Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Dear Owen,

Please stop playing with your poop.

It's gross.

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Light It Up Blue on April 2


To bring awareness to Autism and the children it affects, please where blue on April 2nd. You can read more about this movement at: http://www.lightitupblue.org/.

We'll be wearing our blue with pride and hope that you do as well.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Grades are Good!


Owen gets an update every 2 weeks from Miss Beth. It's basically a report card of everything he's doing and not doing. His grades look really good. He's improved in every area this time! Sometimes he gets marked down when he doesn't have his listening ears on but things were clicking because the boy was working!

The percentage is the amount of times he did it for them over the 2 week period.

Simple one step directions
Stand Up 67%
Come Here 33% -- This was at like 12% 2 weeks ago!
Throw it Away 50%

Gross Motor Imitation: Direction "Do This"
Touch Head 75%
Tap Knees 33%-- This explains why he's been tapping going to bed. This was really low as well.
Stomp Feet 26%

Imitation with objects: Direction "Do This"
Puts whistle to mouth -- MASTERED! He is not blowing air, just putting whistle to mouth
Feed Baby w/spoon 90% -he refuses to do this at home, go figure
Put Blocks in Cup -- MASTERED!
Hit Sticks together 80%
Stir w/spoon - New Target

Receptive Object Identification: Direction "Touch___ in a field of 3 items"
Car 63% -- This totally annoys me as he knows what a car is!
Bubbles 50%
Play Doh 23%

Matching Identical Objects in a field of Three --
40%

Gestural Communication: "What do you want?"
Points to Desired Item 80%

Isolate Toy Play
Choses toy from choice of 2 toys - Faded Physical Prompting
Plays with toy for one minute appropriately
(here is where the little fink has been playing the ladies of Village School with his charm)
Completes knob puzzle w/food reinforcer with 2-3 prompts
That boy has been doing 9 piece puzzles with NO knobs for almost a year. With sometimes a verbal prompt to finish!! So, I ratted him out to Miss Beth and I'm sure the food is stopping!
Coloring
Scribbles for 5 seconds with faded physical prompting

PECS - Picture Exchange Communication System
We are continuing to have Owen 3 feet away from us and expect him to get up and walk to us to hand us the picture for a desired item. We still have to prompt him to get up from the chair for the first 5-8 times.
Translation: Somebody is being LAZY!

Then once he gets used to the idea that he has to get up from the chair, he does really well. All of the prompting is prompted to get up from the chair. He is also doing some going thru of his book on his own to find what he wants.

Also to add, we've been working on body parts at home. We know our nose, ears and sometimes our belly. We've had to just do a lite physical prompt by tapping his hand if he doesn't do it the first time and then just like that.. His hands go where they need to go..


Monday, March 22, 2010

Old School Owie

Easter's coming and I decided to post a few photos from previous years.

Two days old, and his first Easter. I still have the bib.



Second Easter, a few days before. He had no idea what was going on but was so good. I love this photo.


We saw the bunny today, it went, Ok... I'll scan it in when I can and will post. It's actually kind of funny...


His 3rd Easter. All he wanted was the M&M's..



I wish he'd let me take photos again. It's such a fight lately.. Hopefully soon! Fingers crossed.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Riding Tall


Horsewise that is..

Owen went to riding this week and he rode an actual HORSE. Not a pony, a horse, and he thought he was the big man on campus. First, let me start with how awesome the weather was on Wednesday. It was high 60's and just gorgeous. I thought about what a great time he was going to have all day and how his St. Patrick's Day tee was appropriate as it said "Lucky Boy". Yup, I was jealous since I was stuck at work all day..


The horse he rode is called Dreamer and he even got to brush the horse. He wouldn't wear the brushing mitt but he held it in his hand and had a ball.





He got to go to the Sensory playground that day as well. We don't have pictures of that since it's out in the woods off the riding trail but he was a jumping bean on the trampoline by himself, played on the swings and was a Listening Machine. He followed all directions and was a model student.

Here's the lucky little boy that morning getting ready for school and not cooperating for a photo. This is his St. Patrick's Day derby that we got at Target that he loves and wears around the house.


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Mommy knows best..


At least this time.

He planted a smooch on Miss Penny. She asked for a High 5 for good work and got a kiss instead. I knew it. He should start working again now appropriately..

Sunday, March 14, 2010

We will walk again!


Last year after we got an official Autism diagnosis we Rich and I signed up for the Walk Now for Autism Speaks walk in Long Branch, NJ. The 3 of us were Team Short Man as we raised a little of $1,000 for a wonderful cause in a short amount of time-- 6 weeks! This year, we are getting ready-EARLY!
We've already signed up, and Team Short Man is back for Round 2. We're striving for more donations this year and we hope that some friends and family join us for this year's walk. We've already received $200 in donations from some friends and family. It's taking place on Saturday, October 2nd. You can visit our page to help with donations or sign up to walk with us here:
http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorreg/donorpledge.asp?ievent=347487&supId=268501512&msource=boundlessfun

This is our team photo from last year!

Go Team Short Man!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Here's Johnny!

The horse that is..

Johnny is Owen's Hippotherapy horse. I think it's time to update how fabulous Owen's doing at his weekly Hippotherapy session. First off, Special Strides is just a fantastic place that I am so happy that I found out about. You can read more about them here at www.specialstrides.com. I think that this has become the highlight of Owen's week. He gets so happy when he gets there and literally now just takes his therapist by the hand and is ready to go. We've even mastered wearing a helmet, which I personally think is the cutest thing ever!
These photos are from 2 weeks ago when it was very muddy and they had an indoor session. Owen was a little bit distracted because Daddy was there but he still managed to get some great shots. Back to Owen, he's just rocking therapy. He's riding backwards like a champ, they have him doing high fives, peek a boo and clapping along to songs all while riding along with other therapy tactics. They even are able to cover his eyes so he can find his center of balance. They are even able to ask him if he's centered and he'll straighten himself right out. All reports from the staff are that he's made SUCH improvement with listening during his sessions, he's always in the moment, happy, and so vocal. They all feel that he's sooo close to talking, it's just a matter of when. Which I'd just like to add- Not soon enough! They actually said that he's one of those kids that proves that Hippotherapy is so important to a delayed child. Below are bunch of photos from the session that show how the short man is the Big Man on a horse!




I apologize for the red eye, I can't fix them in Blogger.. Also if you would like to see any bigger for those that don't know, just click on the photo!



Also big news-- Owen's got his "personal assistant" at school. Basically, his one to one aide to really push Mr. Lazy Pants to do better. I'm really happy about it, and I guess calling the school a few times to complain helped get her a bit sooner. :) Her name is Miss Penny and she's blond and he's smitten. He's spent the last 3 days attempting to flirt his way out of work. This should probably last this week, and the early part of next week. If I know my son, he'll attempt kissing her tomorrow or Monday and when that doesn't work he'll just throw in the towel.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Tired and Talking...

The boy had a day of overstimulation, consumption of way too many snacks, and was temporarily traumatized by Build a Bear for some reason and tonight when going to bed in a fit of anger said "ELMO"!

So, I'm going to call today a good day, we had another word. :)

Monday, March 1, 2010

The 4am Bandit


Don't you wish you looked this cute getting up at 4am and staying awake for 12 hours without a nap?