Wow, we just finished week eight of our twelve week program. I am happy to have a one week break before our last month of treatment begins. Ayden has been quickly mastering program after program. He has gained a lot of language. It is his understanding of language that is so life changing to us right now.
We are now able to give Ayden instructions and he actually follows them. It is so great. A couple months ago he would not respond if we told him to take something to someone in the room. Now he completely understands what we are asking him to do.
The weather has been nice and we have been taking the boys for bike rides. Ayden's behavior has improved to a point where we can take the rides and enjoy ourselves. Last year, Dave and I often became stressed when taking Ayden out in public. He was so hard to control and would do what ever he wanted. He just didn't understand commands like "stop", "comeback", "wait", or "slow down". He now seems to be acquiring those concepts quite well.
Another great sign of progress is that Ayden is trying to play with some of the kids in his program. Today he wanted a little boy to play with him. That is exciting because it is not typical of an autistic child and he has not always shown an interest in other children.
We are still trying to teach him fine motor skills and patterns. Those programs are going slow, while all of his verbal and receptive language programs are going fast. We are currently working on attributes. For example, we show Ayden two thing that are similar, yet different in one major attribute and teach him that. Today I used two different sized cows to teach him big v. little.
Another program we are working on is "animal sounds". I ask him, "who says meow" and he responds "cat". He is doing well with that program. Soon we will work on social questions. We will also teach Ayden important information, such as his full name, address, and phone number. That will be a great program to master because of safety issues.
Check back in a month to see what else is new.
Thanks for caring how Ayden is. Also, thanks to all of you who have prayed for us and to those of you who have helped make all of his progress possible because of your donations. Leasa
Early March 2009
February 2009
December 2008
October 2008
September 2008
