MANDS = 12

Today was a very short day with Tony because he was not feeling very well (he also got up at 5:30 am). He has several rashes on his back and his nose has been runny and irritated. When I arrived this morning he was munching on some popcorn, watching the Wiggles. I waited to get started on anything because Jill was due to arrive at 11 for her session. Tony had a good time playing with the new ball-magnet game she brought.

After his speech, Tony requested “walk.” We went outside and I tried a few new motor imitations that have been recently added to the program. He got one on the first time but he seemed irritated when I pressed him to shake head yes and no. We walked around for a few minutes and then his older next door neighbor friend Andre came out to play. Since the hammok in the back area has been recently fixed, Andre and I took Tony for a swing. He manded for “stop,” “swing” and “all done” when he was ready to get down. I prompted “all done swing” and Tony gave me a approximated echoic. Part of the new mands that were added last week to the program were “all done (activity)” and “want (item or activity).” I’m really excited about teaching these because Tony likes to jump from thing to thing. It will be good to incorporate a mand for wanting to move on to something else when he is ready.

We came back after the walk and headed into the playroom to really get started. I worked on some of the new tacts. Tony did a great job of giving me an echoic for different words such as bunny and zebra. He had a hard time with making the “zzzz” sound. I will have to ask our resident speech expert Jill about teaching this.

At one point, Tony made a clear request for “play dough” and I brought it down off the shelf. We opened the “box” and brought out his special toys for the play dough. Typically, Tony will want to play with the play dough for as long as you’ll let him. Today, however, he announced “clean up” after only a few minutes of play and said “all done.” We cleaned everything up and he headed to the door. He seemed reluctant to give me the mand “open door.” I prompted him to request it and I opened the door. He immediately headed to the front door. Marlaina asked “Where are you going, Tony?” He replied with, “to the car.” He then followed up with “car ride.” Marlaina decided we could make a run to the store to get some more rice milk.

Once we arrived at Whole Foods, Tony was irritable and began crying. It was obvious he needed a nap. We rushed through the store and made a quick stop at Doolittles for some pet supplies. Tony usually loves going into new stores but on this occasion he was very upset. We ran to checkout because we knew Tony was feeling pretty rotten. When we got home Tony went to bed in a bad mood. Marlaina thinks his cold might be gotting worse. Hopefully a good rest will help.