ABA Weeks 12/13 and Speech Outburst

I haven't written in a few weeks and honestly have been so swamped. I am trying to literally keep my head above water and am just barely hanging on. Writing in my blog really is an outlet for me but it takes the back burner to everything else especially my family. You may not see me write as much as I did in the beginning but will try my best plus it's a great way to keep everyone up to date on our busy busy life.

Halloween:
Halloween was approaching and Jocie and I went shopping for Joseph's costume. This wasn't going to be an easy task as most materials besides cotton bother him and with the materials used these days for Halloween costumes this was going to be a bit of a challenge. We ended up picking between Brobbe from Yo Gabba Gabba or Mr. Potato Head so we let Jason be the tie breaker and decided on Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba. Joseph loves Yo Gabba Gabba it is one of his favorite shows so I thought this would be an easy costume to get on him unlike last years monkey costume which he screamed in hysterics over, think again! When I showed it to him he instantly snapped "NO, NO" and really got upset. Well I had bought the darn costume from one of those Halloween stores where their policy is "no refunds". Great I just spent over $20.00 on a costume that would never be worn. So the Monday before Halloween when Joseph's ABA tutor and lead came for his evening session I asked them if they could help maybe getting him used to the costume and help me get him to like the costume and before they could even answer her comes my hubby "Oh there is no way you are getting him in that costume" well if anyone knows me I can't resist a competition and am very competitive so Jason went on..."I bet you $20.00 you aren't getting him in that costume" Oh it was so on! I got (our only tutor left), Cheryl and the lead Melissa to help me win this bet. Watching them work with him made it look so easy if only I could look at a behavior in him and know how to change it, I guess this is what takes time as a parent and why we receive ABA for 1-3 years. Anyways, what they did was first turned it into a game and not force anything on him. We used his token board and every time he would just touch the costume he earned a token and he did this about 4 times then got to play with his desired toy. The next step was just getting him to put 1 foot in it and followed the same token system and went on to the other leg then the arms. The hat part was one I thought would really be impossible and was not even expecting it, wow I was blown away again they even got him to wear not only the hat but the hand mittens!! We played this game every night until Halloween. When Halloween came around Joseph really didn't want to get in his costume and was not interested in the game. So I asked him if he wanted to go "bye bye" and that changed his mind and he put on the costume so quickly. We ended up walking around our full block to over 20 houses and he quickly got the routine down of knocking on the door, smiling and getting candy just for being so darn cute. Overall Halloween this year was huge success thanks to his #1 tutor Cheryl who came along with us. Which reminds me Jason still owes us $20.00!

Progress:
The past few weeks we have seen HUGE HUGE progress in Joseph. I am so amazed at his progress, it is like he woke up one morning and is imitating us and when I ask him to sound out a word and break it down for him he does it!! Granted these are simple words for him but still progress none the less. The only one he refuses to sound out is "more" which he can say "Momma" so I know he can at least make the "M" sound, instead he will use sign language for "more".  I can now even ask him to say "Momma" and he does, I just love it.  My heart is overwhelmed with a feeling that is just so hard to explain but if you have been in our shoes with a non verbal child and they start to make this type of magical connection with you there is no greater feeling, seriously no greater feeling. Joseph has this book he loves for me to read to him, and when I say he loves it I mean he wants me to read it to him back to back at least 5 times before he gets bored it. I have been working really hard at getting him to imitate me in making the sounds of the animals in the book and about a week ago when we sat down to read it he made every single animal sound!!! (See video below)  Another huge accomplishment, seriously I can't tell you the joy I feel even today as I am writing this.

I have a word list I keep on the fridge and I don't just put any word there he says because really at times he can say a word and never repeat it again so I wait to hear him say words independently for at least 2-3 days consistently before putting it on our white board on the fridge. His word list just keeps growing and this past weekend we added "I want" and "Cookie" to the list, oh how I love the way he says's "Cookie" in his sweet little voice! Needless to say Joseph got plenty of cookies this past weekend.

Next week we have our quarterly meeting with our case worker through Alta Regional Center along with the team from Capitol Autism to talk about his progress in the past quarter with his ABA therapy as well talk about his new goals for the next 3 months. The past few weeks Nimantha, consultant with Capitol Autism has been evaluating Joseph to see where he is today compared to when they first evaluated him and am really over joyed with the success we have seen. Most of you may remember when Joseph was first evaluated he ranged around 6-12 months at 26 months old. Well I got a copy of the report last night and am so happy to report all of his success even if like in his gross motor skill range it only grew with the amount of months that went by so realistically there wasn't progress there, but look at his receptive language he went from 8 months to a huge leap of 17 months!! Literally had they reviewed where he was at a month ago they wouldn't have gotten this progress, these past few weeks something of a miracle has happened to him and really feel God has blessed us tremendously. I can now ask him to give me a hug or a kiss and he does, or if I ask him to give Sissy a hug or kiss he will do that too. He understands so much when we talk now, life is really good right now. I feel so lucky to have all of this help for Joseph everyone has taught me so much in how to interact with him and his progress just shows that ABA was the right choice for Joseph even with the hiccups in staff we have had.

See below for some pictures and videos from the past 2 weeks. Joseph sure has been busy learning all sorts of new words and ways to express himself.

Jenn

What it took to get his costume on....Cheryl, Joseph's tutor is in the middle

Pumpkin Carving with Sissy

Trick or Treating

Some Family Fun this past weekend

"Joseph Dancing"

"Animal Sounds"

"Joseph Pretending to be his Tutor"


(I saved the best for last)
"Story Time with Joe Joe"