Third Team Meeting

Tonight we had our third ABA Team Meeting. Again, it went very well and everyone is definitely on the same page and not only happy, but encouraged, with Raquel's progress.


Today Raquel had her occupational therapy with Karin. Karin noticed big changes in Raquel in the two weeks' she hasn't seen her. She said that Raquel is visibly stronger, more cooperative, less resistant, and was basically just a much happier child than she was used to seeing. She didn't get aggitated on the fitness ball and is demonstrating much more core strength. One thing she did do was fill the seat of one of Raquel's pushing/riding toys with rocks. She wants Raquel to push this around the house, which will continue to strengthen her upper torso and arms.

Janine overlapped with Jennifer for her regular ABA session today. It really wasn't a typical day for Raquel. She woke up at 3:30am and did not nap - not even after her OT session, which is extremely rare - until 1:30pm, only 30 minutes prior to her ABA session. One thing I have been consistently noticing is that when sessions occur directly after a nap and especially if we need to wake her up before one can start, she is just not vocal at all. Unfortunately, that's what happened today. I was pretty disappointed because I wanted Janine to hear all the words she's been saying. For the past week and a half, Raquel has been the most vocal ever and truly communicating with her words functionally.

Besides the lack of speech, she had a great session. Janine was really happy to see her perform her tasks so well at the table without even the slightest behavior. And overall, Raquel was pretty content throughout the session.

After the session, we had our third ABA Team Meeting. We pretty much talked about her progress and how well she is doing and how much improvement she has shown in such a short amount of time. I told them that it was like night and day, her then versus now is so extreme that I seriously have to go back to my earlier blog posts as well as reading their notes from the first ABA sessions to remind myself of how much she has progressed. The "Pillow Thing" seems like years ago to me. And to have my girl yell from her room at the top of her lungs, "Mom-meeee! Come play!" is more than rewarding.

Again, I can't say enough about our ABA Team. I continue to appreciate their compassion and dedication to their work. And how they help Raquel on so many levels speaks volumes. Thanks ABA Team!