Today was a fun day for Tony because we spent much of it at the park! We started out going over some of the new program objectives in his playroom. He did really well with some of the intraverbals and after a short session Tony manded for a car ride. I took him to the park which was really exciting today because he had someone else to play with! An sweet 18 month old little boy was playing with his nanny on the slide and Tony ran right up to him and said hi! He seemed so happy and engaged. Tony and little Whit (the other boy) chased each other, shared toys and drank their sippy cups right next to each other on the bench. I worked with Tony on introducing himself by promting, “Say, Hi, my name is Tony.” He echoed it perfectly and the other nanny even commented on how smart Tony was. Another choice moment was when Tony and Whit were swinging next to each other. I noticed that Tony kept looking over at his new found friend. His eye contact has come so far!

After the trip to the park, I took Tony to Chick-fil-A for his usual fries. He munched on them until we got home where he then preceeded to mand for “Elmo.” We watched Elmo for a while and then moved on to some sandbox fun. I continued to prompt his approximations to “shovel” “sandbox” and “sand” while we played.

That’s about it for today. See you tomorrow Tony!

Mands: 14

The big news is bad news: one of Tony’s middle fingers is broken. The poor thing was shocked by the pain at first, but he seems to be weathering it well now. Since the hospital wouldn’t be able to do anything but put a splint on his finger and disturb him further Marlaina made the decision to give him some Tylenol and keep him at home. He is now watching a special Elmo/ Sesame St. DVD with his Sissy.

Luckily before his run in with the coffee table drawer he got in a good speech session with his wonderful Jill. They spent a good part of the hour having a tailgate party to avoid some kind of pink crayon mix up. Once they relocated to the house tony had forgotten all about the crayon – good move Jill, special thanks goes to the lovely Whitney for giving Jill the heads-up!

Mands: 11

Okay day for Tony. When I first walked in I got to see his new Wiggles books, a play sword, and a new thinking chair that is not inflatable, it is solid and looks just like the original thinking chair. While we were inspecting the new goods Tony saw an oppurtunity . . . an opportunity to use his new favorite phrase. His new favorite phrase goes a little something like this: “oh-no, are you okay?” And in order to create the correct circumstances he took a few steps, a leap, and then tackled me to the ground! I was caught a little off guard, but his little voice asking about my well being brought me back. Of course the witnesses Morgan and Marlaina thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Although he started off wanting to watch show after show we did end up getting some ABA accomplished. The first time we went into his room he was intrigued by some new toys. His interest eventually focused on a Blue’s Clues puzzle that really works well in one of our ABA exercises. We did the puzzle a couple times. Tony kept trying to get into the living room and he was getting upset. After trying to capture his attention with a few different activities I responded to his ‘open door’ mand and opened the door to the living room. He called for his Mom and he called for his Sissy. I told him they were upstairs. Since they were unavailable he began asking for the Wiggles. I asked if he wanted to go for a walk or back into his room to play. Both questions were met with very stiff and convicted ‘NO’s. I started looking for the Wiggles in the DVD case when he stopped me on “Follow that Bird” I asked if he wanted to watch it and he said “YES.” I certainly didn’t want him to spend all day watching shows, but I also didn’t want him to start crying and screaming, so I put the movie in.

Once Anton came downstairs to get to work we definitely had to get out. We went outside for a walk. For the first leg of the walk his main interest was turning around and going home. I hoisted him up onto my shoulders and we went over to the basketball court. At first he was satisfied with our location. He played with the gate opening and closing it, then he let me in. I closed the gate behind us and he made a bee-line for a puddle. He splashed around a little, we ran and sat down on a bench in the shade. The next time he was playing in the puddle he decided to plop down into it. His shorts got wet and this made him upset. I told him it was no big deal and they would definitely dry off if we kept on walking. He was crying with his head against the gate, calling for his Mom and Dad and a return trip home. I knew going back home so soon would be a very bad thing for Anton and Marlaina’s sanity, so we went for a nice loooooooong walk. It was fun.

