Saturday, August 12, 2006

Autism Day Treatment program wk 7

We got out the finger paints today. Fun!


Wow this week went by fast! Lowell's been pretty up and down at home, although he had a pretty good week at ADTP.

Speech:
Lowell had a great day! He was very happy and verbal. Nice transitions with his visual schedule- increased independence. I am also seeing increased initiation of interaction with me as well as increased parallel play with other kids. Eye contact and joint attending continues to increase. He did a great job identifying animal photos in 1:1 work today, as well as imitating their names.

Music:
Lowell continues to make gains! Overall the time he spends engaged and interacting is greater than the time he spends self-directed. Not only does he respond to my interaction attemps but he initiates interaction with eye contact, touch, singing , words. His affect is bright: he seems to enjoy working so hard!

Now that he seems to be getting the hang of the picture schedules at school, we are going to start using them at home. For some reason we have resisted this and now that the groundwork is laid, we realize how much it could help. He will have a picture schedule for his morning routine, after nap, and bedtime.

We also are still really struggling with his sleep routine. We are now pushing his bedtime from 7:30 pm to 8 pm since he seems like he really has a lot of energy left in the evening. He is asleep by 9 pm. However, he continues to wake up at 5 am or before!!! We're in a catch 22, if we have him go back into his bedroom, he pounds on the door (it's locked) and tends to wake up his sister. If he gets up he can be really groggy and crabby, because it's too dang early for anyone to be up!!! Yikes.
Edit: Today (Sunday) Lowell got up at 5:30 am. We're making progress!!! It's so cute, he now comes into our room and comes over to me and grabs my hand. LOVE waking up that way:)

1 comment:

mysamiam said...

If sleep ever becomes more of an issue, I would love to chat more. Our Sam, now 4 1/2 always went to bed well, but would be awake from midnight until 5 or 6 am. It went on for about 3 years until this past spring. I had done everything for years, good bedtime routine, massages, lavender oil, melatonin, music, snugglies, etc...

He too would kick his door and wake up brother and everyone else. We have to lock his door, because he would even figure out a way to escape into the night.

As much as I wanted to avoid meds, we finally caved this spring when our pediatrician talked us into Clonidine. His teachers in his Autism class saw a difference at school too.

I don't think they will look at meds like that until they get to a stage like Sam's, but would love to chat if it gets harder. I think their little minds just are going 24/7 sometimes.

Hope mornings get later for you!!!