after school speech part 30

On Thursday, SJ had his weekly after school speech session.  This week his therapist gave him a story about zombies.  She asked SJ to highlight the important parts of the story.  This is the story.

Zombie legends started in the country of Haiti.  Zombies were thought to be bodies that had been brought back to life and were controlled by evil masters.  However, the modern version of a zombie is much different.  In most zombie movies, books and video games seen today, a zombie is a person who has been affected by a virus that has taken away everything but their ability to eat, walk and breathe.  Modern zombies travel in large packs, looking to convert humans to zombies by biting them, which spreads the infection that turns the living into one of them.  They are often shown as slow-moving creatures with pale skin that walk in large groups. 

I have highlighted what SJ thought was important.  His therapist said he did a good job at identifying some of the key points.  He then had to answer a few questions about the story. 

He needed to answer where the folklore came from (Haiti), what is his favorite zombie video game, book or movie (he answered Plants vs. Zombies) and what the main idea was.  He told her the main idea was what zombies do and zombies past vs. present.  She was very impressed with how well SJ did with this activity (I was too!). 

Then, she moved on to situations that SJ may be in where he needs to socially know what to do.  For example:  She showed him a card that had a picture of a girl who fell off of her bike.  The boy in the picture has a worried look on his face.  The card says, "Your friend fell off her bike. What do you ask?"  SJ was able to respond with he would ask his friend if they were okay.  Another example has a family eating dinner and the phone rings.  The card says, "You are eating dinner when a friend calls.  What do you say?"  He should have responded that he is eating and he would call the friend back.  However, SJ HATES the phone, so he probably wouldn't even answer the phone.  We will have to work on the cards that focus on telephone etiquette. 

She said she only got to a few of the cards, so I will continue to work on those as homework.  Next week is our last after school speech.  We are continuing speech through the summer, but I will title those posts as summer speech. 

fishing day

There is a boy in SJ's class named Kevin. He had been wanting SJ to come over and I told him that would be fine. Whenever I would see him, he would ask me when he is coming over. I told him to have his mom call me. This went on for a few days.

After the last request, I happened to see his mom. I told her that I didn't want to invite SJ over, but Kevin keeps asking me to allow SJ to come to his house. She said she would like to have SJ over and would check her schedule. I told her that sounded great. I told her that SJ is free most Saturdays.

She called later that evening. She wanted to know if SJ likes to fish. Hallelujah! A shared interest! Usually, boys SJ's age are into baseball or soccer. Kevin does play baseball, but his mom said he has a big interest in fishing. I told her that SJ loves to fish. She said if SJ was available this past Saturday (let me check his schedule...definitely open!) she would like to take him and Kevin to a private pond to fish.

I thanked her for having SJ and we agreed on the time that she would pick him up. (I offered to drop him off, but the mom had to pick up Kevin's sister and she said it be easier to pick up SJ.) I had some errands to run that morning, so I had my husband get him ready.

I had returned just a few minutes before Kevin's mom came to get SJ. Kevin was very excited to see SJ and SJ seemed excited to go with Kevin.

When SJ returned a few hours later, he was all smiles. Kevin told us that he had caught a fish (he then released it back into the pond) and that he enjoyed fishing with SJ. The mom told me that SJ fished for a little while, but then seemed to enjoy just walking around the pond. (I was worried that he may get bored way before Kevin was done, but it seemed as if they both still had fun being at the pond.)

After they went back to Kevin's house, she told me that boys were busy playing with Kevin's slot car set. I am sure SJ enjoyed that. We have a set, but haven't set it up for a long time.

I thanked the mom again for having SJ over. I told her we would love to have Kevin over to go to our pool with us. She said that sounded like something that Kevin would enjoy. As they were pulling out of the driveway, Kevin waved from the car. I wanted to shout, "Thanks for being a great friend to SJ." Instead, I just waved, smiled and felt so comforted that SJ has a friend.

after school speech part 29

After SJ's disappearing act the other day, we decided to ask SJ's speech therapist for strategies for explaining stranger danger to him. She was kind enough to dedicate this week’s speech session to that. She's the best!

She made a visual diagram. The inner circle was titled "Safe People". She had SJ write in people he considered safe. He listed Mom, Dad, Bob, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandma, grandpa, teachers, friends and neighbors. She made a second visual diagram. The inner circle was titled "Strangers and Unsafe People". SJ wrote in people he considered unsafe. He wrote killers, bullies, prisoners and robbers.

