Autism Day Treatment program week 1 wrap-up

Lowell ended the week on a great note. We are absolutely thrilled with how his day treatment program has begun. On Friday Chloe and I stuck around a little bit and played. Lowell seemed to really appreciate that:) He seemed to have a good day. His progress report said:

What I did really well today: Sat in group well. Played side by side with Theo.

What was very fun about today: Morning hello group. Gym time (very motivating for him).

My mood was: good. He did cover his ears more often today. Stressed at tornado drill, but that's understandable.

Speech therapist said: Lowell did a great job in speech. I am impressed with his ability to attend and reciprocate when given structure in a 1:1 setting. He likes being silly and is responding well to silly interactive play routines. We are continuing to work on helping him use the visual schedule system to ease transitions. I also worked with a wipe-on/off board and was able to elicit some nice language and increased eye contact.

I also received an email from the main teacher on Friday afternoon saying that as a team, they all agreed that the first week went well. Over the next week, they will be working on the Helps assessments. These assessments are observational assessments that determine each child’s strengths and functioning in the domains of cognitive development, motor development, sensory needs, speech and language, social/emotional and self-help skills. After the Helps assessments are complete, they will be focusing in on more specific treatment goals for each child. For the first week, the goals were pretty global and general, such as being able to transition well from parents and from activities and rooms, being able to utilize the picture schedules, and being able to attend to activities for more than 5 minutes at a time. They were broad goals, and the Helps assessments will help focus in more specifically for each child.

I am very impressed with this program at the get-go. We feel that Lowell has responded very well in a very short amount of time and look forward to lots more progress!!!