Alex had such a great day today! Today is a Saturday and I spent the entire day with him (less 8:-9:30 while I was at Yoga.) During the week, he goes to school every day and I really don't see him when he's at his best. By the time he comes home, he's tired and often cranky - and then he has his ABA sessions, so by the time I have time with him, it's time for dinner, bath, and bed.
As I mentioned in my last post, Alex really thrives on routine and it takes him awhile to adjust to a new routine. After the New Year, I started Alex in a social skills group through the ABA center we use. We also started a new music class with a professional who has a child on the spectrum as well. Well, today was the first Saturday that was fantastic since we started this new routine in the New Year.
I just want to list the things he did throughout the day that I was excited about:
* At social skills group, he initiated singing "London Bridge Is Falling Down" with one of the group leaders.
* At social skills group, during a turn-taking activity, his peer got upset. Alex immediately said "your turn!" and gave the toy to his friend (I and the group leaders assume it was to make him stop crying.)
* The group leaders called this his "breakout session" - they were so very pleased with his behavior today.
* At music class, Alex sat down and, without prompting, followed the color-coded music his teacher had written out for him on the small keyboard she had been working with him on.
* This evening, he initiated the "hug game" with me. He actually took something out of my hand, put it down, and initiated the game with me.
In addition to all of those things, his language was great today and I didn't notice him stimming at all.
So, what made this day so good? I don't know! I wish I knew what I could do to help him have a fantastic Saturday like this again. It could be that he's getting used to the new Saturday routine. It could be that he slept enough, ate enough, or ate the right foods. Maybe it was a combination of things. Unfortunately, this great day was not the rule, but the exception.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Recovering from Christmas
Christmas day was more than 2 weeks ago and Alex is just now recovering from the change in routine. I do believe that the social story helped. He was such a champ during the car ride to visit his grandparents in New York. His behavior at my parents' house was certainly much better than it was the first time we visited after his symptoms had become apparent. I remember him humming and growling through that entire visit that time. (I've now come to know that behavior as a vocal stim. He hums and growls because it provides his body with some sort of stimulation it needs for him, like scratching an itch.)
By the end of Christmas vacation, I could not wait for Alex to go back to school. Not because I wanted him out of the house, but because he is so much happier and comfortable when in his regular routine. I noticed that his behavior deteriorated each day of vacation. Each day, he became more disregulated and would sink further into his stimming behaviors and be less able to communicate and to shift his attention to someone trying to interact with him. When he regresses like this, it reminds me how far he has come. To make the comparison, on a normal day, Alex will sing songs to himself but not hum or growl. He'll answer choice questions with little prompting: "do you want an apple or an orange?" He'll entertain himself by playing with toys, or happily play turn-taking games with others. He'll ask for food and/or drinks when he needs them, and follow simple directions assuming he understands them. On a usual day, he's a happy, cooperative, content, good-natured little guy. He'll even occasionally blow us away with an unprompted, unscripted, independent sentence! Those are the good days. By the last day of vacation and for the 2 weeks that followed, he was humming and growling at least half the time and practicing his stimming behaviors like turning light switches on and off and spinning wheels and other objects. He couldn't answer questions or say much at all; in fact, we usually couldn't get him to stop humming long enough to listen to a question, much less answer it. He wouldn't sit still to read a book with us or play a game, wouldn't tell us when he was hungry or thirsty, and was just generally grumpy constantly. It felt like we stepped backward by about 6 months. Thankfully, the recovery back out of the regression is only taking a matter of weeks and not months.
You can understand why I'm glad school vacation is behind us and why I'm not looking forward to any future disruptions. I love to visit family and have people visit us, but I just can't find the enthusiasm that I used to for such visits. I hope that as time goes on, Alex will become more able to deal with change. Even small every-day changes disrupt him. It would be nice for family members and friends to be able to see how Alex acts at home because he's made so much progress. But their sheer presence throws him off and causes him to act differently. That applies when we go anywhere (ie to someone's house) or even when people come to visit us.
I guess for now, I'm just happy to settle into a month or two of routine. Alex will take three more steps forward before he takes a step back and that's good enough. We don't exactly have a choice - life throws change at you no matter what.
By the end of Christmas vacation, I could not wait for Alex to go back to school. Not because I wanted him out of the house, but because he is so much happier and comfortable when in his regular routine. I noticed that his behavior deteriorated each day of vacation. Each day, he became more disregulated and would sink further into his stimming behaviors and be less able to communicate and to shift his attention to someone trying to interact with him. When he regresses like this, it reminds me how far he has come. To make the comparison, on a normal day, Alex will sing songs to himself but not hum or growl. He'll answer choice questions with little prompting: "do you want an apple or an orange?" He'll entertain himself by playing with toys, or happily play turn-taking games with others. He'll ask for food and/or drinks when he needs them, and follow simple directions assuming he understands them. On a usual day, he's a happy, cooperative, content, good-natured little guy. He'll even occasionally blow us away with an unprompted, unscripted, independent sentence! Those are the good days. By the last day of vacation and for the 2 weeks that followed, he was humming and growling at least half the time and practicing his stimming behaviors like turning light switches on and off and spinning wheels and other objects. He couldn't answer questions or say much at all; in fact, we usually couldn't get him to stop humming long enough to listen to a question, much less answer it. He wouldn't sit still to read a book with us or play a game, wouldn't tell us when he was hungry or thirsty, and was just generally grumpy constantly. It felt like we stepped backward by about 6 months. Thankfully, the recovery back out of the regression is only taking a matter of weeks and not months.
You can understand why I'm glad school vacation is behind us and why I'm not looking forward to any future disruptions. I love to visit family and have people visit us, but I just can't find the enthusiasm that I used to for such visits. I hope that as time goes on, Alex will become more able to deal with change. Even small every-day changes disrupt him. It would be nice for family members and friends to be able to see how Alex acts at home because he's made so much progress. But their sheer presence throws him off and causes him to act differently. That applies when we go anywhere (ie to someone's house) or even when people come to visit us.
I guess for now, I'm just happy to settle into a month or two of routine. Alex will take three more steps forward before he takes a step back and that's good enough. We don't exactly have a choice - life throws change at you no matter what.
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