She then gave SJ three scenarios. Number one was a man drives by and asks you for directions. Do you go to his car and give him directions? He circled no (the correct answer).

Number two was a woman loses her dog and runs up to you. She asks you to help her find her dog. Do you go with her? Initially, he answered yes (not the right answer). With some prompting and explanation from his therapist, he corrected his answer to no.

The third scenario was you are at a friend's house playing. A woman drives up and tells you that your mom sent her to pick you up. She even knows your name, even though you don’t know her. Do you go with her? Again, he initially answered yes (oh no, the wrong answer again!). She explained to him that just because a person knows your name that doesn't make them a safe person. She told him he should go into the friend's house and ask her if she knows the lady.

My husband and I felt a little guilty that we hijacked the session with our own agenda, but we didn't realize how vulnerable SJ is to these potentially dangerous situations. We will continue to talk to him each night about these situations. Hopefully, we won't scare him out of talking to every stranger, but make him aware enough to keep him safe.

stranger danger

On Wednesday, I took Bob to his soccer practice.  While I was there, my husband called me on the phone.  He told me that he couldn't find SJ and asked if I would call our one neighbor to see if he was there.  Initially, I was thinking I couldn't believe he didn't look for him.  Then, I remembered that SJ is 10 and we are trying to give him a little more independence. 

So, I told my husband that I would call my neighbor and he said he was going to see if he was near the new building site (a favorite place for him to explore).  My neighbor hadn't seen him, but was kind enough to go to her front yard and yell for him.

Now, the two of them are yelling for SJ while I am on the phone with my neighbor.  My heart is racing jumping to the worst of conclusions.  Finally after about 90 seconds, my neighbor spotted him and yelled for him to come to her house.  She then yelled to my husband that she spotted him.  I thanked her profusely and then called my husband on his cell.

I told him to remind him again that he needs to tell us when he is going to leave the house.  In the last week or so, he has just had this urge to take little walks.  Normally, this would be fine.  We live in a safe neighborhood and everyone knows SJ.  But I wasn't 100% sure SJ would know what to do if a bad stranger approached him. 

That is the thing with having a kid on the spectrum.  You drill into their heads:  eye contact, eye contact, eye contact and to try to be socially open.  We have talked to him about stranger danger, but it goes against all of the social practice drills. 

When my husband asked him about stranger danger, he didn't really understand.  He explained to him that some people are bad and they shouldn't be trusted.  He went over the scenarios of how to not trust an adult who is looking for a kid to help them with something (i.e.:  they can't find their dog).  My husband told him that the stranger will lie and SJ quickly said that he hates liars.  So, my husband told him that bad strangers sometimes will say that he or I have asked this stranger to drive him somewhere.  He instructed him to run to a neighbor's house and scream very loud if this happens. 

Even though he talked to him, I am still not sure he understands.  I will have to go over these situations again and I am going to ask his speech therapist for some strategies for helping a child on the spectrum understand this life lesson.

Kennywood Day...yeah!

Yesterday was our school's Kennywood Picnic.  (For those of you who are not from Pittsburgh, Kennywood is an amusement park.)  It was a perfect day.  75 degrees and sunny is ideal temperature for a day at the park.  If you are a water rider, such as the Log Jammer, you may prefer it to be slightly warmer. 

We left our house at 9:30 a.m.  (It takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to get there.)  The gates open at 10:30 a.m. and the rides open at 11 a.m.  We always try to get there early.  Usually we stay until close or until we are no longer having fun.  Bob brought a friend, so there were 5 of us this year.

Bob, his friend and my husband headed over to the Music Express while SJ and I waited to ride the Thunderbolt (a great wooden roller coaster).  SJ was so excited that he was first in line.  As you know if you have been reading this blog, SJ ALWAYS wants to be first.  We got to be in the front car, which is the best seat on that particular coaster.  The Thunderbolt is unusual in the fact that it starts by going straight down a very steep hill.  Most coasters go down a little hill and then up a very steep hill.  SJ was so happy on that ride.  He had his hands up the whole time and had a huge smile on his face. 

