The good, the awesome, the bad, and the ugly

THE GOOD: OT went so well. Mindy had an obstacle course set up that Josh just about tripped over as he went into the large OT area. He was a total ball of energy and for 9am on a Monday - whew! Both Mindy and I agreed it would be nice to have that much ourselves. LOL She put him in the b all pit again and after a couple of minutes she threw some colored beanbag animals into the pit for him to try and find. She would name a color, he'd find it, and then he would have to throw it into a barrel that she was holding a little distance away. He has pretty good aim, if I do say so myself. :)

After this, she put him into the barrel and rolled him back and forth a few times, which he LOVED! However, nothing she did seemed to be able to get him to calm down and focus. So, we had our first experience with the weighted vest. After putting it on him (which he did not fight in the least!), she brought him over to the beginning of her obstacle course and gave him the instructions. It was pretty long, and I thought for sure it was going to take several times of him going through before he got it, but he actually surprised me! Here's how it worked:

*Climb up the squishy steps (don't know the technical name, so this will do until I find out! LOL)
*Grab a puzzle piece
*Slide down a slide
*Walk up the next slide
*step down to a bench
*walk across a balance beam
*step onto another bench
*jump down into the alternating feet maze - this was similar to the tires the football players use in practice, but it was flat and further apart
*step up onto a stool
*climb onto a table
*put the puzzle piece into the correct place
*reverse all steps and go back to the beginning

Wow! He had only one problem the first time through, and that was that he did not want to step onto the stool to the table. Mindy simply brought him back to where he left off and told him the crocodiles would get him if he did that, and he stayed on task the rest of the time! She even threw in a few little things like telling him to pick two pieces that were cars for the puzzle, and he did it! I was very proud to see him following the directions like that. I asked her if she thought he would have been able to do that without the vest on, and she said it probably would have been a little harder for him. Very interesting!

Next, she took him to the swing. I was ready for the panic to set in, but he got on it. At first he was a bit nervous, but he settled down extremely quickly. Eventually Mindy let him choose a toy, and surprisingly he took a piano keyboard. He sat on the swing and played it while she continued to swing him and we talked. She asked if we had a keyboard for him, and I laughed. I explained that Silas and I were both music majors, so not only did we have a keyboard, but we also had a full sized piano and kid guitars, etc. She was excited to hear about the music ed and she suggested that when we know he is going to have a meltdown ahead of time (like at a store) we could try bringing a set of headphones for him to wear and have him listen to music. He may get so into the music he is hearing that the things that upset him may not bother him so much...I may try this.

THE AWESOME: After the OT was over, Josh and I had an hour and a half to wait for ST, so we went to the School Board office and I got the homeschooling packet to officially register Jacob. I knew Joshua was stilll a good year away from having to be registered, but I went ahead and asked my questions about registering him next year. He had been talking to the woman behind the desk about his car and asking if she was Ms. Jessica (his soon-to-be new ST - more on that in a minute) and all sorts of misc info he was telling her. LOL So, once he finished, I explained that he is Autistic, is there anything special I will need to do when it comes time to register. She looked at me with a shocked look on her face, looked down at Joshua, and then told me she never would have guessed he was Autistic, and then added a "wow!" to it. I told her good, then it means we are doing something right then! :) That was a wonderful moment! In the end, I think she gave me some wrong info, so I am going to have to check into things a bit more. I have hooked up with a Special Needs Homeschooling group that I was told has a lot of families with Autistic children, so I am sure they will be able to give me more info when the time comes. Our first meeting is this month! Yay!!!

THE BAD: Ok, so back on track. We then went back to the therapy waiting area and signed back in. We were 20 minutes early for our 11am appointment, which is a struggle with Joshua! He wants to run around and be wild since he is so familiar with the floor - remember, it is the same waiting area as the psychology area, so we are there 2 days a week most weeks. Luckily, there was a lot going on out the window yesterday. There were some men taking down 2 tents from something that had gone on during the weekend. Another man had a large lawnmower. On the river was a barge that was carrying some larg equipment and they were trying to maneuver to the correct place under the bridge that is directly next to the children's clinic. So, we were able to pass the time. Next thing I know, Roni comes out and calls for a cute little red-headed boy that came about 5 minutes before 11. I hear her say something to the effect that Joshua isn't here so come on in. I looked directly at her as they were walking in and she saw me and asked if that was Joshua with me. Ummm, yes, he hasn't really changed anything but his clothes since last week! So, her smile somewhat goes away and she looks at the little red-headed boy and tells him he will have to wait until later because it is Joshua's turn. She seemed almost disappointed that she had to work with Josh, and I was a bit disgusted given our experiences with her so far.

So, we go into the speech room and lo and behold, we do the same exact things we have done so far. He has to give his three word reply to make her happy: "I want man." "I want pig". "I want girl". Oh, but we did mix it up a bit this time and added in a "please" every now and then! Woohoo. (note the sarcasm here). So, now our three word sentences are 4 word, incomplete sentences - "I want man, please". "I want pig, please". Oh, but wait, that was coming too easily, so we went back to just the plain, "I want man". grrrr

Hmmm. Still wonder why I am homeschooling? This is exactly what he'd be getting in the public schools.

Later in the session he chose bubbles as his reward toy. She let him blow the bubbles if he answered the question, and on top of the fact that he was yelling, he also was blowing them extremely hard - too hard in fact to get them to work. This is also related to sensory issues. Very interesting (and the ONLY thing I have learned so far from her working with him!)

I must say, I had gotten a copy of our scheduled appointments and saw that starting next week we will be having a new therapist. As I mentioned before, they are getting three new therapists, and Roni was simply filling in the gaps until they start. I truly believe that the reason she has not really worked with him on what HE needs is because she knew he was one that wouldn't remain as her patient, and therefore she could care less - she just filled in the time until they got here! So, I am looking forward to having a younger and hopefully more patient person working with him.

My point of saying this was that I wanted to also say that I found it amusing that Joshua was very bored wiht the repeated activities this week. He didn't even attempt to work well with her because he was BORED! So, at one point at the end, he wouldn't give her the answer and after prodding too much IMO, he yelled out the answer to her and then began spinning his arms. I had to work hard to stiffle my laugh, because it was so funny to see him do that. He was irritated with her, and she looked shocked. I'm glad she saw it though! LOL

THE UGLY: So, it is time to leave and he gets his sticker. As we are going to walk out the door, I asked what I needed to work on with him this week (which she never really gives me anything other than "give him choices"), and she said she had made photocopies of the book that she was using with him and she ran to get it for me. When she came back, she told me we needed to work on him learning verbs. He knows verbs...that isn't a problem at all...he could have answered any of the questions she asked him. The book has Ernie pushing a wagon and Bert pulling it. She asks him "What is Ernie doing with the wagon?" He knows the answer, but in typical Autistic form, he repeats what she says : "Ernie is doing it with the wagon". That's what we are trying to fix...she doesn't seem to get that this is the problem. Instead, she thinks he doesn't know what it is. I mentioned that I noticed he did tend to repeat what she said a lot in the session instead of answering the question. You know what her reply was? "That's just his strategy". What?!?!?! So, I ignored it, we left, and as we walked out we hear her greeting the little red-headed boy with a huge smile and welcome.

I'm glad we are getting a new therapist. LOL I plan on setting the record straight from the beginning and I may even decide to request this new girl do a re-evaluation herself. At this point, I'm ticked. What a waste the past month and the almost $200 has been.

Thank goodness OT is going well...otherwise we may have been pulling out of everything except the socialization classes!