Celebrating our fantastic weekend team

We have been very lucky that for almost two years, and one year, respectively, two fantastic ladies, Shampaigne and Martalicia, have been coming to our house on the weekends to play with our kiddos. At 8am the bell rang, and I knew that my kids would be loved and challenged for the next hours while playing with these ladies. Shampaigne just graduated, so she is moving back to Dallas, and Martalicia will spend the summer in Mexico and will come back in the Fall. We will miss you, but I know we will be always connected. Thank you so much for all your help during all this time! We love you and will be forever grateful for your love for our kids!

Ideas for Liam

With Liam, focus on these ideas this week:

- Follow the leader/Simon says type of games

- Puppets and Pillow Pets in pretend play - go wild with scenarios you have never tried before

- He seems very interested in Sesame Street characters (went to Duch room to take Rosita and put her in his tent--first time I hear him saying "Rosita")

- Writing words on the white-board by himself

- Remember to focus on the play, not on the language -- the language comes through the play and connection -- the more connected and involved in the play, the more language he will use.

Mary's graduation

Throughout the years, I have been very excited about all my SonRise team members' graduations from UH -- Jessie's, Kristen's, Shampaigne's, Mary's undergrad one - or St Thomas - Bensy's - but I had never been able to be in one. Finally, I saw Mary graduating this Saturday from BAUER, and it was really a happy moment filled with pride and gratitude for this amazing lady who has played with my kids for hundreds of hours since October 2010. She is the real deal: an accountant who loves to play with kids with autism. I still remember when I interviewed her on the phone in 2010 :) Thanks for all these years of play, Mary! We will enjoy the time we still have with you in our team until you join your accounting job in August :) Here is the first picture I have of you in a group meeting!

UH Easter Hunt and Go Texan Day

Megan's fill-in-the-blank technique

I talked to Megan last week and she reminded me that the fill in the blacks are particularly with OPINIONS, FEELINGS, AND THOUGHTS --  not so much for wants and needs, because Liam can get those easier. What we want is to know what he thinks and feels. So, keep that in mind :) For example, if we know he cannot find this pillow-pet dolphin, and he is just saying dolphin. We would not say: "I want _______" or "help me find the ______" because those are wants and needs. We would say: "Oh! The dolphin is ________"   or "we cannot find the dolphin, the dolphin is ______" he may say "missing", or "lost", or "hiding", or something else :) After finding the dolphin, we could say: "I love this dolphin because ______" 

Group Meeting - March 2014

GROUP MEETING – MARCH 2014 - LIAM

Our previous goals:

PRETEND PLAY campaign with 5 components:

1a. Enjoy and celebrate all those moments when Liam is truly CONNECTED to you.

1b. Lengthen his attention span in one activity.

1c. Strengthen his receptive language.

1d. Strengthen his mimicking skills.

1e. Inspire Liam’s commenting and sharing opinions.

OUR NEW GOALS:

1.       The “Fill-in-the-blank technique and Rhetorical questions technique”:

Example: if he is complaining about a poster that is falling or a book that is missing, we could say:

“OMG, Liam needs __________”

“We need to find some sticky ______________”

“Where could the tape be? ____________”

“The tape is in the _____________”

“Hmmmm, what do we need? ____________”

“Hah, ……, what do we need?  The teddy bear? Let’s try with the teddy bear. No, the teddy bear cannot fix this. We need _________________”

Megan thinks that we could mix things up by not modelling so much right now (since we have modelled lots with the pretend play), but practicing “fill in the blank situations” both in the games and for day-to-day things. He is better with “fill in the blacks” in relation to stories and games than in day-to-day things.

Fill-in-the-blank and emotions

a.       Making sentences with cards and words and fill-in-the-blank activities:

“When Martalicia comes to play, I feel ______________________”

“When my transportation book breaks, I feel ________________”

“I am __________________ when I heard Dusya scream.”

“I feel __________________ when I jump on the trampoline.”

b.      Dumb yourself down and practice situations like this with pretend play or with books: “Liam, I can’t figure this out. Dora looks sad, why is she sad? ______” or “Liam, I can’t figure this out. Dora’s ice cream fell on the floor. What do you think Dora is feeling? Dora looks ___________.”

Fill-in-the-blank and “I don’t like”

One day I brought a shirt for him to wear. He did not like this shirt, but just communicated it to me by whining or saying “no shirt”. So, I said, “Liam, you can tell me you don’t want this blue shirt. Tell me: “I _________”. He responded: “I don’t like this blue shirt”.

