Ben's Progress

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Ben's Progress

Benjamin Reese
Age 3

Month 14- yes a huge jump but I haven't had time to write. Ben is doing well! He can ask for things and is starting to really understand the world around him. We still have some issues with OCD and with tantrums but he is doing so much better than a year ago. Our lives have really changed. I just look forward to his future.

Month 4- I am going to have to update monthly as my life has gotten exciting and busy all at the same time. Ben's progress... well.. has been AMAZING, OUTSTANDING, UNBELIEVABLE and just WONDERFUL. He can count to 10, say 1/2 of his ABC's, can almost distinguish yes and no. And has a growing vocabulary. He still does not speak much or ask for things, but yesterday I saw and airplane and said "look Ben, (me pointing at the airplane) its and airplane" he looked up to where i was pointing, and pointed and said Airplane. THAT IS HUGE! SO HUGE in the world of autism, pointing is something that determines some sort of "normalacy" which is a weird concept but it shows understanding. He will look up for the moon at night and say moon. He has said mommy on a few occasions and on Feb 15th said it for the first time. It is the best. I can not imagine where he would be with out this therapy. It is a tragic to those children who do not get this therapy.

Week 9- Week 12-12/14/08-1/12/09... This month I have tried to post an update 2 times on this site and for some reason it keeps deleting it. I hope it doesn't do it this time, because it makes me further and further behind. Ben has finally made it to 40 hours actually 41.5 hours. He is doing such a good job. He is starting to say a few words in his verbal programs that sound appropriate and not just an approximation. I am super excited for the day he calls me mommy and knows that mommy is me. I know that day will come; hopefully soon!

He had almost met all of his goals for the month and that means that he is flying through some of the programs because we set our goals SUPER HIGH this month. So much so that we really thought we could make them but it has been hard to do. I am hoping by the time I have to write the report he will have reached all of his goals. His hardest goals are to be able to say 5 words out of each group, i.e. animals, animal sounds, colors, shapes, common words, etc. He has such a hard time with colors, but I know he can do it!

He has just started approximating the "draw" pile with block imitation (which those of you who do ABA you will know that is pretty great!) He seems to do well with most programs. We are still having a tough time with singing songs, which is crazy to me because he use to do these things. He use to do the ittsy bitsy spider and Say EIEIO, Moo and other animal sounds for Old Macdonald. I just dont know where it went, but I know it is in there. I will be posting soon after our Program update to tell everyone how Ben is doing.

Week 8 - 12/8/08-12/14/08 We had a PROGRAM UPDATE this week. Everyone meets together and works with Ben adding new programs. He got NINE, yes NINE new programs.

Ben is starting on animal sounds, colors, shapes etc. I am so excited to see his progress. He is working so hard. He does the cutest "moo" sound, and the best "apple" I have ever heard. If anyone ever wants to see the workshop we taped this one, it is no where near the first one, but hopefully in a year he wont even show the behaviors that he showed in this one

This week Ben was sick also causing him not to do as well, but he is such a trooper and works through it. He is trying so hard and somedays it just wears him out. I have noticed since he has been sick he has a harder time with sensory issues, such as jumping. He gets most of his jumping/ stimulation from our trampoline and the past 2 weeks he has been indoors causing him behavior such as biting, hitting, screaming and other behaviors that I remember from August. He needs that sensory input and it is hard to do when the weather is bad. Today it snowed, so maybe we wont be outside for a while. We are going to have to look into a indoor trampoline, to curb the behavior.

Week 7- 12/1/08-12/7/08 This week Ben has been sick, as is the whole family. Ben hasn't been sick in 6 months thanks to probiotics and vitamins. It made for a nasty Monday morning session, but after a long nap he was better for the afternoon. This week Ben started his first 9 hour day. He is going to have two 9 hour days a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, so we can get up to the full 40 hours a week, in January he is going to have to start Saturday sessions as well. Our workshop is next Friday which is great because Ben has completed most of his monthly targets (goals) for this month already. He is still talking up a storm (by babbling) and has started a regular jigsaw puzzle. It is a 4 piece larger piece jigsaw which is great! Hopefully he will be able to do that too. The one thing I noticed is that Ben is starting to follow simple directions almost all of the time. It is easier for me to talk about the positive progress and things Ben can do rather than focus on the negative. I know that Ben has a long way to go, but I see progress and it makes me happy.

Week 6- 11/24/08-11/30/08 Ben has been progressing so fast in the past few weeks it is hard to pinpoint a wonderful moment because we are having so many. One of the best things is that he is saying shoes for shoes, socks for socks, and Cookoo, for cookie, Car for Car, Choo choo for train, and making all sorts of other sounds and having "spontaneous" language. SUPER EXCITING STUFF is happening over here! He is having a little trouble discriminating between pictures of the same object, for example a yellow apple, an apple that is cut into pieces, and a red apple with a bite taken out of it. It is hard for him to realize that they are all apples. I think that will just come in time. Something else that isn't so great is Layne has been bit 5 times this week and has the marks to prove it :( Hopefully with language/ methods of communication Ben will be able to tell her what he is feeling as opposed to just biting her

Just a little sidenote, tonight the family played Hungry Hungry Hippos. Ben was attentive and liked to push the Hippos. He got so excited to be able to play a game. Take a look!

