Saturday we went to a friends fundraising garage sale. Their son has severe Autism and they will be heading to Ohio in March to start training with their service dog. The garage sale was outside so our attendance was short lived. The noise, the heat and of course the stimulation was to much for him. It is nice to have friends who completely understand our quick exit.
We headed to the roller rink but not before a quick stop at the book store. H did something that impressed me. There on the sign was 4 pictures and one was a game controller and he looked at it and said "Sean"! I was excited he made the correlation that his big brother plays video games, only now though he sees the controller and calls them all Sean. There ya go big brother you have played so many video games you have become the controller to your little brother! Once inside the store he was in his total happy place. I am sure we could stay there for hours and hours and it not phase him. I had to drag him out. I love that he loves books and hope this love continues to grow and grow.
The roller rink was just a place that I should have avoided after our last encounter at the one in Dallas. The only difference was they didn't charge me or H even though he got skates. Have to give them props for that. Not so much a huge fan of the two teens behind the counter making comments as H had a meltdown as we tried to put on the skates or while people whizzed by him on their skates. H made several attempts to bolt but never got to far thankfully. He finally mellowed out and was dancing when they played the hokey pokey but after that the lights went out the strobe lights went on and the music went up. He lost it. He ran to the door screaming go go go go go. Thankfully I caught him in time. We tried to stay so the girls could have a snack but it was just time to go.
After this outing I realized this was not getting me anywhere. Outings will be done now on a as needed basis. This is not fair to him to freak out and be tortured so to speak. The rest of the weekend we remained at home. We had planned on a party Sunday but figured this would be no fun for any of us if he had been struggling like he had. We are going to try a swim party Saturday. He loves outdoors so maybe this will be a bit more relaxed for him.
We were fortunate enough to come into a iPad for the sole use of H for therapy purposes. So far he loves it and I have found some great apps to on there that will help him and us. We have loaded a tracker to track his days, his progress and other things throughout his day. His therapists are gong to help us get apps for it so that we can help him even more. We have loaded a talk to speak app that will hopefully help him communicate his needs when we can't figure out what he is wanting, PECS or Picture Exchange Communication System so that he can use pictures to express needs and also learn more words, speech apps that will as him to repeat things this app however might serve no point right now since he is not in the mode of repeating what he is asked to say. He like to do it on his terms when he feels like it even if it does not meet the current situation. For example today Chris was talking about being at school at 8am and suddenly from the back seat H pipes up and says "8,9" I had no idea he had a concept of number sequencing but he has heard it and absorbed it.
H started his new classroom today. We agreed that even though I was registering him for Early Head Start moving him up might be a good idea. Today seemed to go well despite his major meltdown at drop off. He did not interact with the other children he just sort of mingled and scoped out what they were doing. No biting so we will take that right?! I love his teachers. They want to know everything they can do for him, how to help him and what works and what does not. We are setting up a conference to go over all his needs. It is making me feel so much better about the whole transition. So even if H does not get a spot at Early Head Start I know he will be in good hands. I will miss Carol and Kellie they loved him so much and I can never thank them for all the hard work they put into my baby boy. I am just glad they are across the hall so I can see them all the time still!
Therapy we good today. We had ECI and WTRC. ECI said he was doing great in his new room. She is off the next two weeks so we will see how far he comes and what we need to work on once she is back. WTRC was not to bad. OT was not to productive due to the meltdowns and bolting. This was our first session so I knew no miracles would be performed but it was still frustrating to see him so unhappy. Speech was great. I really love our therapist. We had a great talk today and she was honest and blunt. We need to be happy with the speech H does have, celebrate the 2 word sentences he can say, and not lose hope when he loses words, won't repeat and struggles with words he once knew. She told me the more we get down and work with him while he is engaged in activities the better chance we stand to get him to learn words and use them in the right context instead of just at random times.She told us that even when he does use words at random times and out of context acknowledge and repeat and praise. I felt knocked down but I knew we are not out. We are going to fight for H we want him to know he has a big team behind him supporting him to make him know he is not alone. He is going to break down those walls, go through all those barriers and prove everyone wrong. He is a fighter like that!
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