Adventures in ABA Therapy: Part One

So, we're 1.5 weeks into our ABA therapy. A little background if you're not familiar, my 2.5 yr old was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months. He's very high functioning and making leaps and bounds.

First off let me say, I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity. We were blessed enough to find a therapist in training who needs to complete her hours and is generously working with Eli for free! Granted, most ABA therapy is 15 or more hours a week, but I'll take what I can get! Mrs. M comes once a week and so far I'm happy! We had a good session last week. His homework for the week was:

1. When he pulls on me to lead me to what he wants, he must point and then give a verbal request, preferably, "I want _____."

2. Point at things he's excited about.

How'd he do? Well, he's done great!! For example:

He has seemed to gotten the knack of pointing and has pointed many times at what he wants or something he loves like school buses, flags and cars.

He's also done this several times,  lead me to the fridge/pantry, pointed to what he wants and then I asked, "what do you want?" and he said, "I want Milk!"!! Once he walked to the pantry and UNPROMPTED he said, "I want fish!" (swedish fish).

Last night as we were going to bed and I walked out the room and said, "Nite nite boys" He called out, "Nite Nite Mommy! Nite Nite Daddy!". Pretty darn awesome I tell you.

I am very confident that in time, when he's in school no one will ever know he had a diagnosis of Autism. In my opinion, this won't mean he never had it. The way I look at Autism is this, its much like cancer. You get a diagnosis and you work on a plan. Sometimes, you can put the cancer in remission and live a normal life...sometimes you can't. Either way, it never takes away the diagnosis...you had cancer. Now you're just living in remission.

That's how I view Autism. Eli will always be autistic. But with the right therapies, gluten free diet and behavior modificiations, he can live a full life in "remission" of Autism. I hope that makes sense.

So, we shall see how this week goes! I'm very happy to have made my decision to stay home with him and not work full time. I think we'll get a lot done in his progress so he can be more ready for the Preschool Early Intervention school he'll be eligible for in January.

I'll keep you updated! :)
~~Amy

This is a big deal, he hated coloring just a few months ago. :)