When we were done, we met up with the rest of our group and rode a bunch of rides together.  They rode the Bayern Curve, the bumper cars, Cosmic Chaos, Wave Swinger and the Whip.  Bob's friend wanted to ride the Exterminator, but Bob didn't want to go in.  It is essentially a Wild Mouse type ride.  It is inside a building and is a very dark ride.  Bob won't admit it, but I think the darkness freaks him out.  Bob and I waited outside while my husband, Bob's friend and SJ rode that ride. 

After that ride, the boys were starving.  We stopped and got some Potato Patch fries and chicken fingers.  I think the boys' eyes were bigger than their stomachs, since the barely ate anything.  After lunch, we walked over to ride the Paratroopers (an umbrella ride).  SJ said the line was too long (it really wasn't), so he and my husband opted to ride the Jack Rabbit (another great wooden roller coaster).  The Jack Rabbit is a small enough coaster that 4 year olds can ride, but it is loved by people of all ages.  It has this awesome double dip that makes you lift out of your seat a little.  It is one of my favorites. 

The boys then moved on to ride the paddle boats.  Bob and his friend rode together and I was planning on riding with SJ.  "Why do I always have to go with a parent?" he questioned.  I didn't want to let him go alone, but my husband assured me that he would be fine.  Of course, he was right, but I will never admit that to him.  We watched from the side for a few minutes.  After I saw that SJ was fine, my husband insisted that I go ride my favorite ride, Aero 360 (an upside down ride).  When I was ready to ride, my husband had retrieved the boys and they were watching me from a bench.

Next, we walked over to the Kangaroo and the three boys rode together.  They moved on to Garfield's Nightmare (a dark boat ride) and then we talked all the boys (including Bob) into riding the Jack Rabbit.  Bob was trying to get out of it, but his friend shamed him into riding.  (Way to go, buddy!)  Since they all had fun on that coaster, we walked over to ride the Racers (the third wooden coaster).  It has two trains that race against each other.  The one that starts out on the left usually wins, but how can you be a loser on a roller coaster?  SJ, my husband and I were on the blue coaster and Bob and his friend were on the green coaster.  Before the ride started, I asked SJ how he was going to react if our car lost.  "I am going to flip out!" he said.  My husband patted him on the back and said, "No you are not."  We did end up losing and I could see him building to freak out.  I tried to lie and said we tied, but he wasn't buying it.  So, I distracted him by letting him play a shooting gallery game.  Crisis averted!

We decided it was time for dinner, so we went to the restaurant that is the center of the park.  Again, the boys ate very little, but it was enough food to energize them for more riding.  My husband and SJ went off to ride the Thunderbolt while the boys and I went to ride Ghostwood Manor (an inside target shooting ride).  I could see my husband and SJ in line, so the boys and I went to ride the Turtles (a classic track ride).  When SJ and my husband were done, SJ was ready to ride Phantom's Revenge (a metal, fast moving coaster).  Bob and his friend opted not to ride the Phantom, so I stayed with them while we waited for SJ and my husband.  While we waited, Bob and his friend rode again the Bayern Curve, Music Express and Wave Swinger.  As soon as Bob and his friend got in line for the swings, I saw SJ and my husband come down the first steep hill.  Perfect timing! 

I went to meet them at the exit and SJ wanted to ride the swings one more time with Bob and his friend.  It was close to 7:30 p.m., so my husband and I decided it was time to play games and then head home.  I saw a game that I thought one of the three boys was guaranteed to win.  Unfortunately, some 40 year old lady decided to join them.  Of course, she won.  (Did she really need a stuffed animal at 40?) So we moved on to another game.  Bob won and I knew the whining was going to start.  I told SJ and Bob's friend that we would try another game.  After several dollars, Bob's friend won at that game.  "Why can't I win anything?" whined SJ.  He was trying to win a stuffed Kennywood arrow. 

I told my husband to take him into the gift shop and just buy one.  When SJ came out, he was all smiles.  Another meltdown averted.  (It would have been cheaper to just buy one in the first place, but not as fun as trying to win one.)  My husband wanted to play one game, so he bought seven wiffle balls.  You need to bounce one into a red or blue cup.  He gave three balls to SJ and three balls to Bob.  Unbelievably, Bob first ball went into a red cup (large prize).  "Not again," whined SJ.  My husband told him to try, but he was unsuccessful.  My husband managed to make it in one of the red cups with the last ball, so he let SJ choose a prize.  His whining disappeared as he selected a large, stuffed SpongeBob. 

