Sunday, January 13, 2008

Time for an update!!



Nick and I spent the first part of 2008 with a nasty cold. Of course, these illnesses always seem to set us back a few days with him and it takes him quite a while to feel like himself again. I am happy to say that we used more Motrin than Tylenol this time and avoided the chaos that happened with his last cold. He is just now starting to eat again, and with him feeling bad we put a halt to the home programs we had started. He just felt too badly to do anything but sleep..as you can see from the pic.

Now that things have settled down both at home and at work,I am getting his programs back on track again. One thing we have a a little success with is getting him to pee on the potty. He will now sit readily on his little potty while I am getting his bath ready. The whole time he is sitting there I reinterate what he is supposed to do..."Time to go pee-pee on the potty", or "Sit and go pee-pee on the potty". He has done it three times so far and we could not be happier. We continue with this, and hopefully will get him out of diapers by the time he is five.

Another thing we are working on with him is imitation. Kids with autism have to be taught how to do this, and when you think about it, imitation is how kids learn. Today I put a plastic giraffe on the table and moved it with my hand. After each time I said "You do it". It took a few times of prompting him, but after that he was doing it all on his own. We also played with our food, Mr. Potato Head, and clapped.
I keep track of everything in a notebook, and write down all our goals and when they have been mastered. Nick has also started to sit with Michael and watch TV with him. I need to structure and tweek our home program just a bit and come up with all kinds of things to work with him on. It is an ongoing process. Nick is such a joy, and his unusual way of thinking comes out in so many funny ways. This morning he noticed that Michael was not here, and began to sing "Go get Michael...go get Michael". He loves coming up behind Michael and squeezing him..almost like a hug. Here is what is going on in our living room right now:


I always love it when they act like normal brothers. So much of our lives is abnormal, but we do get a little glimpse every now and then.