When we got home Marlaina’s Mom and Dad were home and we all sat in the living room and had lunch. Tony and I went out into the back yard area and played in his new sandbox. We did some of the slow/ fast motor imitation outside. When we went back into his roomwe did some of the puzzles we are working on. He did manage to put some pieces in the right spots and he recieved plenty of positive reinforcement! Yeah Tony!

MANDS = 16

Today was an OK day for Tony… he still seemed frustrated throughout much of the day. Parker and I had do a lot of redirection today but Tony seemed to do better as the day wore on. We tried almost all of the new objectives for the new program so I felt it was a pretty productive day. Jay, this is a list of all the new ABLLS objectives you requested: R5, G16, F8, Q3, C8, B5, B4, B8, B11, D8, H8, H5. Tony did especially well with the motor imitation speed of an action. He wasn’t very receptive to the objective Q3, Receptive sounds of letters. Parker and I used a lot of prompting with this activity and delivered heavy reinforcement (tickles) for correct answers. He only got “T” right without prompts but this was only the first day of introduction.

Tony, Parker and I went on a walk outside. Before our walk, we went on a “bus ride” in the bus. We all put on our seat belts and pretended to go for a ride. We sang the “Wheels on the Bus” song while I pretended to steer. Parker and I motioned for wheels for the wheels part and tacted “horn” and “wipers” while we were singing.

After our magic bus ride, we got out the chalk to draw one of Tony’s favorite things, houses! Tony also did well with the objective asking “What’s missing?” On the first time, Parker drew a house and said “What’s missing?” and Tony responded immediately with “the roof!” Soon after the chalk activity, we continued our walk out back. Parker and I played a fun round of “Simon Says” (actually it was Whitney Says) followed up by Parker’s Follow the Leader. Tony really enjoyed these games and did well paying attention. We thought this would be a fun activity to work on establishing better stimulus control with Tony.

Tony was fairly tired after running around in the heat with us for so long. He manded for “house” and “Mom” so we headed back home. He then manded for “Elmo” as a show. Tony was happy sipping on his cup. Soon after Elmo came on, he sat in my lap and nodded off to night-night. I think today we finally got a jump-start on the new program. Hopefully tomorrow Tony will be ready for more to learn!

Mands: 12

A pretty good day for Tony today. He had a nice speech session with Jill. At the end of his time with Jill he broke out in song, “Goodbye Jill” was the tune and she hasn’t sung it to him for at least a month and a half! Good memory Tony! Our lucky little one got to enjoy two car rides and a trip to the pool, whew – big day.

I would really like to buckle down and work with Tony on the new ABA program, but he seemed to be on the edge. When I was strapping him into the car seat and I couldn’t find the specific marker he’d seen on the floorboard he began a familiar whine that is sometimes followed by much louder whining and then crying, yelling, screaming or all of the above. I found the marker and tragedy was narrowly averted. Then there was the time I was trying to clean up his room before Jill arrived so they would have room to play. Tony came over to the table where I’d just picked up a plethora of markers off the floor. He proceeded to dump the whole lot of them back onto the floor. It didn’t look like he wanted any of them to color with, so I said “Let’s clean up these markers, Tony.” I started singing the clean up song while I turned him around to face the mess he’d made. He was not thrilled. I did hand over hand to pick one up. He started the whining. I said “okay, just one – let’s just put one in the box,” and we did. I picked up the rest. Another time he began the whining a few times was when he and I were in his room playing with small legos. Every single time he had trouble attatching legos to his existing structure he started this whine. I said “use your words,” and asked “do you need help?” Sometimes I coerced him into uttering a small “help,” but sometimes his whining and sounds of frustration and distress just elevated in volume.

