This may not be the most interesting read,
but for my own record i'd like to state
some of the 'official' type things
that i've attended and recieved in the past month.
The staff at Next Step attended a 2 day
conference with speaker David Loyst, M.Cs., SLP.
The parents of NS kids were able to attend
the morning session on the first day for free.
The focus of the workshop, the title of it was
Reference and Regulate.
The morning session that i attended was focused on
speech. The whole conference was Autism based.
The main catch phrase
in which David focused on, using many examples
and even video of his own kids' progress was,
'Learn to look. Look to learn'
I really enjoyed this workshop.
David was so easy to listen to and everything that he
spoke about i could relate to with Marshall.
Teaching kids with Autism, kids who lack
focus and observation of the world around them to LOOK,
will automatically teach these kids to LEARN.
Duh right?
Well i never really thought about it before this session.
It makes so much sense... and is a pretty basic concept really.
David talked a lot about how 'our kids' grow,
and how the most important thing in teaching them to
look and to learn, is to first figure out how
to meet them where they already are.
If your focus is trying to get them to where age appropriate
is, you will fail, and also, you will miss important
steps that our kids will not catch along the way,
but that need to be taught.
Example. Marshall is at a 16 month old stage in his language.
If i look at what a typical 3 year old should be doing,
and then try to get Marshall to start using sentences
and what not, joining 2 words together,
he will miss how to label objects and to understand their purpose.
The goal is for him to understand and not just to repeat or
to mimik everything i say.
David stated a lot of statistics and i took some notes.
Here are some of the things i found note-worthy :)
People with ASD are systamizers rather than empathizers.
Study in UK: 70% of 500 were all high-funtioning with
regular IQ's.
ASD has a higher impact on families than any other disability.
High functioning ASD are at big risk for depression
and anxiety and often get a double diagnosis of this.
A 3 year old typical child will look to an adult
when they are 'lost' (fire alarm at school)
and in looking to an adult, they will find calm.
ASD kids are sensory sensitive and have not naturally learned
to look to adults for calming,
because they don't observe these behaviours.
ASD kids will not pickup on sarcasm or facial expressions
to understand that what you say
is not always what you mean.
In order to obtain better language out of our kids,
the focus needs to be on looking and observing
rather than teaching the words themselves.
If we teach them to look,
they will automatically pickup on the language and
behaviours around them.
If you can get to a place where you can just play
with them, therapy is not needed as it will be
taught by default.
We want ASD kids to choose to look,
rather than constant prompting.
(Right now Marshall is still needing much prompting
all across the board).
Play with kids at their brain height,
not their physical height.
The 3 hours were very informative and i was able
to relate everything back to Marshall which
was really great.
I was able to see through David's video studies,
the progress of his kids in one year.
It was so inspiring really.
Some of these kids went from basically no language,
to using full sentences in order to interact...
in just one year!!
Progress, even if it's slow, is just so amazing to see.
I am excited to look back in a years time at Marshall's progress!
***********************************************
I attended a monthly meeting held by the
Fraser Valley Autism Society (FVAS)
back in Spring with my sister.
The focus of that particular meeting was about a newer
type of therapy out there which has
a few names, but can be known as 'Floor Therpy'.
ABA therapy is known to be a desk type of therapy
with rewards for doing tasks.
At this meeting, there was a lot of negative focus on
ABA therapy.
It isn't for every child,
and i had my doubts as to how receptive Marshall
would be to this stricter type of therapy.
NS is ABA focused, but they will pull from other therapies
if their methods are not working,
or you can choose to pull your child out of their program.
Marshall is doing awesome in this type of learning
environment right now.
I have to say that i was mostly worried about Marshall
being 'rewarded' with treats, like a dog or something. lol.
But they use toys and outside playtime as rewards also.
In a most recent report from the OT at NS,
she stated that Marshall needed food reward to get
him going, but once he started working,
he didn't anymore and was happy to have
the praise from his interventionist and a simple high-five
was reward enough.
I gotta tell you, that made me SO happy to hear.
I am so thankful that Marshall is so receptive to praise
and to emotions and that they play
a big part in his life... that they are not something that
needs teaching. :)
Anyways, back to FVAS.
So when i attended with my sister in Spring,
Marshall was not yet diagnosed.
It was a small group of parents, about 8 and then the two of us.
I felt out of place.
After that meeting, i had some serious doubts that M even
had autism. We were going back and forth
with it of course, but most of the parents' stories and examples
were just so beyond where Marshall was at at that time.
I did not attend the next meeting.
After M was diagnosed in June, i recieved a brochure
about their program and i found them on facebook.
In fall now, the meetings started back up.
I talked to my friend Dawnya (who's son is also autistic)
and we decided to attend the meeting together.
It was the introductory meeting for the year.
There were 5 of us total.
To be an official member, there is an annual fee
or a fee for life.
There are many perks to being a member such as
first dibs to free tickets (such as the PNE)
as well as to grant money that is recieved to send kids
to camp and other such things.
