Another Day of Therapy

Yesterday wasn't really our typical day of therapy. We didn't have physical due to a scheduling problem. I was sort of relieved about it because I haven't been working with her going up and down the step stool like I should have been doing. I am given so many assignments each week, I sometimes need to pick and choose which ones I think are the most important. Since Raquel is walking more and more - and now starting to run! - PT was my last priority this week. Sorry Trish. :-(

We had our two hour behavior therapy this morning as usual. This is with Elizabeth and she is my favorite. Every week I ask her if she wants keys to the house so she can just come and go as she pleases. Elizabeth has a 2 year old and 6 year old just like I do and I personally feel that she has done the most so far if I evaluate Raquel's progress. When we first started the therapy program, Raquel was extremely difficult. She would hit, scratch, pull hair, throw anything put in front of her. She would have tantrums where she would throw herself backwards and hit her head. These days I am pleased to have a much calmer daughter. It's still a work in progress, don't get me wrong, but atleast now I am able to sense when she is getting frustrated.

Yesterday Elizabeth showed up not feeling particularly well so she didn't bring her usual bag of goods (toys) to play with. She spent a good portion of our session watching Raquel play and making observations. Raquel is doing something called "stemming" where she walks around and sort of twirls her hands. This is one of the flags of autism, but this alone is not enough to request an autism screening. Elizabeth has requested that I give her through the month of April for further evaluations - along with meetings with her speech therapist & infant coordinator - and the 3 of them will jointly make a decision whether or not she needs to be referred for the screening. Right now, it's not looking like she will need this. Elizabeth also introduced "social stories" to help with anxiety. She also worked a great deal with Gabby. With Gabby you ask? Yes. When I met with Elizabeth for the first time, she prepared me for the changes that would occur in Gabby now that Raquel would be the center of attention for 5 new people in our home. Yesterday she reinforced "inside vs outside" voices and also helped her learn how to properly ask for attention. When it comes to her sister, Gabby is showing enormous amounts of patience - more than I have at times - and this is truly a blessing because I know it is not always easy.

Around 4:30pm, Mary came for speech therapy. Speech and behavior therapy work hand in hand because once speech increases, the behavior decreases. Mary & Elizabeth overlap their sessions every couple weeks to make sure they are on the same page. Sometimes I'll be given instructions by Mary that Elizabeth will then overule, and then they need to come to some sort of agreement. It's interesting when that happens but fortunately it doesn't happen too much. Mary was very pleased with Raquel's progress yesterday and was in total agreement with Elizabeth regarding the autism screen. She seems to think that she is way to social to be autistic. She, too, did a few tests of her own, and for the second time of the day I was told, "I just don't see it." Since a good portion of their kids are autistic, I found this to be very encouraging. I'm hopeful that we will keep moving in such a positive direction.