MANDS = 17

Today was a pretty good day with Tony. He was really excited about his new Blue’s Clues coloring sheets (in fact it was at sometimes difficult to get him to do other things than draw). We were tacting the items on his coloring sheets (i.e. “Who’s that, Tony?” …Tony’s response- “Blu Clues!”) and I removed one of the sheets to reveal “mail box” and Tony busted out with “MAIL BOX!” before I could even give him the prompt. He did great with independently tacting “crayon” and consistently manded for “open” everytime he wanted to use the markers. Because Tony was so excited about the coloring pages that we ended up working on shapes and colors while we were drawing. I had Tony choosing which color of crayon he would like to see if he would mand for a certain color (he only manded for red, but later tacted green and orange). Tony also played a lot with the tunnel and requested “tickle” several times (which he hasn’t done in awhile). I couldn’t get to MTS before speech came in but we still worked on body parts (tacts and receptive drills) as well as some motor imitation. Tony also was making some approximations to clothing items from the dress-up game we played with (shirt and then echoing glasses).

On top of blogging about today, I wanted to ask a couple questions about the book. I know that we have been recording a separate list of prompted and unprompted tacts but I noticed that some of them are listed twice and then recorded as “yes” for prompted and unprompted on the same day. So my question is, are these 2 “yeses” recorded as two independent events where one was prompted and the other was unprompted? Sorry, I’ve just been getting confused. Today, I put a star next to the ones that Tony did prompted as well as unprompted.

My other question was about the body part receptive drills. My understanding is that we are only giving a “yes” to unprompted command (i.e. “Touch your….[body part tact here]”). Based on what I know of Tony’s abilities, I don’t think at this point he could do these drills unpromtped…this is why I have been putting “No” to these because with a visual prompt he can do the task, but without he probably couldn’t. Anyway, I thought I could use some input from Jay and Elizabeth with these matters. If you have time and want to post to the blog that would be good,..or we can just talk on Thursday. Thanks!

MANDS=60

Tony worked extremely well w/speech today but needed a lot of redirecting w/ABA. Even so, Tony independently tacted many objects and also made many requests. He is also doing really well w/intraverbals and echoics. In fact, after saying “no” to the therapists (Parker was also here today) he independently made an approx for “I don’t think so”. He said this twice and sounded just like mommy. Tony is constantly picking up new ways to tell us when he doesn’t want to do something (“all done”, “no”, “clean up”, “bye bye”, “go”) or he just tries pushing us out the door. He requested to “draw”, “go”, “walk”, and “crayon” and tacted “sun”, “face”, and many of his usual words. Tony did well w/ “do this”, “what’s this”, and “what sound does an animal make”. Tony tacted body parts “arm”, “mouth”, “eyes”, etc…, with his Mr. Potato Head and w/therapist’s face. We went outside a couple of times and Tony played “peek a boo” and put objects in a basketball hoop. Inside he did well w/receptives, stomping, turning around, clapping, throwing, rolling, and drawing. The biggest new about today is that Tony was constantly speaking and saying a few new words (some echoed and some independent). Okay day!

First off, don’t kill me Jay but I forgot to count mands! I can say it was A LOT. Also, Lane, I forgot to try the weighted vest. Uh, I just got so carried away that I went brain dead. OT would like ABA to try the vest on Tony during his sessions for as long as he’ll wear it to see if it will help him. It shouldn’t exceed more than 10min (not that he’ll wear it even close to that time). Something else, many things from the ‘acquisition’ section of Tony’s book need to be moved to ‘maintenance’.

Okay, Today Tony repeated many words from his show as they were being said: Blue’s Clues, ear, mouth, heart, a clue, sounds from the show, and the theme music. Speaking of music, Tony completed intraverbals for all his songs except “Row, Row…” bc we didn’ t get to it. He also did a made up “Up, Down” game (I lifted him up and down and he said the words).Also, Tony performed really well today w/receptives, touching his toes, eyes, spinning around, putting a pencil in a cup, drawing shapes, and touching objects. He also repeated many words w/”say_” such as: notebook, chair, shirt, and teeth. Tony responded well to “what’s this” w/cat, dog, shapes, colors, shoes, and body parts. With “what sound does a monkey make” while holding a pic of a monkey, Tony went “ooh, ooh, ooh”. We also listened to a CD and Tony was stomping and patting his head to “If You’re Happy…”. He also held his finger up to his mouth and made the “shh” sound to a song. Tony tacted many objects and pics independently throughout the session. Matching also went well because Tony completed the shapes and the colors activities w/no problem today. Another excellent day!!

