Mands: 16

Lovely day this Monday, especially compared to last week and this weekend. Yes, Tony’s behavior has been quite trying lately. I heard horror stories from Marlaina about the weekend; among the things we’d love to put an end to are yelling, screaming, and throwing things, especially at humans. Since ignoring isn’t an option we are pretty much relying on redirection as the be all end all. But we have a lot to learn, little grasshoppers, about what works and what doesn’t with Tony. Trial and error is our current stage and we are wading through it.

Considering Tony threw legos at Mommy this morning he was very well behaved. We painted in his room and watched the Wiggles in the living room, then we went for a lovely car ride with Marlaina. By the time we got back it was only minutes until Jill’s estimated time of arrival, so we just watched some more Wiggles and waited patiently.

Tony was in speech therapy he showed Jill some of his not so fabulous behavior. I watched her handle the throwing things issue with ease and grace. I took mental notes which I consulted later when he displayed his throwing things behavior once again. As per Jill’s demonstration I did not fuss or say ‘no,’ just matter-of-factly said “We don’t throw ________. Let’s go pick it up.” Then walked Tony over to the landing spot and hand-over-hand picked the object up with him. So far, so good.

This afternoon we completed most of phase one and it went well, except for form feature function receptives. The ones he answered he answered correctly, but the elephant and the shoe in the elephant, shoe, ball receptive objects lineup are what Tony sent flying across the room.
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After our afternoon walk Tony was tired and getting cranky. Marlaina took him to bed