Hala Kalikimaka at our Christmas Party!

Liam and Pretend Play

Ladies, let's go full force with Liam with pretend play. I talked to Megan and she said that his goals are three:

1. Be flexible with the boundaries he still has about throwing and about ripping paper.

2. Be open and interactive in pretend play. Don't talk all the time, leave silent spaces for him to say something. Even if it is one word, that is his contribution to the play so build immediately on it. When playing with Alex and my two weeks ago, when we were feeding animals with food puzzle pieces, after rescuing them, I kept talking about being "animal rescuers" and in a space that was available, he said "zookeeper". So, we immediately built on it and tied the story to being zookeepers. It was his contribution and it was a great one.

3. Don't worry too much about the full sentences. Work on language around the pretend play. When he is regulated, feel free to push for full sentences, but if you see him inattentive, or jumpy, or stressed, keep modelling but don't push for the full sentence.

Group Meeting October 2013

Liam’s talking

Liam is looking for a formula in our requests. He is looking for the exact sentences that we want. He is looking for the “right answer”, instead of tapping to his spontaneous language.

We need to mix it up again!

Scenario 1:

Liam: “Seaweed”

US: “I see it” [use your hands to pretend to open it and eat it]

Liam: “I want seaweed”

US: [smiling, thumbs up, shake your head up and down, acknowledge, but do not act or talk]

Liam: “I would like to eat seaweed” or “Where is the seaweed?” or “Help me to open the seaweed” or “I want to eat seaweed”, etc.

Scenario 2:

Liam: “Jumping”

US: “I love to jump” [use your arms to pretend that they are forming a circle, like the trampoline]

Liam: “I want jumping”

US: [smiling, thumbs up, shake your head up and down, acknowledge, but do not act or talk]

Liam: “I want to jump with ____” or “I want to jump together” or “Jump with me” or “Let’s jump”, etc.

Scenario 3:

Liam: “Ladybug”

US: “The ladybug is here”

Liam: “I want ladybug”

US: [smiling, thumbs up, shake your head up and down, acknowledge, but do not act or talk]

Liam: “Throw me the ladybug” or “I want the ladybug on the bed” or “Look for the ladybag” or “Find the ladybug”, etc.

What we want from Liam is variety + spontaneity. Since he is trying to guess what we want and trying to get our help and clues, we will switch to a new strategy:

-          When he says one word, we make a general comment.

-          When he says an “I want” sentence, we acknowledge without talking and we give him lots of time to think. Be persistent. He may keep repeating the “I want” sentence. Keep acknowledging with a smile so that he can tap into his language. He knows it all, he needs practice generating the responses by himself.

Liam getting upset

When Liam gets MAD and starts crying, we need to remain super calm and comfortable with our decision. We can tell him: “I see you are mad, but we are still going to do it this way” This applies for example to not throwing things he should not throw, like his cars, or to not giving him things right away when he says “I want” because we want more specificity.  He gets upset, but you just remain calm. Like with Duchis in the old time, we could also tell him: “Liam, if you want to cry, that’s fine, but this is how we will do it. When you want to stop crying, talk to me. I will be here playing.” The idea is to let them know that they can choose to be MAD, but that we will choose to be calm, and that once they calm down, we can talk and keep playing. When they are crying, we CANNOT do what they want, because if we do, the message in their head is: “It worked!! Crying worked!!! I need to do it more often to get what I want!”. We need to show them that crying does NOT work.

We are going to put the sentences of “I don’t like” and “I don’t want” on hold for now.

When Liam is upset, instead of taking is as a language opportunity, we will take it as a flexibility opportunity. Alex’ theory is that when the kids are frustrated, it is very hard for them to manage the frustration and that blocks words like “I don’t like …” or “I don’t want …” So, according to this, it is only when they can manage the frustration better that they can at the same time verbalize the words. Show Liam that he can be calm, even when he does NOT get what he wants.

Liam’s fine motor

Liam is doing GREAT work with Miss Rizwana! Let’s do the same thing here. I will show you examples of his work in the meeting so that we can replicate. Use also the workbooks and have him sit at the table.  Miss Rizwana says he is now sitting for a long time and can do one paper after the other.

