We are in the midst of Charlie's summer therapy schedule and all is going well so far. Charlie completed his second week of ABA and speech therapy. We have already seen some progress in ABA and OT (a little too early to really tell with ST just yet). Charlie listens well and does what is asked of him in ABA. He has also had more spontaneous verbalizations with no prompting, which is good. (For example, saying caterpillar when he sees a picture of a caterpillar.) He is also doing better with the shape sorter and can now put in most of the shapes in the right hole without using trial and error. He still is not a big fan of the puzzle. It's kind of funny to watch him when they bust out the puzzle. She hands him a piece and you can just see on his face that he is not that into it. He just slams it down on the puzzle board and hopes it will be over. Of course, they don't let him get off that easy. In OT he is working on following two step directions. He is doing well, but sometimes has to be prompted or reminded of the second step after he completes the first step.
Adam and I have observed numerous ABA sessions. I am very impressed with the therapists and the center. It seems much more natural than I had originally thought. It is obvious ABA has come a long way in the last decade or so. The therapists find ways to work in drills into play time so it really seems more like she is initiating play with Charlie rather than sitting him down and drilling him. Charlie seems to enjoy going. Thankfully Charlie has not repeated any four letter phrases since the first day when he repeatedly said "What the hell? What the hell?" (I'm not even going to deny that he got that from me. Guess you have to watch your language even more when you have an echolaliac child.)
I think Charlie has had a good week overall. He has had more spontaneous words than the last few weeks. Yesterday he even told me "Want to go in the water. Want to go in the pool." He seems to pay attention more when you talk to him or point something out. I have been able to get his attention and point out the full moon and the stars the last few nights. He looked at where I pointed and showed genuine interest.
We've also had a lot of fun this past week. We had a big neighborhood party to celebrate the last day of school. They had a big waterslide, and Charlie enjoyed going down with it with Adam. (Addison seemed to want to go, too, but mommy thought she was just a tad too small for it.) Both kids enjoyed snow cones . . . a first for both. Our neighbor also had a "graduation" party, and Charlie and Addison had a blast swimming and going down yet another big water slide. (This time Addison was allowed to go and she absolutely LOVED it. She has no fear. I'm in trouble.) Today we went to a birthday party for one of the kids in our playgroup. Charlie and Addison both decided to go in the baby pool fully clothed. I decided it was too much work to keep them out so I just let them have fun.
While Charlie does appear to have a good time at these events, he pays little to no attention to the other kids. However, he also did not seem bothered by playing near them or sharing the baby pools with any of the children. Hopefully we can work a little more on his socialization skills over the next few months.
I got a very nice card from three of my wonderful friends from law school today, Tomee, Rachel and Hilary. In it was a gift card to Whole Foods to help us with the organic and GFCF diet we have begun. I can't tell you how touched I was to receive this and how thoughtful it was. It brought tears to our eyes to feel such support. A couple weeks ago we also got a big box of GFCF goodies from some of the moms in my MOMS Club. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Today, while waiting for Charlie in OT, I was struck, once again, by how large of a spectrum ASD really is. It really runs the gamut. I saw a quote that is right on point: "If you have met one kid with autism, you've met one kid with autism." Enough said.
On a sad note, our beloved lab Bo appears to be facing his final days. We are very sad and depressed about this as he has been an absolute wonderful friend and pet to us. Since Charlie has been diagnosed, I swear Bo seems to sleep in there more than he did before. I have always thought that animals are very intuitive, and Bo has always been so. I know he will watch over Charlie when it does come his time to leave us. Addison will not know what to do without her precious "BoBo" who she usually calls for in the morning before she ever calls "mama!" We were able to get some good pictures of Bo in the water a couple weeks ago. We asked Charlie to give him a kiss, and he leaned over and kissed him on the head. One day I will have to be sure to let the kids know that their first pet will likely be the BEST pet they will ever have. We love you Bo.
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