So, what have I been up to?
Well, I am one week short of having worked my first month with my new family.
I will provide you with a slightly edited and shortened version of the last report I sent to the parents about what the day had brought in terms of experiences, events, observations, and thoughts regarding my work with their child; an awesome four year old guy that can melt hearts of stone.
I don't have to write these reports/reflections; I chose to do it to facilitate accountability, documentation, and coordination. This becomes more than just a good idea when my responsibilities include providing and/or supporting specialized services addressing specific challenges to a child's development; such as psychological conditions or social circumstances.
It will give you, I hope, an idea of both what I do. And at least between the lines, you might glean the principles, commitments, and purposes that drive me.
{A Day With B}
Nothing much to report today because there wasn't much time for interaction with B with C (a member of the Applied Behavioral Analysis team working with B) scheduled to take over as soon as we arrived from Pre-K.
However, I had talked to her over the phone earlier and advised her to hold off on the outing [taking B to a 99 cent store, new to all three of us], given that I felt there were enough back-to-back events for B as it was [B has one school 3 hours in the morning, then is picked up to drive from there to be about 4 hours at another pre-K, then on Mondays he goes straight home to have ABA therapy]
She agreed; instead she gave me the lead in supporting B going through our now quite well established transition "coming-home-shoes off-potty-B gets 10 min to himself" routine. He did it smoothly, only being a bit distracted at Zoey's presence while getting ready for potty so she went out to the kitchen.
B is showing great ability in everything life skill wise; dressing, washing, cleaning up, getting and pouring (with assistance) juice, eating and neatly putting snacks back in their pouches or packets, and is excellent in following requests.
I once more invited him to a brief excursion into a public place today, this time a CVS as we had extra time going to [the afternoon] Pre-K and it is such an awesome opportunity to practice a lot of social skills.
I would have been worried if he had NOT shown any tendency to want to look around and not want to leave when finding something he liked (and he did; the music-playing greeting cards). However, he was both very good about not pulling out or picking things from the shelves, while at the same time being his age and trying to hide from me when it was time to go.
It might sound strange but I let him try to hide from me for a short while (given that it was safe and time allowed) at CVS (of course, he was never out of my sight!); controlling the situation but not him. The reason for this is that the ability to hide from another person is an indication of something very important in a child's development; the development of something called Theory of Mind, which is a cognitive skill that individuals on the autism spectrum typically have great deficiencies in.
B appears to have the ability but needs, as in so much else, a context that motivates him to use it. Unlike the first time we played hide and seek at home, he appeared to act on estimating what he would see if he was me in my position in the room and chose his place of hiding based on that.
I am grateful that B makes it so easy for me to avoid using force (even verbally, as in commanding language so of course not physical).
The only time I have ever come close is when he "disappears" into an almost trance like state at which he doesn't respond. It happened once and when not getting a response after calling his name, waiting 30 sec, calling his name again and using physical touch to get his attention; I picked him up (he didn't struggle or squirm) and stood him on the ground outside and sprayed his and my hands with shaving foam. He became surprised but when I slammed my hands together and splashed the foam all over us both, he was "back" and joined in.
I introduced in the car slideshows with music specially made for sensory stimulation. I played them without any prompting of B to either watch or listen. I kept playing this in the background during some of the activities below as an element in my overall enrichment of B's world
with things and experiences that will facilitate, stimulate, and motivate him to practice, develop, and use key skills that are necessary for subsequent skills to develop. That is probably the common goal of all interventions for B; to infuse his
childhood with mutually supportive efforts to ensure that what makes him unique will be assets for him instead of liabilities.
He and I worked on speech, as with social skills, as much as naturally occurring situations allowed; mainly exchanges between him and I in the car and at CVS.
Overall, this day was very good!
_And it was...._
Well, I am one week short of having worked my first month with my new family.
I will provide you with a slightly edited and shortened version of the last report I sent to the parents about what the day had brought in terms of experiences, events, observations, and thoughts regarding my work with their child; an awesome four year old guy that can melt hearts of stone.
I don't have to write these reports/reflections; I chose to do it to facilitate accountability, documentation, and coordination. This becomes more than just a good idea when my responsibilities include providing and/or supporting specialized services addressing specific challenges to a child's development; such as psychological conditions or social circumstances.
It will give you, I hope, an idea of both what I do. And at least between the lines, you might glean the principles, commitments, and purposes that drive me.
{A Day With B}
Nothing much to report today because there wasn't much time for interaction with B with C (a member of the Applied Behavioral Analysis team working with B) scheduled to take over as soon as we arrived from Pre-K.
However, I had talked to her over the phone earlier and advised her to hold off on the outing [taking B to a 99 cent store, new to all three of us], given that I felt there were enough back-to-back events for B as it was [B has one school 3 hours in the morning, then is picked up to drive from there to be about 4 hours at another pre-K, then on Mondays he goes straight home to have ABA therapy]
She agreed; instead she gave me the lead in supporting B going through our now quite well established transition "coming-home-shoes off-potty-B gets 10 min to himself" routine. He did it smoothly, only being a bit distracted at Zoey's presence while getting ready for potty so she went out to the kitchen.
B is showing great ability in everything life skill wise; dressing, washing, cleaning up, getting and pouring (with assistance) juice, eating and neatly putting snacks back in their pouches or packets, and is excellent in following requests.
I once more invited him to a brief excursion into a public place today, this time a CVS as we had extra time going to [the afternoon] Pre-K and it is such an awesome opportunity to practice a lot of social skills.
I would have been worried if he had NOT shown any tendency to want to look around and not want to leave when finding something he liked (and he did; the music-playing greeting cards). However, he was both very good about not pulling out or picking things from the shelves, while at the same time being his age and trying to hide from me when it was time to go.
It might sound strange but I let him try to hide from me for a short while (given that it was safe and time allowed) at CVS (of course, he was never out of my sight!); controlling the situation but not him. The reason for this is that the ability to hide from another person is an indication of something very important in a child's development; the development of something called Theory of Mind, which is a cognitive skill that individuals on the autism spectrum typically have great deficiencies in.
B appears to have the ability but needs, as in so much else, a context that motivates him to use it. Unlike the first time we played hide and seek at home, he appeared to act on estimating what he would see if he was me in my position in the room and chose his place of hiding based on that.
I am grateful that B makes it so easy for me to avoid using force (even verbally, as in commanding language so of course not physical).
The only time I have ever come close is when he "disappears" into an almost trance like state at which he doesn't respond. It happened once and when not getting a response after calling his name, waiting 30 sec, calling his name again and using physical touch to get his attention; I picked him up (he didn't struggle or squirm) and stood him on the ground outside and sprayed his and my hands with shaving foam. He became surprised but when I slammed my hands together and splashed the foam all over us both, he was "back" and joined in.
I introduced in the car slideshows with music specially made for sensory stimulation. I played them without any prompting of B to either watch or listen. I kept playing this in the background during some of the activities below as an element in my overall enrichment of B's world
with things and experiences that will facilitate, stimulate, and motivate him to practice, develop, and use key skills that are necessary for subsequent skills to develop. That is probably the common goal of all interventions for B; to infuse his
childhood with mutually supportive efforts to ensure that what makes him unique will be assets for him instead of liabilities.
He and I worked on speech, as with social skills, as much as naturally occurring situations allowed; mainly exchanges between him and I in the car and at CVS.
Overall, this day was very good!
_And it was...._