Not Feeling Too Well

Raquel seems a little sick today so she wasn't as cooperative as she usually is with therapy. Karin continues to see improvements regarding her fine motor skills and is very encouraged by her many attempts at the demands she places on her. Halfway through her session this morning, she became very quiet and appeared bored with it all. Karin switched gears and brought out these little plastic eggs that you hide candy and stuff in during Easter. It's funny how they use simple things like that for therapy. I thought she was going to have her work on putting them together, but she told me that would be too frustrating for her with her not feeling well and all. Instead, she had Raquel break them open by smashing them with the palm of her hand. That works on her hand-eye coordination and also strengthens the palms of her hands for the wheelbarrel walking she's doing.

Karin ends her sessions by working on Raquel's self-feeding. It's not such a big mess anymore, although she does much better with Karin than she does with me. But, progress is progress and I take whatever I can get!

She was fussing a bit when Wendy first arrived. Her tears immediately stopped and she was all smiles when she realized who was here. They did some pretty functional play for about 20 minutes. Raquel was using a hammer to push balls through holes on one of the games she brought. After that, again, she appeared bored with it all so Wendy had to bring out something new as well. Towards the end of the session, she became VERY irritable and started throwing herself back, pulling my hair out and scratching me. Wendy has never seen her like that and didn't want to leave me! I thought that was really sweet because the only one that helps me with the behaviors is Elizabeth and Raquel started getting pretty physical with Wendy. I showed her the "pillow thing" and after a few more unsuccessful attempts, she settled. Once Wendy left, she went down for her nap almost immediately.

Both Karin & Wendy were very curious as to how things went with the evaluation, although I did leave Wendy a voicemail filling her in when we left Regional. Karin seems to think that the ABA program is a great way to go. She says I would have a team of 3 behavior therapists come for two hours each day and I'd still have all of her current therapists - with the exception of Elizabeth & Wendy. So that is how the monthly hours add up to 50-60. Karin said that it is a very intensive program but, because Raquel is so young, thinks that she'll show tremendous progress. It will be me (and Raquel) getting used to everyone in the house and not having a break during the week that will take some getting used to. Karin works with many autistic kids in the ABA program and said that the behavior teams are absolutely wonderful. She couldn't stress that enough so that's encouraging.

And then I told Wendy that Regional may be leaning towards the ABA. She said that it was a really great program and then, a few moments later, said, "But then you won't have me!" I told her I knew that and she just hugged Raquel. It was apparent today that the Wendy/Raquel bond is very mutual.

It's nice to be done for the week. Monday, Mike will be able to participate or observe in three therapies: behavior, physical, and speech. I know it's a holiday but I chose to take advantage of the services being offered and try to keep her on a routine. My job now is to get her feeling 100% by then!