We haven’t been RDI-ing as much as we should since we’ve been in lazy summer mode. We’ve pretty much mastered our most recent Child objective where Zip and I have been working on pattern regulation so that’s very very exciting. I’ve been giving him more of a role in the patterns and he’s been mostly handling it quite well. We can see him thinking and considering what we’re doing. Wonderful!
Since I’ve last blogged, we’ve had some real changes.
Zip is pointing much more and checking in with us for our reaction. Back when he was a wee 15 months old, I googled “child not pointing” and got the shock of my life when autism came up as the number one answer. While that was the start of this long and complicated journey for us, I still remember that unexpected and scary moment.
Oh, how little we knew. It seems like I can just barely remember how we were then, like I’m peering backwards into a telescope. We look so young and unaware. Of course we were crazy sleep-deprived but we did not know how much more our lives were going to change, to veer off the path of normal childhood. I knew absolutely nothing about autism and next to nothing on brain and child development. I trusted my instincts when it came to my child and we were in an evaluation within a month or two, and then began private speech therapy. We waited six months for a developmental evaluation that led to Early Intervention. We tried several types of standard therapies and an ABA preschool. Eventually we found RDI and finally feel like we are making progress, that we know where we are heading.
Sorry to venture a bit afield, but the topic of Zip pointing will do that to me. One of our new RDI objectives involves pointing and joint attention. I’ll post more on that soon but I think we’ve pretty much getting that one down. <smile>
For the last part of the summer, we’re doing more Dynamic Listening, focusing on sensory issues. By doing it during summer, Zip is able to interact with other kids in a facilitated way, at a place he likes and during the mid-morning which is a good time of day for him. Plus, we’re just a few blocks from the Jersey Shore so we’ve been getting some good beach time.
Zip has been playing every so slightly with my friend’s four-year-old which has been nice and interesting. This little guy is so outgoing and friendly that the takes over and rough-houses with Zip. While they can’t have a conversation, at least they are interacting, and Zip seems to like it.
In other news, our online public charter school was cancelled for the fall. So political. Regardless, I am now in a quandary and looking at our options. I’d been relying on the charter school to help me through this first year of home-schooling so I can start to figure out how to do school with Zip. I’ll update here when I get things more settled. Should be interesting.
Finally, I discovered quite by accident that Zip loves fireworks. We drove by a great illegal private display on July third and I pulled over so he could watch. He though it was great. So I’ve been taking him to as many fireworks displays as we can manage. I’m not a night person at all but it’s so worth it to see how much he loves the beautiful colors. He covers his ears sometimes during the big booms, but so do I. We might go see one down the shore tonight.