When I came in the door today Tony yelled. He had been having a good morning but since Marlaina was gone today I think he was expecting to see mommy instead. Tony was upset for a short while but I took him for a walk and he calmed. As soon as we made it to the sidewalk Tony clearly said “walk”. He also requested “jump” atleast 10 tens repeatedly and jumped all over the place. Then he tacted “tree” before asking to come inside by saying “bye” and running back towards the house. Once inside I pulled out the tacts and we went over the pictures. Since Tony was eating we matched the pic of the chips to his really chips. He didn’t tact the word but he instead made the eating sound. I just said “chip” and “touch the chip” having his hand touch the card. We matched colors by using his primary colored large bowling pins, having a basket of red, blue, and yellow. He matched to “put with same” after I placed the pin in his hand. He then put the right color in the basket. He tacted “blue” and “red” today. We also went over the colors with construction paper and Tony colored with his crayon to “do this”. Tony tacted “a ball” and requested “bounce”. He also requested “aah boom” and “wake up”. I think Tony said “cool” once, too, since I think he’s saying that. He also matched different balls and his different dinosaurs. We worked on “touch the” w/body parts but I used physical prompting. Tony requested “open” (if it was a request for the door then I said “open door”), “all done”, and “clean up” and sang the “Clean Up” song as he placed all his play cards back into their box. He also called for “dada” and then whined. He started to shut down and then eventually cried and told me “bye” several times, led me to the gate, and when I made it to the front door he said “open” and waved goodbye. He was really ready for me to leave. Tony just whined at the end and I couldn’t get him back on task so he went down for a nap. We worked for an hour but Tony just seemed too tired to get anything more from him. What we did in a short time was nice, though.

Tony had a great morning Saturday when I was there, despite keeping Mom and Dad up all night! He was very much engaged, with excellent eye contact and intent to communicate. Tony is showing tons of improvement in basic verbal commands (put in, give to me, sit down, stand up, clean up)when accompanied by gestural cues. And need I mention the vocal/verbal imitation and spontaneous speech that is coming from this child’s mouth?!! Lots and lots of accurate targets and word approximations. I’m really proud of this kiddo! Sorry I will miss you guys tomorrow and Tuesday. I’ll plan to see you Thursday and if a cancellation pops up, I’ll give you a call.

Today was my first day back after a very long holiday break. Tony’s behavior has definitely improved in every way. His eye contact is better and he’s so verbal! His echoics have shot up and as well as his tacts (as everyone has already told me). Jill came early and worked with him and after Tony ate I got to take over. Although I only got about 1/2 hour in before it was 1:00 nap time Tony did a lot of good stuff. We took a walk to start off with and Tony was all about looking and touching and tacting everything! Tony even braved walking up to a cat and touching. After I said, “Is that a cat Tony?” He looked at me and said “cat!” We continued the walk and Tony picked up sticks asking “Whassis?” I said “sticks” and said “sticks.” He also tacted “tree” as well. I did “do this” with the running and Tony responded the first time. He made the sign for “all done” after we ran around for a bit and then we headed back to his room to play some more. We only had a little time, but in that time we worked tacting animals and making the animal noises. Tony especially liked making the monkey noises. I worked with play dough since Tony was reaching for it. I worked on “squeeze” and “roll it” and then did MTS with the colors of play dough and their lids. Tony tacted all the colors perfectly (green, blue and red). He actually kept repeating the colors while we were doing other things and pointing to them. Our time was up before I even knew and Tony was off to bed. Even though it wasn’t a complete session, I was impressed with all the progress Tony has made since I’ve last seen him. Go Tony!

Tony was on the ball today! When he finished eating we spent the majority of the time in the playroom. First, we did start the day by going on a walk in the grass. Tony picked up two small tree limbs, ran over to a tree, then matched the limbs to the tree. He also ran up to everything (plants, sticks, the hammock, trees, etc…) asking, “what’s this?” Then he took my hand and said “bye”, so we walked to the house. Once in the playroom Tony completed “do this” w/stomping, rolling, jumping, bouncing, and clapping. He completed “put w/same” using objects and pictures w/no problems. Tony tacted the pictures of a duck, a ball, a turtle, a dog, and even a cup! He also clearly tacted circle and some numbers and sounds, along with the colors black, blue, yellow, red, and green. By the way, he organized his blocks into colors today. When I held a ball and asked, “what’s this”, Tony said “a ball” (actually used ‘a’). He said this twice. When I held up his dinosaur and said “what’s this” he growled like a dinosaur. Tony echoed the sounds “moo”, “huh, huh” (dog panting sounds), “the end”, and music from Blue’s Clues and “Twinkle, twinkle”. He completed a puzzle, bounced, threw, and rolled a ball. He colored a circle (went out of the lines, though), and played with magic dough, making the sound for “cookie” and also eating sounds. He requested w/an approximation for “squish (squeeze?)” and handed me the dough (I take my hands over his and we squish the dough which he enjoys). Tony also brought me his weighted vest (?) and requested “open”, so un held it out and he placed his arms into the holes and wore it for a moment. He sighed and smiled then later said “all done” so I removed it. What did Tony mand today? Let’s see: open, all done, bye, what’s this, bounce, aah boom, aah choo, squish, clean up, roll, ball. Tony flipped the pages of his books as I said the name of the objects and he also played appropriately w/his block toy. He also pulled his train and said “choo choo”. When Tony was tired he said “bye” and also came up to me, gave me a hug, then rested his head on my shoulder. He was quite content when mommy took him to bed. Today was just amazing!!

With today being gray and wet, Tony slept in late then spent a rather long time eating. But he independently said many words. Tony picked up a puzzle piece shaped like the sun and said “sun”, then he tacted the color “purple” while working on another puzzle. Tony saw a picture of a rooster and said “cockadoo”, then made the sounds “meow, meow”, “mooo”, and a barking sound when he saw pics of a cow, dog, cat, etc…on his sound puzzle. He said “dog”, “cat”, and a sound for “rooster”. With “do this”, I tried to get Tony to draw a line but he just scribbled a lot. He tacted some of the alphabet letters. When watching tv he tried to make many sounds or said words from the show. The entire time Tony was “speaking” to everyone and he’s really trying to say the words correctly. Some of his speech is even really clear. And of course Tony manded for “open”, “bye”, and “all done”. When he was hungry he said and signed “more” but also put his hand to his mouth to make the sign for “eat”. We did some receptives w/”touch the” and “point to” and I used physical prompting w/both. On the 3rd attempt Tony was doing these w/out prompting. We also cleaned up to the “clean up” song. This was it today. I didn’t get to work w/Tony very long at all before he went back to sleep.