4th Annual Halloween Party - 2013

Thanks ladies for the wonderful party!!! You are really fantastic!!!!

First day of school

I had forgotten to post these pictures! It's really a miracle in full progress! :)

Outreach with Megan and Group meeting

Program Goals for Liam

YAY for Liam! He has figured out the formula! Change up what you are doing and request more control and balance in your friend relationship.

Liam is “running the show”; he is “playing us”; he has “figured out the system”  à it is time to take some control back

Set boundaries with Liam:

It is ok and even beneficial to tell Liam no or to ask him to do something different. If he gets frustrated and cries or has a meltdown, look at it as a teaching opportunity in helping him with his flexibility.

v  Throwing

·         Set boundaries around throwing anything other than the designated items (E.g. 5-10 soft plastic balls).

·         Insert yourself in the throwing games. Play baseball, tennis, catch so that the throwing is WITH you.

·         Set a boundary for all of the children to no longer throw in other parts of the house or off the landing.

·         Set a boundary around Liam throwing parts of your game or toy. Share with him WHY you are not going to throw the item. (This is ok to do as you are sharing YOUR opinion and asserting your WANTS and DESIRES. It is time to ask for some control back)….this is a friendship skill.

·         Since Liam does like to throw items down the hallway bathroom, put a net in the hallway to catch the items to go only so far.

·         Bring in a bowling set. If Liam wants to throw items down the aisle show him bowling.

v  Paper

·         Set boundary around ripping paper. Decide how many pieces of paper you will allow Liam to rip (e.g. 6 half pieces a day-in lower white drawer on his shelf–right side). Remind him of how many pieces he has left as he continues to ask for it. Once Liam has ripped all of his pieces of paper and he has asked for more, explain that he has used up his paper for the day. He is welcome to tear the already ripped bits.

·         Know that running out of paper to rip is a wonderful opportunity for him. He will have to work out being ok with no longer having an endless supply. How will he adapt? How will he take care of himself? How will he move through it?

·         Liam may adjust easily and quickly as we saw when Dusya took the puzzle away. Also, Megan experimented with saying, “Oh. We don’t have any newspaper in here.”  Liam was fine with the explanation.

·         Make boundaries VERY clear and specific for everyone on the team. This specificity will help Liam to know what is ok and what is not.

·         It is ok to set boundaries to change your environment to eliminate messes.

o   Explore with the girls how they will feel about setting boundaries.

o   Explore their fears and anxieties around Liam’s response of crying etc.

The “joining from the distance doing something else” technique (“the Little People” technique we used with Duch)

·         At the level Liam is right now, we don’t “join” him anymore when he is exclusive by “mirroring” him (reading books if he is reading books, ripping papers if he rips papers, etc.). At this point, joining him means that we will give him space and we will not be invasive of his space. We can keep playing with our game in the distance.

·         So, if we introduce a game and he chooses to go read a book, or finds a piece of paper to rip, we continue playing our game by ourselves to show him how much fun our game is. We position ourselves in a way that we can see if he sees us. If he is looking at us, we make the game bigger and more attractive. If he is not looking at us, we are a bit quieter while playing the game, but still have fun with the game. When he comes to join us with our game, be very welcoming and show him how much fun it is to play this game together.

Help Liam to participate in games more (e.g. play symbolically and simple pretend).

·         Liam consistently does exploratory play (checking out toy, throwing them, looking at them).

·         Give Liam a clear and consistent role.

·         Be persistent in asking Liam to play.

·         Model the game and his role with puppets.

·         “Help Liam refocus back to the game.” If he says, tear newspaper while you’re playing birthday party, respond to him by saying, “Wait let’s blow out the candles.” Or “We don’t have paper at the birthday party.”

Help Liam to expand his spontaneous language

·         Continue to model language around Liam’s focus of interest. Talk about the things that he pays attention to...comment a bit more than you may have in the past. (E.g. label or describe what Liam sees hears or does as it happens).

·         Link the phrase to an action in order for it to be meaningful. “Liam, you love train puzzles.” “Liam you like blue chips.”