Hi everyone! I’m Lane, Tony’s new OT. We will be working together twice a week, and so far things have been going great! Tony’s quite the impressive little guy!! ( And definitely a cutie!) This week, Tony and I worked on cutting play-dough with scissors, which Tony finds hilarious and is picking up quickly! I believe Tony has the concept of the scissors down pat and we are working towards positioning them on one hand correctly. He has also scooped chunks of play-dough with his spoon and dumped into a bucket and we will be working towards actual food in the next couple weeks. As Elizabeth wrote, he did awesome matching body parts with a Elmo and a 2D Mr. Potato Head picture, putting the mouth, nose and ears on himself and us! Tony is doing super and I am so excited to be working with him! See y’all on Friday!   

NO DATA ON MANDS TODAY (Bad day…sorry, Jay!)

Today Tony was slightly cranky so needless to say he was difficult to be redirected and we didn’t get through all the activities (he had a nightmare last night). I let him take the lead with everything during therapy and I got him back on track with tacting letters, numbers, shapes and even got him to tact different colors (approximations to red, blue, green, yellow and orange). When we were drawing, Tony kept wanting to grab handfuls of crayons. He made an approximation to crayon and I immediately opened the box and let him take one out. I then closed it until he manded “open” and I let him take another crayon out and tacted the color as he took it. Later, when we were drawing I drew different shapes and he successfully made approximations to diamond and triangle (triangle sounds more angle) in addition to sounding out heart, square, circle and star. He kept trying to grab the bigger crayons I was using and I got him to tact the color of the crayon before I gave it to him which seemed to work out really well (he even tried to do yellow!). We also played with a new game that involved dress-up people. You can peel off articles of clothing that stick to the pictures of people. Tony did great echoing “glasses” and “hat” (for hat it was a tact and later an echoic as well). He put all the articles of clothing on in the right place and his favorite part seemed to be the shoes. After playing with this for awhile he was laughing at himself for putting the wrong articles on the face of the people! He would put the shoe on their face and then look at me and laugh (even though he knew where the shoe went before). He’s really funny sometimes! He was also doing some matching 2-D to 3-D by putting the picture of the hat on his head and also on my head.

So, we didn’t do a lot today since he was cranky and irritable (even for Jill during speech!). Even though we didn’t get to everything, I was still able to get a little out of him.

Mands=77+

Tony made many requests today, including some made after we finished working which were not counted. He also requested something new, “shake”. To redirect him today I took Tony’s sippy cup and shook it while saying “shake, shake, shake”. When Lane(OT) arrived and they used scissors and play-doh, Tony requested “cut”. He seemed to like the sound and thought this was funny. Later he asked for “shake” and handed me his cup. Then he did it on his own. Tony also manded for: jump, bounce, aah choo, aah boom, roll, crayon (approx), open, all done, clean up, what’s this, eat, and mom. His tacts included: tree, cup, chair, Blue’s Clues, fork, crayon, duck, cat, all colors (including white), ball, shapes (including moon and diamond), body parts (finger, mouth, arm, eyes, ear), hat, shoes, numbers, tube, car, stick, and wheel. Some of these words are clear and some are approximations. He also echoed many words and sounds such as “swish”, “grrr”, and “vrroom”.

Tony did the intraverbals really well, too. He sang “Row, row,…”, filling in “row” and “Ring Around…”, filling in “down”. Tony also filled in “high”, “star” with “Twinkle, Twinkle”, and “wheels” and “round” for “Wheels on The Bus”. Tony stomped, clapped, stomped, and tried drawing shapes for “do this”. He also touched various body parts while using Mr. Potato Head, both with me and w/Lane. With OT Tony worked on cutting w/scissors, picking up pieces of dough with a fork and spoon, and he briefly wore his weighted vest.