As we were leaving the park, I thought about how nice it was that the autism monster never crept up.  SJ did complain a little about the lines, but never so much that he was near a tantrum.  Even with the loss on the Racers, he was able to control himself and not let the loss ruin his day.  Every year that we come here, I see less and less of the autism monster and I am so thankful for that.  I was watching the boys as we left the park.  It was like watching any three typical boys.  Not a boy with PDD and his typical friends.  Just three tired but happy boys.  Another great day at Kennywood!

family picnic at school

Today was SJ and Bob's Family Picnic at their elementary school. Parents, grandparents and other relatives are invited to come to school and share lunchtime with their student. This is a very popular activity, so I knew parking would be scarce. I showed up 30 minutes before SJ's lunch was scheduled and got lucky. Prime parking right in front.

I paid my $4 and waited for SJ's class to report to the cafeteria. SJ and I went through the line (he was packing today). I got some fried chicken, rigatoni, baked beans and a cookie. (They also had potato salad, bread and butter, watermelon and cantaloupe.) I found our friends outside and we joined them at their blanket. The school puts out tables, but you are welcome to picnic lunch in the grass.

After a few minutes, SJ had eaten his banana, fruit snacks, nacho chips and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was still eating, but he ran off to play with his friends. Every once in a while, I would see him walking around by himself. Should I get up and talk to him or should I let him try to find a friend? I decided to watch and wait.

After 10 minutes, he was running in the grass with his classmates. Whew! What a relief. I worry sometimes that he is not always naturally inclined to approach kids to play. This is a worry that many parents of kids on the spectrum feel.

I started to talk to my friends and before I knew it time was up. I heard the lunch monitor call for SJ's class. I walked over to say goodbye to him and his aide was kind enough to take our picture. Just as she was done, I heard one of his classmates yell, "Hey SJ, time to go in." SJ said, "See you, Mom." I told him to have a good day and he was off. He was running like all of the other kids in Mr. Gold's class to the entrance.

These are the moments I love. The ones were the PDD is invisible and all I see is typical. What a great day!

after school speech part 28

On Thursday, SJ had his weekly speech therapy session. At Thursday's session, his therapist focused on finding the main idea and supporting details. She read him a paragraph. She had a visual aid that was a drawn ice cream cone. The ice cream cone was where SJ had to fill in the main idea. Each scoop of ice cream was where he had to insert a supporting idea.

This was the story: Even though we can clearly see the moon at night, it is about 238,857 miles away from the Earth! However, the moon seems very close by when you consider that the sun is about 92,955,817 miles away. Venus, the most visible planet, is 162 million miles away from Earth when it arrives at the furthest point along its orbit. Orion, the furthest constellation you can see without a telescope, is 32,600 light years away. A light year is the distance light travels within one year. One light year is equal to over five trillion miles!

She assisted SJ by circling and underlining the main idea and supporting details. SJ's ice cream cone contained a main idea of the distance from Earth and planets, sun and moon. He then had four "scoops" on his cone. These scoops had the following supporting details: Orion is the furthest, Venus is 162 million miles away, Sun is 92,955,817 miles away and the Moon is 238,857 miles away.

She reported that SJ did fairly well with this activity. I forgot to tell her that outer space is a huge interest to him, so maybe that helped to keep his attention.

She did another story on sharks using the ice cream cone visual. She said SJ was able to find the main idea, but he had a little more difficulty finding the supporting details. She needed to prompt him to return to the story and underline the details.

I felt the visual aid she used was a great way to illustrate to SJ how the supporting details are as important as the main idea. (Who would just want a plain cone without any scoops of ice cream?)  I will use this strategy when we start our summer comprehension work books.

after school speech part 27

On Thursday, SJ had his weekly after school speech therapy session.  For once in a LONG time, we were actually on time.  No bad weather, no delay waiting for my husband to return from work and no traffic.  SJ's therapist seemed perplexed to see us on time (maybe even a minute early), but I told her I can be punctual occasionally. 

First, she worked on a Listening and Remembering Specific Details activity.  She showed SJ a picture. She then asked him a few questions and told him to remember them while she read a story to him.  After she read the story, she would ask him the questions again and add two additional questions.  The picture was to give visual cues.

The first questions were:
1.  Why did Lisa get a new jar of bubbles?
2. What color were the bubbles?
3. What size were the bubbles?

