Monthly Archives: May 2012

Some Zip on the Computer Notes

It’s sometimes funny to see how Zip controls the inputs he receives. He has a hand-me-down computer in my home office. It’s full of preschool and kindergarten games, and locked down with a whitelist for the internet. (I forgot to lock it once and he had a blast at YouTube. Kideos.com is a good alternative.) He plays the same things over and over again but seems to be learning from it, so we’re okay with it.

A few weeks back, I checked out what he was doing and he had the Windows Start menu and other directories open, covering most of the Starfall word game he was playing. (We loveĀ  StarFall – the extra paying section is worth it.) It looked so strange. I closed the boxes, thinking that he had just hit a bunch of keys by accident. Then, he did it again.

I was puzzled. He can’t tell me why he would cover parts of his game. He doesn’t do it everytime, just once in a while, mostly in a word-building game. My theory is that he is controlling and decreasing his inputs. Maybe it’s sensory? Continue reading

More Patterns – Quick Update

We’ve learned the hard way that if you do the same thing in the same way, Zip will think that’s the only way and protest any changes. He gets stuck on certain things, like the same two pairs of fleece pajamas, even though before that he would only wear green cotton airplane pajamas. This may seem like pattern recognition but it’s just the autistic tendancy towards rigid thinking. Since we prefer him to have a more flexible approach to life, we try to change things up.

When I sat down with him today to do the “me-you-put” activity with the squares in the jar, I chose a different container. Very different. I had an empty bead box with small compartments and we put as many squares as would fit into each space. He adapted great, sat for the whole thing. At the end we had a cute colorful filled box. It gave us a nice ending point, too. I only wish he would pay more attention when I take a turn, but I’m sure that will come.

Beginning Pattern Recognition and Dynamic Listening

We had a great week last week. Zip is feeling so much more guid-able. Is that a word? Perhaps I should define it. Just in the last few weeks, Zip has begun listening to me, doing what I say, staying near me when we’re out. It’s a remarkable change. I have to chalk it up to Dynamic Listening.

Briefly, my son goes to Key to Me three times a week and listens to classical music over headphones while doing a bit of OT. But the magic is inside the music. Dr. Alfred Tomatis developed a theory that certain tones influence regions of the brain. Our therapistĀ  customizes tones for him based on his evaluation and progress. We definitely saw changes since we began this program 5 months ago. We just finished and will go see them for an evaluation next month.

As this program is pricey, I was really hoping to see changes that would help me establish the guiding relationship with Zip. He’s been very resistant to any form of guiding, always struggling to maintain control of most interactions. While Dynamic Listening made a big change in lots of little ways, including his newfound ability to explore and get into things, it hadn’t really affected our GPR. Continue reading