Tony matched his blocks easily and also his paper shapes w/out problem. We worked at the table some and on the floor some. We drew, matched and tacted at the table. Tony gave me a crayon and said “circle” so I drew one and he went giggled. Then I would have him draw. Tony really enjoyed me drawing pictures of objects and making the sounds. He echoed the cow sound and later I asked him the sound and he said “moo”. He tacted “cat” but didn’t make the sound when I asked so I did it but he didn’t echo “meow”. He responded with the car and bus, though. Also, Tony tacted pictures in his metal book, which has magnetic shapes that you place onto the correct spots.

Outside Tony ran around, dropped acorns in a basketball hoop, tacted objects, and asked “what’s this”. Then Tony was getting tired and started tripping over his own feet. He said “bye” and ran to the front door and said “open” (still working on “door” part). Then Tony came inside and went to take a nap. Considering that when I came in this morning and Tony was very upset (not wanting to wear pants, crying), it’s just great that he calmed down, focused, and accomplished so much! Just an excellent day for ABA and OT!!

Tony has had two great sessions so far this week! He has shown quite a bit of interest in crayons of late and has acquired a word approximation for them. I am continuing to see and hear more and more verbal labels and requests (aka tacts and mands for you ABA folk)each week. Tony has also been really interested in the mirror lately, looking at and talking to himself in a very animated manner. I see the beginnings of a politician! I’ve seen a big increase in patience on Tony’s part. Often times, I spend a good portion of a session redirecting or calming when Tony doesn’t want to do something or doesn’t want to take the time to be shown how to do it. He has begun to listen and watch to see how things work instead of grabbing for them or throwing them down. I think some of this patience and understanding is also seen in his “cleaning up” when a task is done. His being able to properly finish a task before moving on to something else that he really wants is really big! And again, his engagement in all of these activities to just phenomenal. Somthing else that I’ve found just completely heart warming is Tony’s laughter…just plain old giggles that are so appropriate! OK…can you tell I love this child! That’s all for now. See you guys on Thursday.

Today I didn’t do any therapy with Tony because Marlaina had to take him to Floyd Brace Company dowtown to be suited for a nice new bed a car seat (paid for by Medicaid). Before we left Tony was upset and crying because he wanted to go for a ride in the car. Dragging us out to the car and putting our hands on the door handle asking for “open” and “car.” Since it wasn’t time to go, I took him inside and tried to calm him down with bouncing and then PlayDough which ended up doing the job.

We waited at Floyds until we could be seen while Tony looked at some books at the kiddie table and climbed on the very unstable kids chairs (he only fell once). Tony was measured and had his picture taken while we were there but was getting very tired of waiting in the room (the only thing that was there to entertain him was a full-length mirror). I took him back out into the waiting room to play and waited until Marlaina was through. What was found out at the appointment was that Medicaid will take up to two months to approve paying for the bed. They have already approved the car seat, but they still say it will be at least two months until they can give it to Tony. They’re trying to work on getting it done faster, but since Medicaid is the one paying, I guess it’ll have to wait.

When we got back, Jill was waiting for Tony at the door. She worked with him until 1:00 and reportedly had a very good session (focused and engaged). After Jill he was too tired to stay up and work with me so Tony went to bed. Not a whole lot to report on today since we didn’t have therapy.

Mands=15+ (not counting time with Jill (speech) and when we weren’t working)

After speech I only worked w/Tony for a very brief time. To “do this” Tony clapped, stomped, and ran. With “say__” Tony approximated “notebook”, “no channel” (didn’t want to watch what was on the tv), and “hi Jill”. Tony manded for “night, night”, “open”, “peek a boo”, “car”, “jump”, “up/down”, “what’s this”, “eat”, “cup”, “all done”, “aah boom”, “walk”, “mama”, and “dada”. Tony really enjoyed playing peek a boo around the car outside and “Ring Around the Rosey” in his room. We did this as an intraverbal and Tony filled in “down”. He also tacted w/out prompt “cat”, “mama”, “dada”, “cup”, “one, two, three” on tv, “car”, and w/prompt “notebook”. Eventually Tony was tired/upset so he went down for a nap.

This is the story of our Autistic son Tony’s adventures in therapy, learning, and growing!