbors and waved and yelled “hi” to them. But when they came over and were leaning over him, ogling him, he covered his eyes and waved “bye” before starting to whine a little. So I brought him inside and he was ok.
when we were working in the playroom and it was time to move on to a new activity/toy, I sang the “clean up” song and picked up all the toys that were out and played them in their boxes. Tony would stop what he was doing, come over and pick up things too. At the end of the session when he had pulled his books off of the shelf he cleaned up every book, putting them back on the shelves.
So, Tony matched, tacted some, did well with receptives, needing some physical prompting for “point to”, did a few intraverbals (wake up and aah choo games), and just had amazing interaction with everyone.
When Jill (speech) arrived Tony approximated the “clean up” song, “circle”, “purple”, and “the end”. They also played with face boards in which you place different body parts on the face (like a 2-d Mr. Potato Head) and Tony did this. Today was just a great day and a great start for me in the new playroom. Yippee!!

I didn’t work with Tony today bc he didn’t sleep last night but when he was finished eating Jill showed up and we went outside. Tony ran around and approximated “stop” and “go”. He also tacted “ball”. In his therapy room he manded “open” and “bounce”. He also said “hi” and “bye” and waved to everyone. When he wanted his cup, Jill used physical prompting to get Tony to mand for his cup with a sign while saying the word. Then Tony was so tired that he clung to his gate until someone took him upstairs for a nap. Tony was very playful but also exhausted from being up until 4:30am. A short but atleast productive day.

Today was a little unusual because Marlaina and Anton had a photo shoot and couldn’t be at home during therapy. I was also sick with a fresh cold today so needless to say we didn’t do a whole lot. We did do “do this” with stomp and also “head, shoulders, knees and toes.” I mainly did tacting with 3-D objects like “book” and “ball.” When Tony’s movie ended and he started to whine I tried the sign for “movie.” So are we doing TV or movie?

Tony was also making lots of requests for tickles with signs and verbalization. Jill came at 1:00 and since we had been playing with the Play-Dough she dove right in and started with “roll” and “ball” making shapes with the dough. He was in a pretty good mood considering the absence of mom and dada. Jill also worked with him on sounds of animals and also did some gross motor imitation activities. I hope to get a full session in on Thursday before we all take a break for the holidays.

Well, somebody thought that the party was still going! Okay, so Tony was a tad hyper but after going outside and running off some of his energy he calmed. Outside Tony did some “do this” with stomping and drumming. He was touching everything and making the sounds for “what’s this”. Tony saw a little boy and ran up to him and said “hi” but the boy was shy and ran into his yard. Tony then followed the boy and kept saying “hi” and waving but the boy slammed the fence on him and growled at Tony. So much for encouraging social interaction!
Inside Tony tacted to “what’s this” the pictures, “cat”, “duck”, “ball”, and “dog”. He didn’t tact “grass” or “turtle” but I took the grass pic outside and worked with it out there. Tony did very well with matching his cards. At first when I said “let’s do some matching” while holding the cards Tony said “no!”. But I said “yes” and then went matched sets of three objects a couple of times. Tony has been saying “no” a lot when he doesn’t want to do something but it’s easy to redirect him and he does listen well. Today Tony requested “milk” w/an approximation-another mand! He also tacted with a sound for “broom” and then picked up the broom. He also tried sweeping while his mom with holding a broom. We also did some more “do this” with rolling a ball and drawing a line on his dry erase board. He did this and counted the lines. Also I said “put here” with his floor puzzle and he put the pieces in the right place. We also did “touch the” with a tree outside and with his picture cards. In the beginning of the session I really had to chase Tony around to get him to do things but after being outside he was calm and cooperative. Also, Tony manded “open” and asked for “da da”. He also request “tv” when he wanted the volume on. He whined and I said “say tv”. He said it and approximated it until I turned up the volume. We also worked on “eat” and “cup” but Tony signed and said “more” when he wanted to eat. He whined a little for his cup but we still said “cup” before he got it. When he was holding his vibrating ball he copied his dad, shaking his head and making a vibrating sound with his mouth. It was pretty funny. Tony requested “tickle”, “jump”, “ahh choo”, and “ahh boom” and we played the “head, shoulders, knees…game” w/me saying “touch head, etc” and having him touch the different body parts. He also tacted the colors “red” and “blue”. He said “uh oh” if he dropped something or “yea” if someone told him he couldn’t have something (it’s clearer than before). Wow, even on his hyper days Tony is still so amazing. It is really hard to remember everything that he does. Tony worked well with Jill, playing with playdoh, tacting colors and saying words and sounds, and doing other things. Tony is really social with everyone too, continuing to make great contact and looking and babbling at people in the room when he sees or does something.

Thank you to everyone who attended Tony’s party! Below are some photos…..

These photos were taken the night that Tony learned to say “pasta” and as you can see, he’s really enjoying it!

This is the invitation to Tony’s birthday party….. Please feel free to click on it to enlarge and read all of the details. Join us if you can!

I have a lot to report! Yesterday I didn’t post due to technical difficulties (and dog poop, but that’s another story) so I want to recap. Tony tacted his cards by blurting out “cat”, “ball”, “duck”, “duh” (for dog), and “tuh” (tried to say turtle). He earlier in the session had tacted a couple of the pics but when I was showing the cards to him in front of his parents he was so receptive to/happy with their praise that he was saying the names of almost all the images (only left out “grass”). In fact, when his dad pointed to the pic of the duck and said “Look, bird”, Tony said “duck!”. Tony responded well to “What’s this” and “do this” with his objectives. He was also blurting out words and just babbling the entire time. He matched well, too.

Today, Tony was a little more excited/distracted but we were still able to work and he could be easily directed. Tony was stimming/fixating on many things such as the kitchen stools, a video tape, cards, the new play room, and a plant bed/plants outside. But it wasn’t hard to get him back on task. This was probably bc he was tired and did want to nap a little earlier than usual. He matched his cards well and we worked on receptives and tacts with his 3-D objects and with his cards. Tony also said “tv” today for the first time! This is something that we’ve started as a receptive/tact so that, instead of saying “all done” or whining, he’ll say “tv” and it will be less vague for everyone. So, we’ve been doing this but today he actually said it!
With “do this” Tony ran, jumped, didn’t clap, and drummed. He also bounced on his ball, played on his sit n’spin for a long time, and stomped around for fun. He did well with matching and also said different colors when playing with Legos. He said “blue” and “red” when he saw those colors (many times). Tony also babbled a lot today, too. You can tell that it has meaning to him but we can’t understand most of it yet. We did receptives w/body parts but I didn’t have any luck today (we did hand-over-hand)–I waited too late in the day and he was too tired at this point (probably bc he’s turned into a sprinter outside–fast little guy). Anyway, it was another good day!!