Mands: 12

Tony had an ok day today. We enjoyed the lovely out of doors and brought his new bag of musical instruments out there to play. We went through all of the phase one trials in his room, but he was unresponsive to a surprising number of SD’s. I pressed him to do two word combinations, but it semed like ‘instant gratification’ was the name of the game he wanted to play. I realize he has autism and this is part of it, but I’m not going to reinforce “uh-oh” and whiny noises or throwing things. It is hard to wait for the correct mand when he is getting upset, but I just remind myself how much easier it is going to be when he can mand clearly and specifically for whatever he wants than if he sticks with temper-tantrum symptoms and the guessing game. He has come so far since Whitney started and he is SO SMART!!!! It would be a complete sellout to Tony himself as well as his family and friends if we let him think that nonsense is going to achieve anything. So I hope he can bear with me and be patient while everyone hones his communication skills.

Halfway through the day he manded for ‘craa,’ ‘corrrr,’ (we knew he meant car.) I tried fetching his Wiggles car to play outside, but it was no substitution. Marlaina exclaimed “field trip!,” and we embarked on a Whole Foods and Dollar General expedition. When we got home, we watched Tellitubbies and then played with play dough in his room until Whitney arrived.

We all went for another walk and met a little girl by the broken hammock. Tony was really excited to see another child and jumped up and down with joy. She was a little on the wierd side, and Whitney had prompt her to say ‘hi’ to Tony. We also played with a tennis ball that someone left in the courtyard.