2.       Yoga: Use Yoga cards (white drawer on the table). Check poses with inflections back-front-side.

3.       Emotions: Use the Emotion cards (white drawer on the table)

a.       Charades/Guessing game. The emotion cards go in a bag. You take a card out and he needs to guess the emotion. Eventually, he will take a card and you will guess the emotion.

b.      Keeping the emotion cards at hand to be used when playing any pretend-play scenario, like birthday party, zoo, cooking, etc. What emotions can we associate with parties, field trips, activities, etc?

c.       When you ask him “how do you feel?” his new answer is “sick”. One time when I asked “where does it hurt?” he did say “tummy”.  Mary once got to play doctor after this. What could we do when he tells us he feels sick?

4.       VOLUME of his voice

The speech therapist told me that she whispered in this ear “Liam, I cannot hear you. Please speak louder” and he started to speak at a higher volume. Let’s tell him in a whisper when he needs to speak louder.

5.       “I Like” and “I don’t like”

I have been thinking about a matching game where he needs to connect things to “I like” and “I don’t like”. Things he likes are: pillow pets, jumping on the trampoline, seaweed, shapes, swinging, planets, shapes, sign language, tickles, kisses, books, vehicles, strawberries, parks, goodwill, Target, barnes & noble, bacon, meat, tangerines, blueberries, zucchini, cold bath.

Things he does not like are: wearing sweaters, going to Pearland Cinema, Duchis whining, Tony screaming, raspberries, green beans, broccoli, cleaning up, hot bath.

6.       More complex concepts like:

a.       Bday parties: invitations, presents, baking, the whole process.

b.      Right and Left. I use it for kisses on right/left arm/legs/chicks, etc.

c.       Both. Do you want X, Y or both?

d.      He is really into shapes. We could use it for building. Also, I will show you a starfall game about placing shapes above/below/in front/next to/between, etc, different locations.

e.      Before and After. Could be used with days of the week, letters, and numbers. When filling worksheets: What comes before 15? What comes after 21? What number is between 2 and 4?

NEW TECHNIQUE FOR DUCH

For Duch, if you get into a cycle of “c is for cookie”, for example, we could say “yes, c is for cookie and no, you are not going to have another one”. Megan thinks that Duch wants us to get to say “yes” to the cookie by asking us the “c is for cookie” questions, so we need to make sure she understands that we acknowledge her question but we will not give her a cookie. Check out the situations when she gets into cycles of “ ____ is for _____”.  I think they happen when she does not get what she wants, or when she has to do something she does not want (like homework). Check out the scenarios you have witnessed or will witness this week and we can talk about them. It is time to help her to get rid of this rigid dialogue of “____ is for _____”.

School scenarios with pretend play:

-          Wanting something that other kids have

-          Waiting for her turn

-          Stopping other kids who are bothering her

-          Wanting to play with other kids

-          Winning a game or losing a game

-          Please and thank you

-          Being ok when we don’t get what we want (moving on)

Video #2 of Dusya and Jennifer - February 2014 (4:53 minutes)

Video #1 of Dusya and Jennifer - February 2014 (3:54 minutes)

Group Meeting February 2014

PRETEND PLAY campaign with 5 components:

1a. Enjoy and celebrate all those moments when Liam is truly CONNECTED to you.

1b. Lengthen his attention span in one activity.

1c. Strengthen his receptive language.

1d. Strengthen his mimicking skills.

1e. Inspire Liam’s commenting and sharing opinions.

+ using the iPad for opinions and feelings + complicating the academics topics or play topics.

Ideas from Megan:

1.       For Liam’s interest in the colors of our clothes:  We could play with his pillow pets/stuffed animals and his shirts. Like playing dress up but with real T-shirts and pillow pets and stuffed animals.

2.       For Liam’s interest in emotions:

a.       Making sentences with cards and words and fill-in-the-blank activities:

“When Martalicia comes to play, I feel ______________________”

“When my transportation book breaks, I feel ________________”

“I am __________________ when I heard Dusya scream.”

“I feel __________________ when I jump on the trampoline.”

b.      Charades/Guessing game. The emotion cards go in a bag. You take a card out and he needs to guess the emotion. Eventually, he will take a card and you will guess the emotion.

c.       Keeping the emotion cards at hand to be used when playing any pretend-play scenario, like birthday party, zoo, cooking, etc. What emotions can we associate with parties, field trips, activities, etc?

d.      Dumb yourself down and practice situations like this with pretend play or with books: “Liam, I can’t figure this out. Dora looks sad, why is she sad? ______” or “Liam, I can’t figure this out. Dora’s ice cream fell on the floor. What do you think Dora is feeling? Dora looks ___________.”

e.      I have been asking him “how do you feel?” or “what are you feeling?” or “how are you doing?” Different responses he has given me are:  grumpy, excited, silly, happy, “scared and grumpy”. One time he said “grumpy”, I asked: why are you grumpy? He said: “scratch” and started to scratch himself. Another time he said “happy”, I asked: why are you happy? And he said: “laughing.” Let’s continue with why questions in the context of emotions.

