Today I’m also blogging for yesterday’s happenings. Yesterday (Monday) was rainy and completely bleh in the morning. When I got to Ton’ys house he was still asleep! This is out of sorts, but I think it was due to the lovely weather. When he woke up, his Mom went upstairs to get him.

He was insistent upon a car ride, so we went to Lowes to decide what Marlaina wanted to use her Mothers’ Day gift certificate for. She also was checking if there were any big fridges in the clearance aisle. Tony had a nice trip.

(Tuesday) Mands: 14

When I first creaked the door open this morning, Tony exclaimed “WHITNEY!!!!!!!!!” Nice try Tony, but it’s Parker this time. We watched TV for a couple minutes, and then he wanted the door to be opened. He communicated his desire very clearly and effectively with a well enunciated “open door,” and he was immediately reinforced with exactly what he asked for and some verbal praise.

Once we were inside his room he started looking around for something to play with. First he walked over to the table and grabbed an orange crayon and said ‘oyeenge.’ Then he sarted coloring on his laminated “Blue’s Clues” placemat type thing. As he was coloring he was saying the names of different shapes. I wondered why he was saying these words while I found some paper for him to color on. I looked at the placemat and realized he was tacting all of the things he was seeing.

He said “hi haint,” and I couldn’t figure out what he meant. Once he pointed to the fingerpaints resting on the windowsill it was clear: he wanted to paint again. We painted yesterday and he had fun. I already had some paper out because I’d retrieved it for coloring purposes. When he decided what color he wanted, I prompted him echoically to say “I want (yellow, or other colors.)” He did very well with this. I also did the signs, which Jill showed me yesterday. Thanks Jill!

We had a walk today and for the most part it was fun. When we rounded the corner he saw his Mom gardening and we went over to check it out. Tony wanted a car ride, but I knew Jill would be around in a few minutes and a car ride just wasn’t possible at the time. He said ‘car ride’ and then ‘open door’ it seemed like he was looking at the house’s door, so I walked torward it and he started screaming no and making loud crying noises. Anton and Marlaina were trying to do things, so I was unsure as to what to do. I know you’re not supposed to pick the child up, but I did , and although the screaming grew louder at first, once we were over in the corridor between the buildings I put him down and then I started to ignore the tantrum. I picked up some leaves and checked them out, then I gave a running commentary on a bird that happened to be flying around. Once he realized the tantrum wasn’t getting reinforced he quit and he was fine! After that, we had a great wallk!

In addition to being loud and distracting for Anton and Marlaina, the noises of Tony’s screaming and crying tantrums are heart-wrenching. Today I picked him up and removed him from the situation, then I ignored the bad behavior and it worked. I felt like a monster picking him up. Any more advice, Jay?

Then he had a great session with Jill. He manded for ‘car ride’ and this time we were able to take him. We went to Target and got him some new toys like the house ones he’s so fond of. When we got back from Target Tony watched some Blue’s Clues and ate some tater tots. Then he was ready to go into his room and do some ABA. He did such a good job with the form feature function receptives. I was very proud. Yeah Tony!