We ended up watching shows, as we have been doing a lot lately. Of course it is better than screaming, but not as good as ABA. I know he is intellectually ready for the new material but his emotions are going crazy. Hopefully tomorrow between Whitney and I we will be able to get some work done with Tony. Maybe outside or at the pool or park, that would be great fun!

Lovely day for Tony today. He really enjoyed trying different exercises from the ABBLS kit that Jay brought in today. The novelty of the contents of the kit paired with the reinforcing cheers from four of his beloved adults made for a fun adventure! Tony showed off his skills and brain power – most impressive. We were already confident in his ability to complete many of these exercises, but there were a few we wanted to be sure of and the ABBLS ameliorated our assessment.

After all that work Tony was ready for (and deserved) a break! Whitney and I had a quick lunch and then took him to the park. We all had lots of fun at the park where Tony wanted us to escort him down the slide. Marlaina said he goes down the slide with no accompaniment (sp?) when he’s in Myrtle Beach. Wierd that he acts differently in different situations, huh?

Lovely day for Tony today. He really enjoyed trying different exercises from the ABBLS kit that Jay brought in today. The novelty of the contents of the kit paired with the reinforcing cheers from four of his beloved adults made for a fun adventure! Tony showed off his skills and brain power – most impressive. We were already confident in his ability to complete many of these exercises, but there were a few we wanted to be sure of and the ABBLS ameliorated our assessment.

After all that work Tony was ready for (and deserved) a break! Whitney and I had a quick lunch and then took him to the park. We all had lots of fun at the park where Tony wanted us to escort him down the slide. Marlaina said he goes down the slide with no accompaniment (sp?) when he’s in Myrtle Beach. Wierd that he acts differently in different situations, huh?

This post is about our 4th of July trip down to Beaufort to see Tony’s grandparents. Tony was very excited about the beach (he saw us loading up the beach bag). We headed off in the car and Tony remarked “beach” several times along the way.

When we arrived, Tony was excited to see his Mazzie and Papa. I think he’s doing so well with using names appropriately. We played stop and go for awhile outside until it was time to watch the Wiggles. Usually Tony is so overly stimulated due to the change in environment, he runs laps around the house. Today however, we all saw a much more calm Tony. He was happy enough to sit on my lap and watch the Wiggles (dancing along when necessary of course).

After the Wiggles, it was time to go to the beach. He was so excited that he didn’t even mind me applying his sunscreen! Tony, Mazzie and I arrived at the beach, Hunting Island. Tony had fallen asleep on the 20 minute ride, but was quickly alert when we told him he was at the beach. He was ready to get into the water as soon as we hit the sand, dragging me all the way to the shore. Unlike Sullivan’s Island, there was quite a current on Hunting Island. Tony was so excited to see the waves, he was ready to dive right in! I held Tony by his arms over the waves while he kicked and splashed. He loved the sensation of the waves splashing over him. He manded “jump” several times for me to pull him up and down over the waves and also “down” when he wanted to lie on his back. I was slightly hesitant to let him do this because I thought he would get salt water in his eyes or up his nose. A few bigger waves came crashing over and as I pulled him up he manded “down”. I let him down only to be hit right in the face with a wave. I was sure that he would be upset by this but to my surprise, he laughed and shouted “yeahh!” It was so great to see him having so much fun! He really is fearless in the water!

We walked up to his sand toys and spent some time learning a few new words: sea shell, sand and sand castle. We picked up several shells and used them in our sand castle that we had constructed. Tony also enjoyed collecting water in his bucket and bringing it over to our “moat.”

We spent the rest of our time alternating between playing in the sand and playing in the water…not to mention several visits up to Mazzie for a “cookie.” Unlike other visits to the beach, Tony decided when it was time to go. After Tony had a big wave crash all over him (I was certain he was going to cry) Tony looked up at me as he rubbed his eyes and said “bye-bye water” and then “bye-bye beach.” Tony was finally ready for his “car ride” back home.

