Tony was eating his grilled “cheese” at the start of the session. He smiled and looked around then said “all done”. His mom told him “no, not yet” so he continued eating. Later he said it again and this time came out of his high chair. When I said “hi” and “hey” he said both back to me.
I pulled out the picture card of a ball and said, “show me ball”. Tony hit the ball card. I then asked, “what is this” and Tony said, “ball”. Later I repeated this activity and he did it again. When I tried this activity with “point to” Tony did’nt respond so after a couple of secs I took his finger and pointed it to the ball. Then I verbally praised him. We later did this activity with the pic card of a turtle. Tony touched the card but didn’t tact it so I said the word aloud while putting his hand on the card. Outside I said “show me grass” and later had to point to the grass. Tony touched the grass. Later Tony pat the grass w/only a request but later became fixated with throwing leaves down the drain. I woud say “all done” and “Tony, this way” while pointing to send him in a new direction. He was really listening and following, although he did try to come back to it later. Outside we also worked on physical imitation. I said “do this” and stomped, or clapped, or beat my hands on a wooden fence or the ground. Tony did it each time. When we found a tennis ball I asked “what’s this” and he yelled “ball!”. Then I said “do this” and bounced it on a stepping stone. Tony did this and then threw the ball and watched it bounce on the grass.
We did match to sample using first pic cards of a shirt, a spoon, and a cup. I gave Tony the card of the cup and said “put with same”. Tony took the card and stared so I moved two of the objects back. Tony then placed the cup with its match. Later we did this activity without the positional prompt and Tony matched the cards. We repeated this later in the session and Tony did it again. The first time we did this activity Tony worked at the coffee table. We also did 3-D matching using his balls, plates, forks, and lizards (only 3 objects at a time). Tony matched the balls with “put with same” but at the end of the session didn’t match his forks starting with a positional prompt so I used a physical prompt. When we repeated the activity he did match them w/out a prompt. At the end of the session Tony was really sleepy so I was squeezing out of him what I could.
For mands we worked on “open”, “close”, “cup” (for requesting his drink). Tony many times today requested “open” and also “close” (sometimes as a game and others when he wanted something). When working on “cup” I said “say cup” or “cup” while signing it. Tony became irritated and so I took his hands, made the sign while saying the word, then immediately gave the cup and praised him. I tried this a lot during the session but, except for one time when Tony did attempt by placing his hands to his mouth, he became agitated. So I used physical prompting for the sign. He requested “jump”, “bounce”, “aah boom”, “aah choo”. Outside we also did intraverbals with “aah__[boom]”. Inside this was done with “aah__[choo]”. I dangled my hair in Tony’s face each time he said “choo” and he lauughed and really was enjoying this so when he gently grabbed my hair I said “say hair”. He then pointed perfectly with his index finger to his own head and said “hair”. Also, when Tony needed help sliding a cover back onto his video tape I asked “Tony, do you need help” while signing “help”. Tony immediately said “help” so I put on the cover. Later Tony took off the cover (he liked sliding it on/off) and when he had trouble again I said/signed “help”. This time he yelled “no”, moved the tape away, and fooled around with it for many secs until he got it. Then he looked at me, said “yea” and clapped his hands.
Tony, although quite active, was really focusing during most of the session. Even when he started to shut-down at the end he was still trying some things. For instance, he was playing with his dry erase board so I had a marker in his hand making lines. Later I said “do this” and drew a circle. I then gave the marker to Tony and he drew what was clearly an attempt at a circle. It looked more like a jagged oval but it was still amazing. Tony imitated sounds I made such as “weeeee” and “grrrrr” and also sat as I flipped the pages of two of his books and pointed to the animals while making sounds for each. Tony was also making vocal noises and looking around. Oh, how could I forget this? When Tony saw his dad leave he yelled, “dada” so his dad came back. Then he left again, so Anton came back again. Then Tony said, “hi, dada” and waved. He also reached for his dad quite a few times today, especially when he was ready to sleep. Tony just continues to awe everyone and I know that I am forgetting things but we had a great day!