More Sensory Seeking

Besides her doing really well with Lori on Friday night, Raquel overall had a great weekend. She had a great ABA session with Cari yesterday morning and was very vocal. She was displaying some behaviors that seemed sensory related - hitting, scratching, biting, pulling hair - but wasn't upset when she was doing it. It was like she was trying to get some kind of input in that respect. I'll need to talk to Karin about it tomorrow. One thing I have noticed is if I let her fingernails grow out a bit, the scratching definitely increases. She must be able to feel that they are longer or something.

Speech was another story. I've experienced some pretty interesting speech sessions, but this was really out of the ordinary. Mary continues to bring her pillow cases filled with toys instead of her bags, and Raquel finally leaves them alone (for the most part). Yesterday, we played trains briefly and then Raquel started jumping. Mary was happy to see her do this and was encouraging it and Raquel was repeating "Jump!" to Mary while she was laughing and jumping. But she refused to stop - to the point where she wouldn't participate in any activities no matter how animated Mary and I got. Her jumping became stronger and stronger. I don't think it started out to be sensory related, but it definitely turned in to that. I finally had to put the music on so she would calm down, but even after she calmed, she wanted nothing to do with her session, which was very odd for her.

Raquel not participating did give Mary and I a chance to talk. She reviewed Raquel's scores from the Rosetti Assessment that she did at the start of her speech therapy in February, and then again in mid-October. She's showing some definite progress! In February, she was scoring about a year behind her age. Last month, she scored about 6 months behind. Mary will be turning in a report to the School District to help with the assembly of her new therapy team.

Mary and I also talked about how Raquel has what they refer to as "splinter skills", where she'll be functioning at one particular age level and then have these abilities to do other things at higher age levels. Elizabeth used to talk about that a lot when Raquel started saying the "Me mad!" stuff. Her being able to label her emotion was considered a splinter skill.

Mary feels the same way I do - that Raquel has all the words up there and just needs to figure out how to express them. I am convinced that she is going to start talking one day and then will never stop. She continues to take me off guard by words she says and by using her 3-word sentences. Last weekend she said, "Where you going?" after I told her I'd be right back. She also said, "Don't worry" when she fell down a couple times and I asked her if she was okay. My favorite is when she calls, "Mom! Come play!" from her bedroom. As limited as it is, it's nice to have some kind of conversation with her - even if it's only a few words. That's definitely a start!

She was, again, pretty sensory during Jennifer's session. Working at the table is not typically an issue, but the past couple of days it has been. Today, all she wanted to do was push the table when seated. Jennifer asked me to get the walking toy that Karin filled with rocks and said that it appeared she was seeking that kind of input. I basically need to talk to the Sensory Queen tomorrow and figure out what to do. Jennifer did say that it could be something as simple as the time change that threw her sensory processing off. We'll see what tomorrow brings.