With Marshall only being 3, most of these perks just
aren't something he can benefit at this time.
As a member, you are required to volunteer a certain
amount of time as well, which i just do not have right now.
So i will attend the meetings as a non-member
as i learn what it is all about.
Both Dawnya and i learned about many things in our
community that we could be benefiting from with
our sons' diagnosis.
Such as...
We qualify for a handicap parking spot.
(don't see myself taking advantage of that one, at least not right now).
We can pay for our child and get in free to Playland/PNE.
At any Rec Center, i can pay for M and go free as
his attendant.
I can apply for a pass that allows for me to get in free with
Marshall at the movie theatre.
Westjet (airlines) has a policy that i'd need to fill out paperwork for,
but that i could pay for Marshall's seat and mine
would be free.
If we went to Disneyland, we'd get an automatic front
of the line pass with Marshall (for 4 of us).
The ferries also have deals for families with a child with a disability.
All of this info was just great to hear!
Marshall's needs don't allow for me to work at all
anymore. My husband has a good job, but money is tight at times.
Marshall will get to experience so much more
because it is affordable for us.
During this first meeting, we also talked about what the
upcoming monthly meetings will look like.
They will have a lawyer come in and talk to us about
how to set up our wills so that our kids with disabilities
won't have all of their inheritance taken away
by the government.
Also, a meeting will focus on all of the different
tax credits and what not we possibly qualify for, and how
to go about filling out paperwork.
(We are currently waiting for approval of the
Disability Tax Credit which is undergoing
further investigation. I have a feeling we will be declined,
but we will fight for what we believe we are entitled to
based on Marshall's disabilities).
They will have some speakers, and some of the meetings
will just be a time of sharing.
The 3 other Mom's who were at this meeting
had teenage children, so it was a little difficult to really
connect with them. But at the same time,
all of this autism stuff is second nature to them,
so they have a lot of wisdom to share,
and i look forward to learning more about their journeys.
*******************************************
I had a meeting with Janel from Next Step as well
as with Miranda, Marshall's interventionist.
The OT as well as the Speech therapist were not able
to attend this meeting, but their input was relayed
through Janel.
It was a 2 hour meeting that took place instead of
Marshall's regular time slot.
We talked about Marshall's progress.
They have a good read now of Marshall's strengths and
weaknesses, and they follow a booklet,
like a rating system called,
The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills.
It is crazy extensive and detailed.
Miranda is very experienced and effecient.
So i have a computer graph of each category and then
the booklet to look at to correspond why M was
given a 1-2-3 or 4 mark currently.
Each year Marshall is reassessed and a new color
gets added to the grid.
Janel also went over their written assessment and
goals that they have for Marshall going forward.
I agreed with all of the goals,
and they asked for specific input where needed.
Marshall's biggest delay in my opinion is his speech,
so it is definitely a focus, but also, it is a constant
work in progress in every activity that is presented.
It was exciting to actually be able to cross off some (or change) the
goals set out as Marshall has, since the report
was printed a week ago, mastered!!
Such as potty training... well, the pee part anyways.
M is not doing his business at all in the toilet now.
It's been frustrating,
but his OT has told us to be patient and to not
push him too hard.
That is hard to do when he's already gone several times
in the toilet and Marshall
knows his body and when he needs to go! Grr.
He has become a hider.
So i'm pretty much at a loss with it all right now.
I bought him a new toy as incentive,
as recommended by Janel, and
Miranda made him a Social Story based on it and using
the potty for both poo and pee.
He talks about the story, he knows that the reward
is that he gets to play with the toy,
but he doesn't care.
At least not right now.
Back to the meeting...
Marshall is doing really well in a lot of areas,
and of course, still needs work in a lot of areas too.
Miranda said again that Marshall is a very quick
learner and that he is quite smart.
It was a good meeting
and i am happy to be a part of his learning
when he's not in my care :)
*******************************************
In a post i did a month or so ago,
i wrote out the detailed report that i recieved for Marshall
from the OT i believe.
Well, since then i have recieved 3 more reports from 3
different therapists.
This is more than i was expecting!!
So i will not be re-writing every report that i get for
Marshall from this point forward,
but rather, will just focus on some of the more key
acheivements and/or concerns.
The Speech therapist has stated that Marshall is
interacting well with his teachers,
and is using good eye contact.
He is doing 6 piece puzzles on his own.
He is repeating words and short phrases.
She didn't really state anything
about Marshall improving or anything like that.
I know that Marshall's speech on a daily basis
is improving and it has been wonderful to hear!
I already stated that the OT spoke about
Marshall's need for, or rather lack of, rewards.
She wrote that Marshall continues to impress them
with his gross motor abilities, and his awareness
of his body in space.
Marshall is so good at doing things for himself, she writes.
(I have been seeing this more and more and
will share more in the next post which
i'm hoping to get done later on today)
********************************************
So, i think i've covered everything i've been
meaning to touch on for quite some time now,
as far as meetings and such goes anyways!
More later today :)
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