Week 5- 11/16/08-11/23/08 Ben is doing well this week. We had our workshop which is written about below, but I wanted to share a few other little things that Ben has done this week. Ben has been talking more and more, and says socks and shoes regularly. Ben was observed in a session this past week pretending that a toy elephant was talking to a toy giraffe, it was all in babble, but it was pretend and it was unprompted. It makes me so excited!

Program Update: 11/18/08This week was Ben's first program update which is when all of the tutors and our consultant come together to work with Ben and to show what he has accomplished, needs work with and to add new programs to what he is learning. He has been doing ABA for 4 weeks now and there is a noticeable improvement. His receptive language is defiantly higher. He will bring me a book if I ask him to.  He loves books, but didn't know what I was asking him to do before.

He did a wonderful job and he worked so hard for everyone at the workshop. He has a "generalized" binder now which is for the programs that are going to be reviewed 2-4 times a week. The generalized binder is of all of the things Ben has mastered.

3D Matching (Bens Favorite),
2D object matching-flashcards,
3D-2D Matching,
3D Sorting,
Color Matching
Letter Matching
Shape Matching
Letter Matching
Number Matching
People Matching

As you can see Ben really enjoys matching. He is really successful with Puzzles (he is on a 9 piece puzzle) , and has been dong well in Gross Motor skills. This past month he has said at least 26 words, some were imitated like "Rockstar" but quite a few weren't like Baby. He knows what a baby is and he even notices his baby brother.

His Current Daily programs are:

Block Imitation
Non-Verbal Imitation-Actions w/ Objects
NVI- Visual Discrimination
NVI- Gross Motor
NVI-Oral Facial
Puzzles
Toy Play
Non-identical Matching
Verbal Imitation
Object Lables

He works hard and will be up to 36 hours by the 1st of December. It is really great to see his progress!

11/9/08-11/15/08 Week 4. This week has proven a little bit more difficult as there are many ups and downs, one of the downs is Ben is biting again. He is trying to get out of doing what is requested of him and he really doesn't want to go into the ABA room. So he has biten the tutors. Did I mention how awesome our tutors are?
On a positive note!! Ben can do the stack and sort! This is difficult for a 2 year old who doesn't have autism and Ben can now stack and sort the shapes! Whoo hoo!
Take a look!

This is AMAZING. He looks at the colors to see which peg to put the shapes on. There are 15 pieces!

. This week has proven a little bit more difficult as there are many ups and downs, one of the downs is Ben is biting again. He is trying to get out of doing what is requested of him and he really doesn't want to go into the ABA room. So he has biten the tutors. Did I mention how awesome our tutors are? On a positive note!! Ben can do the stack and sort! This is difficult for a 2 year old who doesn't have autism and Ben can now stack and sort the shapes! Whoo hoo!Take a look!This is AMAZING. He looks at the colors to see which peg to put the shapes on. There are 15 pieces!

11/2/08-11/8/08- Week 3. A lot has happened this week. Ben comes to the table most of the time and he can do the piggy bank toy which he couldn't do before, he can do a 5 piece puzzle (all pieces) he can match several objects correctly, and he is really excited to get things "right". He doesn't like it when he doesn't get the answer correct. He is showing more of an interest in the world around him and he actually noticed Dogs being walked when were out. He reached for them. I am amazed.

10/26/08-11/1/08-Week 2. Guess what? Ben can do a puzzle, not just a 3 piece one, but a 4 piece puzzle. He can build a tower with blocks, and he can match some objects successfully. I am starting to see some amazing things that I didn't think would happen so quickly. He doesn't cry as much and hasn't bitten his sister in over a week. Ben comes to the table to work over half of the time when called over and is starting to enjoy his sessions--slightly :)

10/19/08-10/25/08 Our first week of ABA- whew. Ben cried most of the time, even though it was primarily crying. He is frustrated with a 3 piece puzzle and can not put one piece in. It can not possibly break my heart any more than to see him unable to completthe simplest of tasks.
Our tutors are AMAZING. I can not believe their patience and dedication.

10/15/08-We started our "in home" program through the Lovaas Center with our initial workshop.   Dustin and I are super excited to see the progress our son is going to make.

The workshop was difficult for me to participate in because I saw that Ben just didn't understand and with that came screaming, and long bouts of crying. I knew this was something we needed to do, and that Ben would benefit from the program but it is so hard to watch him struggle.  He is going to have to start working 25 hours a week and build that up to 40 hours in the ext few months.