3.       New/Renewed interests of Liam: Days of the Week  + Clocks and Time + Planets + Bones in the body

a.       We could make up a days of the week song saying things we do each day.

b.      We could play a matching game with days and activities, or with days in English and Spanish.

c.       We could pretend activities for each day or times of the day (wake up ….. bed time).

d.      With clocks he is reading the “o’clock” times. We could expand from there.  (+Clock books)

e.      We could “Fly” to different planets and have a different activity in each planet

f.        Simon Says games using different parts/bones of the body.

g.       Calendar with magnets

Group Meeting January 2014

LIAM’S GOALS FOR JANUARY

1.     All we will do with PRETEND PLAY

1a. Enjoy and celebrate all those moments when Liam is truly CONNECTED to you.

***Remember that beyond language and playing skills and academic skills, what we want is for Liam to realize how fun it is to connect to friends.

***Story of Liam with Alex hiding pieces in her hands and Liam having to pull her fingers and giggling and looking and her and her hand.

Joint attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. It is achieved when one individual alerts another to an object by means of eye-gazing, pointing or other verbal or non-verbal indications. An individual gazes at another individual, points to an object and then returns their gaze to the individual.
Two important skills in joint attention are following eye gaze and identifying intention. The ability to share gaze with another individual is an important skill in establishing reference. The ability to identify intention is important in a child's ability to learn language and direct the attention of others.

1b. Lengthen his attention span in one activity.

Choose a theme for your game and keep building on it to increase Liam’s attention span. He is 8 years old and attention span is 5 minutes * age, so 40 minutes. If he can play a game for 40 minutes or more, his attention span is typical for his age.

One way to make a game bigger is to combine your original idea with ideas he suggests, which could be any works or comments he makes during the play. Remember when we did this with Duch when she was scripting a lot. Anything she said, we built on it.  Take Liam’s words are comments and suggestions. If you really see no connection between what he is saying and your game, then you could acknowledge: “I see you are thinking about shapes” and keep bringing this attention to the game.

1c. Strengthen his receptive language.

He is understanding everything we say. As part of the game, keep giving him jobs to do, specially 2-step instructions. He is very good with 1-step instructions. Let’s give him more practice with 2-steps ones.

Continue to have Liam practice his independence and tasks throughout the day: getting dressed, brushing his teeth, eating by himself, bringing the plates down, cleaning up, making his bed, etc.

 1d. Strengthen his mimicking skills.

As part of the game, keep using silly words, silly sound effects, silly movements, and motivate Liam to imitate. Also, he is more interested in using his hands for sign language and has a better control of his hands. Use the sign-language cards/books, the feeling cards, the animal hats, and any other props that would involve games of imitation of silly sounds or movements.

1e. Inspire Liam’s commenting and sharing opinions.

Needs versus Opinions: Liam uses language to get her needs met (e.g., he is hungry, he is thirsty, he wants a door to be open, he wants to go outside, he wants to go to the car, he wants a specific shirt, he is looking for a book, etc).

What we want now is to know more of what Liam is thinking and what his opinions are. So, we are going to use techniques for motivating him to share comments and opinions with us.

1.       Make comments yourself: “This is fun”,  “I love this game”, “This is silly”

2.       Leave space for Liam’s spontaneous comments. Don’t talk all the time, leave moments of silence for Liam to say what he thinks. Be aware of how much you talk versus how much silence space you leave for him.

3.       Testing questions versus description questions: Ask follow-up questions, not with the intention of testing him, but in those situations when you want more details.  WHO / WHAT / WHERE / WHY questions. Example: Shampaigne’s “show and tell game.” Be aware to not bombard him with questions, but ask for clarifications when you need more information. Example:

Mom: Time to get dressed, Liam.

Liam: Shirt

Mom: What shirt do you want to wear today?

Liam: Green Shirt

Mom: Great, let’s look for it.

Liam: Soft

Mom: Yes, this green shirt IS soft. You like soft shirts.

DUSYA’S GOALS FOR JANUARY

The feedback from school is that Dusya needs to focus more on her work and finish it independently; she needs to increase her attention span for her work. She gets distracted easily when given a worksheet to work on their own.

Suggestion from Megan: Introduce Dusya to the idea of homework, so that we get to practice attention span for worksheets at work. Every afternoon, after some relaxing time, and before dinner and electronics, we will tell her that it is time for homework. At the beginning she will complain a lot, but it will get better. We can empathize with her and tell her we understand she wants to play, but that she is in school and kids in school do homework to practice all they are learning. Use her workbooks in her drawer. I am thinking to even send the page back to school every day so that she sees that it is really homework.

The idea would be to move to a situation where she can complete a worksheet with no help after having given her the instructions. We could even use a timer and tell her that she has 5 or 10 (or whatever time is appropriate) to finish the task and that after that she can play again. The timer would give her the confidence that the time for the worksheet is limited.

Our 3rd Annual Christmas Party

Our Christmas Party Sing-alongs!

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 ***