Not How I Wanted To End The Week

Yesterday, Raquel had an awesome session with Cari. She was talking up a storm, extremely cooperative, and scoring really well. I was hoping for another day like that today when Janine came and overlapped with Cari.

Let's just say that didn't happen. They weren't even able to record data on half of her programs. Raquel was cooperative enough at first and didn't get upset when Janine arrived, but really wasn't into it. Yesterday, she scored at a 100% independent level on the "ready, set, go" intraverbals. Today, Cari would say, "ready, set" and Raquel would look at Janine and tell her to "go away." That obviously doesn't count. I don't know if it was because Janine was there, if she was just done for the week, or because I went to the office this morning and her routine was different. But today was definitely an off day.

Janine did say, after reviewing the data sheets for the week, that it appears that Raquel is getting bored. We dug through the toy box we use for the session and took out some items that she seems to have lost interest in and will add them back to the rotation next week when they are more appealing. I guess right now it's all about rotation, rotation, rotation. I'll also look for toys around the house that she hasn't seen in awhile. Maybe those will work, too.

Janine also asked if Mary (speech) has ever mentioned something called "apraxia" about Raquel. This is the first I've ever heard of it, but from what I briefly googled, speech apraxia is when you are unable to execute speech movements because of motor planning and coordination problems. Janine was the first one to say that she's not a speech therapist, but also noted that if this is the case with Raquel - she often times seems unable to mentally organize enough to produce the speech - that it would warrant program adjustments. On the other hand, it very well could be behavioral issues because she's consistently using "no", "no way", "do it", etc. at appropriate times. Something to ask Mary about on Monday.

Next week Cari is on vacation so we'll only have 3 ABA sessions instead of 5, but Janine is still coming Monday afternoon to observe speech.