Dinosaur Footprint Project

Have you noticed that craft projects with younger kids such as toddlers is actually a craft project for the adult that is helping? My son has a craft he does at the end of his therapy sessions and it usually turns into his therapist doing it or today it was me doing it. 

Logan has 4 hours of therapy everyday but Tuesday and Saturday and by the 3rd hour he is just plain ol give out. Especially when he was going to school. He has been out a couple of weeks now and that will be a future post as to why. In order to make it more fun a craft hour was implemented into his therapy which involves puzzles, books and a craft. Well he likes everything but the craft he could care less for. 

He was supposed to do paint and trains yesterday but he had no interest in it. So I found something on pinterest and wanted to see if he would enjoy it. 

Like I said it was us that ended up doing this project.

What you need:
green paint or whatever color you want your dinosaur
black marker
googly eye
glue

As you can see he was not the happiest person in the world to be doing craft time. The finished product is cute though.

Find the Pin HERE and follow me on pinterest! By the way I just joined picket fence blogs so please click on the button on the side bar to give me a vote so my blog can get in the line up!  c61c0edb9fdbe9c356fca185331cad1ea5f09fee3e526c1ba6

ABA Success after 4 Months

What is ABA you ask? It is Applied Behavioral Analysis. I will go into more detail on a later post. If you can not wait that long then go ahead and check out THIS SITE.
Logan had been accept into the Autism Waiver Program back in October of last year and it took them until February to hire people to come out to our house. In this field of therapy there is your line therapist, lead therapist and a consultant as well as a program coordinator. To make a long story short, things were not being done correctly at all. I finally made enough complaints that the program coordinator came out to our home and seen what a mess things were and how everyone was not following the proper guidelines. They were training my son wrongly. He would get bored and frustrated. Especially since he had to repeat a task 40 times in one day and he had 6 different tasks to work on. He can only "sort" so many times without losing his temper. Now Logan only has to do the "sort" task 10 times in four hours as well as the others tasks. They are pretty simple right now. It consists of imitation, pulling up his pants and working on sign language. 
Logans consultant had not ordered much of anything as learning tools. Logans ABA supplies were very very lacking and ineffective. Within the last week Logan has gotten a new lead therapist and a new consultant. The line therapist showed up today with an armful of things. Logans face lit up with all the new goodies to play with. Only problem, he found it hard to concentrate at the tasks because he wanted to play with the new toys! His reinforcement for completing his tasks was to be able to check out these new pretties. His favorite toy today to work for was the Handy Manny tool box.

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Next on the list of supplies that were brought today was Melissa & Dougs Rainbow Caterpillar. This particular toy will help develop gross motor skills. Logan has this bagged and passed. Even though it is easy for him he loves to play with it either way. It spins and anyone who has an autistic child knows that they love to spin things. That is a classic sign of autism. 

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My son is not the violent or destructive autistic child. In fact he loves to cuddle. Of course that would be on his terms but he has never "hit" a thing unless told do so. Even then it is iffy if he would even do it then. His line therapist brought in the whacky ball toy. Once he figured out how to hit the ball he enjoyed it. This toy was used in his functional play time. Functional play time is where we all play and show Logan how to play with a toy properly. He even played with it after the therapist left. 

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I felt very confident in todays therapy session. Instead of Logan getting bored or frustrated, he had fun. The way it should be. He even learned two new signs which are cookie and milk. He even learned how to pull up his pants. He still can not get the shorts over his bottom but he mostly gets it. Tomorrow will be even more fun. More supplies coming, meeting the new lead therapist and seeing what other tasks we can work on as well as learning what the parents goals will be. 

Logan did have a hard time focusing on the tasks but I play that off to the fact he has not had a therapy session since his surgery which was May 20th. He has to get in the swing of things again and get used to the new way of doing things. He was also distracted by all the new toys. 

Parents if your children are in therapies or anything else and you just have this gut feeling its not going the way it should, go with it! Research it and get things on the right track. I am excited about seeing Logans progress now. I think it is time for him to soar!!

Mid Week Re-Cap

This week has been eventful to say the least. More eventful than usual... Of course all of the events revolve around Logan. 

He had an appointment with his Ear Nose Throat doctor on Tuesday. At least I think it was Tuesday. 

My days just seem to run together. Anyway the conclusion is my son has to have his tonsils, adenoids removed and another set of tubes put in. Logan's ears were clear at this appointment but since the tubes have fallen out Logan has had chronic ear infections. That is why the decision for the adenoids was made. Then the doctor looked at his tonsils. Logan has not had any issues with strep throat but his tonsils are big! His are a 3+

Since Logan has disturbed sleep and snores often we have made the decision to remove his tonsils as well. 

I am terrified of this. I know it is a simple and routine procedure that doctors do everyday. But my son is not a "normal" kid. He will not eat the recommended foods after the surgery. His better part of the day is spent yelling. That is the way he communicates or shows his emotions. Last time he was put under for his MRI his blood pressure dropped. I am just scared. I know it will be best for him in the future but I hate to see him suffer. I have a bad feeling he will be in pain. 

A new line therapist(for ABA) started this week. Logans regular therapists last day is today. I have a good feeling about the new therapist but I know it will take Logan a bit to get used to her. She has only been here twice with the other therapist here as well. I guess we will find out Sunday how it goes. It will be the first day she is on her own with Mr. Logan. 

Since the storms moved through on Sunday it has been pretty cool outside. Not so hot and not so cold. It has made perfect weather for my two huskies. They have been enjoying the temps and the sunshine. 

One thing, since our yard gets flooded when it rains we get tons of mud bugs or crawdads in our yard. These two love to dig them up and eat them and roll around on them. They smell to high heaven! Bath time and tooth brushing in the future!! (Zuri has been done, it will be Lokis turn soon)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and the upcoming weekend.