·         Self-talk (talk about what you are doing while Liam watches). Again, you are speaking more than you have in the past but keep the sentences short and concise.

·         Expand on Liam’s phrases and repeat what he says but add more information and STRESS those new words/phrases several times a day

·         Choose the phrases you want to focus on such as “I need help to….” “I don’t want to…” Use them multiple times a day in a variety of situations 15-20 times a day. (E.g. Mealtime, bathing, dressing, household chores, driving, shopping….narrate to him). If he wants your help but does not say anything wait until he says something to help.

·         Continue with “Inadequate Portions.” Limited snack, activity or toys. For example, if he wants a book give him a few that he may not want.

·         Purposefully change up Liam’s routine or sequence of a known activity or task. See if he will protest. You can re-encourage NO or STOP.

Help Liam to develop more expressive speech.

·         Continue to ask Liam open-ended questions. If the question is too challenging offer him non-verbal choices and point to his options.

·         Fill in the blanks. (E.g. The baby is in the _____.)

·         Try to ask question but only when Liam is motivated.  Begin with WHO, WHAT, WHERE. For example, if Liam is motivated for tickle. Ask him, “Who do you want to tickle you?”

Continue to help Liam with his receptive language.

·         Continue to give Liam directions and have him practice his independence and tasks throughout the day.

·         Make note of how often Liam responds to your direction.

Program Goals for Duchis

Drop all Language goals. J

·         Duchis has proven she knows the formula for her language goals. Let’s help her to use language for the love of communicating not simply for the production of words or responding to requests.

·         Back off on asking questions.

·         Model language by commenting on what Duch does as well as what you are doing.

Help Duchis to joyfully participate in games.

·         Help Duchis to take her play to the next level.

·         Act as an 8 year old playmate and jump right in making suggestions, sharing your opinion, and playing with her things. As you insert yourself into the play this way you put less verbal demands on her but challenge her to deepen her play skills.

·         Let Duchis show you what she wants to do and build upon her ideas by adding one suggestion that you think is fun.

·         Bring in props that will support the imagination games you may play.  (E.g. cardboard box as a camera, an action board).

·         Write things down, write stories, scripts. Writing helps her to ground what is happening in the game.

·         Play skills are directly related to language skills (Ingersol, 2007).

*** REMEMBER PIANO and HANDWRITING PRACTICE ***

Family pictures 2013

So, we had never gone for portraits and we finally did it thanks to the Birthday present that Kristen gave me this year. They took 16 pictures. The kids were tired since we went around 4:30pm, so that was not the best time. BUT, we did get a great family picture and nice closeups that we can get with copy-pasting :) Look at this! It was a great experiment and a great first time!

Birthday Party 2013

We had an amazing party! 8 years! WOW! Like Angela said, we had "real people" in the party! :) 12 kids came!!!! Thanks for your help and your love, ladies!

Cristy's amazing work in the closet!

Cristy gave a full makeover to the closet next to Duch's room!!! I think this time the change will last because we have drawers and labels. Take a look at it!!! Thanks, Cristy!! Please go experiment with the things we have organized and make sure to put everything back in place :)

Our LegoLand Adventure!!!

Our adventure went super great!!! Thanks so much to Shampaigne and Abuelito for their help! Daddy rode 4.5 hours to Dallas and then 4.5 hours back to Houston! :) Duch left LegoLand saying: "We will come back to LegoLand next Sunday" :)

Duch, The Gymnast

I love looking at this picture of Duch! She is ready to go to The Little Gym for her 3-hour long Summer Camps! She is happy to go and she leaves The Little Gym happily and says she wants to go back again! Talk about miracles! :) This is HUGE. First time she joins a activity with typical kids with no help, and for 3 hours! Her teachers say they are very proud of her. Our team's hard work is paying off, ladies! 

At the Option Institute with Raun and my friends

Loved my week at the Option Institute!  The classes were amazing, and I LOVED my time with my friends Maria and Joana, two SonRise moms. We have shared several programs together. We kept telling each other: "We have come a long way" :)