I was very impressed with Tony’s ability to adapt to the change in environment. He remained very calm and manded frequently for various things while were at the beach. Overall, it was a great trip for Tony!

Mands: 10

Today Tony’s mand for car ride was fulfilled almost at once, as Marlaina had an errand to run and I already had the go-ahead. Tony was happy about this and remained talkative throughout the ride. We sang “‘C’ is for Cookie” in the line at thed bank.

After the car ride we went for a very short walk. We colored with chalk on the sidewalk and then walked partway down the sidewalk. Tony went for some bricks Marlaina had stacked outside their fence and I let him stack them up. Until I saw ants crawling all over the sidewalk and the bricks. I told Tony the ants were yucky and I put the bricks back. He wasn’t happy, but happier than if he’d gotten bit by the fire ants! Then Tony was ready to go back home.

We’d been in the house only for a short time when Tony seemed to be getting restless. We decided to go to the pool. Tony and I had tons of fun at the pool. He is getting really good at moving around the pool. I think after awhile he will be ready to actually swim without a floating bathing suit! Definitely next summer! He loves the water, and his favorite pool snack is cookies! He had two and a half big ones today. There were a few false alarms when he said “all done pool” but was not really ready to part with the water. I would say “okay, let’s go,” and hold his hand and the bag. The next thing I know we are once again poolside and his foot is in the water! Silly boy.

Today was really good day for Tony. We started off the day with a much wanted car ride to the ‘crayon store.’ On the way to the store, Tony repeatedly said ‘tore’ (we thought he was saying “door”). It wasn’t until we arrived at K-Mart when Tony said “crayon-tore” that we realized he meant “store.” I said, “Tony say “sssss-tttt- ore.” Tony’s response was, “S-S-S-S-S- door.” Jill, I believe this is your area of expertise.

At the store, Tony was indulged with two packs of crayons and several clearance items that involved markers. When we returned from our journey, Tony and I went to the room and got straight to business with the markers. The pack that I opened for him had magic markers that would only turn to color when you colored within the lines. This is actually one of our ABBLS objectives so the activity was a good learning experience.

After we finished our arts and crafts session, Tony requested to go to the pool. After putting on his little yellow swimmie, we headed out. It was a Saturday afternoon, and there were a lot of people. For the past couple weeks, Tony has been rather shy around other people at the pool. In the past he has hid his face, but today he seemed excited to see others in the pool. He took off his shoes and manded for “pool.” I told him that we had to put on sunscreen first. He echoed “sunscreen” and squirmed as I applied it.

Once we got in the pool, I did a few motor imitations with kicking, blowing bubbles, and splashing. He did well with this, but he was really intrigued by the other people playing in the pool. Tony actually came up to an older boy tossing rings and said, “Hi!” He said hi back and let him play with a squish ball he had. Tony happily carried around the ball in the pool until they left.

Other highlights of the pool included Tony manding for a “snack.” I have only used this term at the pool and not in a formal teaching situation. Tony picked up on this fast! He also decided today was the day he would try out the walnut almond cookies (gluten free of course). I presented him with two choices of cookie (chocolate chip vs. walnut almond) and asked, “point to the one you want.” Tony pointed to the yellow bag of almond cookies and munched happily on it. Before he finished it, he wanted to go back in the pool. I said, “You have to finish your cookie first before we go back to the pool.” He must have understood because he shoved almost half of it in his mouth as soon as I said this!

We went back to the pool to find that some new-comers had arrived; a mother and her young daughter. Tony went straight over to the woman and said, “I’m Tony.” She understood him and said “Well hello, Tony.” Then Tony pointed to his feet and said “feet.” After, Tony pointed and said “mouth, eyes, ears, nose, head……head, shoulder knees and toes.” We all know the song from there, but how funny is that? The woman’s reply was, “Wow, you’re such a smart boy!” It’s really great to see Tony socially interacting with people like this.

So ends are Saturday afternoon. Tony was so verbal and engaged today.