We had a fun group meeting. Here is the summary of our discussion. Keep playing with the "experience books". The final products will look awesome, I am sure!
DUCH’s GOALS
1.
Uses pronouns
correctly: he, she, you, I , me, they, us, etc
2.
Asks “why”
questions
3.
Seeks others
personal information within a conversation: Asks questions about another
person. E.g., “Where do you live?” “Did you see the ____ movie?”
4. Is able to politely get someone’s attention when the
person is occupied. e.g. “Excuse me”
5. Transitions: “I am bored” “I want to do something
else”
6. Explaining why she is cranky: “This is loud”, “This
is scary”, “I don’t like cheering”
-
Alex says she is working on transitions because
Duch sometimes just leaves one thing and goes to another wout saying anything.
Alex is working on Duch expressing her desire to switch with ideas such as: “I
want to do something else”, “I am bored”. Alex tries to engage her when she
sees Duch switching and Alex asks her: “What happened?” “Why are you going to
that?” She says Duch not always answers these questions, so Alex provides
multiple choices.
-
Transitions are a friendship skill so that
Duchis tells friends when she wants to switch to another activity.
-
In general, when there is a small cranky moment
(or outburst), Alex goes to “what happened?” “Why are you crying?” She says she
not always gets a direct answer but she goes to multiple choices in these cases
to show Duch she could express what she is feeling or thinking.
-
Another sentences Alex has used is: “Instead of
covering your ears, you could tell me to be quieter”
-
Alex is also asking what Duch liked or not liked
about a game or things like “Would it be better if ….”
-
We talked about Duch doing things she had not
liked before, like going to the Rodeo Parade. I told Duch still did not want to
go to shows or the symphony. So, I have been trying to ask Duch why she does
not want to go and to provide her options. The tells me it is because of the
“sound” and because it is “loud”. So, Alex wants me to work on her thinking
logic of why she does not like the symphony or other things.
-
Alex felt that Duch is trying new things and has
a feeling that the tutoring with Rizwana has given her a sense of being
successful at activities and feeling more secure of herself.
-
Duch will go twice a week to the school district
to a speech class that lasts 30 minutes with 3 other kids. It will be a chance
to be in a class environment with 3 other kids (Mon. & Wed., 10am).
LIAM’s GOALS
1.
Pretend play
(birthdays, magic carpets, puppets, camping). Get prompts together to act them out.
2.
Pretend play
with themes from books like Good Night Gorilla, or any topic he starts talking
about. Get prompts together to act them out.
3. Expressing what he likes and what he does not like: “I
like this pajamas” “I don’t like this shirt”
4.
Practice his
sense of independence: “Liam, go and get clothes from the closet. Get a shirt,
underwear and pants”. “Liam, go get the
book in the room that is under the pillow”.
5.
Talk about past experiences.
We will use experience books. Get prompts
together to act them out.
-
Alex had noticed that he was talking about “good
night gorilla” a lot and I told her that some girls were playing the story with
his toys or making books about it. She encouraged more work with stories like
this that he seems to like. She says good night gorilla is great work on
in/out, sleep/awake/on/off, etc, etc.
-
She also encouraged me to create “books of
experiences” with pictures of activities we have done recently. We could
comment on the books and act them out. “Remember when we did this …” “Which book do you like best?”
-
The “I like/I don’t like” goal is an umbrella
goal to get to know Liam’s opinions about things like: food, toys, books. We could show him pictures or do drawings and
ask him what he likes, seaweed or spinach, or Target or Walmart, etc? If he is
choosing between two shirts and he chooses one, we could model “Why?” “Is it because
it is itchy?” “It’s an itchy shirt”.
-
In the goal about Independence, the focus is
receptive language, it does not matter if he does not talk a lot. He is
listening and following all the commands, so that’s the priority.
- When he gets upset, like in the case of the missing piece in a puzzle, the goal is flexibility, not language. He needs to see we can still be happy even when we don’t get what we want or even when lose a toy and people are trying to find it.