This was the story:  Lisa got a new jar of bubbles for her birthday.  Her mother told her she could not blow bubbles in the house, so she took them outside.  The bubbles in the jar were pink.  Lisa dipped the wand into the jar and blew through it.  Bubbles of all sizes came out of the wand.  Some were big and some were little.  Lisa watched all of them float away high in the sky.

After she read this story, she asked SJ the following questions:

1. Why did Lisa get a new jar of bubbles?
2. Was Lisa allowed to blow bubbles inside the house?
3. What color were the bubbles?
4. What size were the bubbles?
5 Where did the bubbles go?

SJ was able to answer all of these questions correctly.  She then read him a second story that was related to the picture, but didn't have a visual cue. 

This was the second story:  After lunch, Lisa took her jar of bubbles over to Patty's house.  Patty also had a jar of bubbles.  Lisa and Patty sat on the steps and blew bubbles.  They blew so many bubbles it looked like a bubble factory.  Some of the bubbles blew over to Mr. Green's yard.  Mr. Green's dog, Buffy, barked and jumped at the bubbles.  Lisa and Patty laughed.

After she read the second story, she asked SJ the following questions:

1. After lunch, where did Lisa take her jar of bubbles?  (He missed this one.)
2. Where did the children sit to blow bubbles?  (He missed this one.)
3. What did all the bubbles look like?  (He missed this one as well.)
4. Where did the bubbles blow? (He got this one correct.)
5. What started barking at the bubbles? (He also answered this one correctly.)
6. What was the dog's name? (He couldn't remember the dog's name.)

SJ has always had trouble remembering details.  I was impressed that he got all the questions correct after the first story.  However, I was not surprised that he missed most of the second set of questions.  He has trouble focusing on too many details.  This is a skill that we will have to continue to work on. 

She also worked on Problem/Solutions.  She used a visual chart that had a problem box in the center and two solution boxes attached to it.  She gave SJ some problems and he had to come up with two possible solutions.  For example:  Your pocket has a hole in it.  Tell me the problem and two solutions.  He was to answer that things may fall out of his pocket.  For the solutions, he was to answer to have someone sew the pocket or to not put things in his pocket. 

He did okay with this exercise, but he did sometimes have trouble finding a second solution.  She said she is going to continue working on both the Problem/Solution and being able to listen and recall more details.  I am glad that she is focusing on what he has the most problems with.  With her practice and ours, I am sure this will one day be a distant memory for us.

family movie night

SJ has wanted us to have a family movie night for awhile.  Unfortunately, soccer has tied up most of our evenings.  Last week, SJ asked again if we could have a family movie night.  Our local movie theater has $4 movies on Wednesday nights.  That is one of Bob's soccer practice nights.  So, SJ did go to see The Three Stooges with his dad last week (Bob and I weren't interested) on a Wednesday evening.  SJ said it was "sort of funny", but my husband didn't enjoy it.  (I guess Bob and I were right to not be interested!) 

He asked again if we could have a family movie night.  Tuesdays are our only free evening.  So, the four of us headed to our local theater to see Pirates:  Band of Misfits.  It is a claymation movie.  The boys love claymation.  Wallace and Gromit is one of their favs.  The movie theater was so dead that night that I thought it was closed.  It wasn't.  I guess Tuesday is a very slow night.  There was no one on box office.  A sign indicated that we were to pay for tickets at concession. 

SJ and I made our way to the concession stand.  I paid for 2 adults and 2 children (really I only paid for 1 child, since Bob's class had won a free pass for a Box Tops prize), a small popcorn, a lemonade, an M & M's and a box of Milk Duds.  The boys had gone off to the theater with my husband and I followed them with their treats. 

My husband hollered, "It may be tough to find a seat."  I saw him laughing at his own joke when I saw that we were the only ones in the theater.  SJ was on the side and Bob was in the same row as my husband (but he was considerably distanced).  After I distributed the snacks, SJ moved to the back of the theater where he remained until the movie was over. 

It was kind of cool to be in the theater by ourselves.  I haven't been in a theater by myself since I worked at a theater during my college days.  The movie was very funny and it held both boys' attention.  The four of us haven't been to a show since we saw The Adventures of Tin Tin.  And I believe it was winter coat weather then.  I am glad that SJ kept insisting that we make time for this activity.  We will have to make a priority to do this much more often.  Soccer or not.