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.