WORDS!!!!!!!! June 26th, 2015

We have had an AMAZING week with Ashley and her words are starting to come out!!! We are sooooo excited with the progress in her speech AND her eye contact has been increasing  these last 2 weeks too! I am still in shock of all that has happened this week! God is good!

Thank you again to Team Ashley for pouring your time and love into Ashley!  

MAKING COOKIES

Last Sunday, Ashley helped me make Chocolate Chip Cookies for her Daddy and Papa on Father's Day. It was fun having her help and she was really catching on making balls with the dough. They turned out yummy and we even gave some to Team Ashley members this week! I captured her chocolate covered face after getting to eat one of her creations! However, her face looks sad because she realized she could not eat them all. :)

MEDICATION

      We finally got to see a specialist last week (long waiting list) since Ashley's anxiety seemed to be all over the place and she convinced us to take her off the ADHD medicine. Jeremy had severe ADHD as a child too. He was failing school until they put him on medicine in 1st grade. Before medication he described it as having 20 televisions on at the same time and then medication made it seem like only 1 tv was on.

        She started this medication after she was 3 years old because she has severe ADHD which I know can go along with autism symptoms. However at that age, Ashley would NOT sit still for even 1 second and would run from wall to wall and room to room. Once we started her on meds, she was able to focus longer and could actually sit to look at PECS. That is when she started seeing the pictures and started understanding PECS as way to communicate. It was a life changer for all of us and was needed at that time. Apparently, after a few years on ADHD meds, there can become different side effects and among them heightened anxiety..... I had no clue. I am so thankful for this doctor and her insight!

         So we took her off over the weekend and let me tell you she was NONSTOP movement. :) Climbing on everything in sight, running, not listening, no eye contact, and putting every item in her mouth. However, the hair pulling and hitting/scratching herself decreased immediately. I don't want to jump to saying it is completely gone because she has done it only a few times this last week when Noah was screaming. Noah has very high pitched scream and I hate hearing it too. :) We will still have to keep monitoring this but we are hopeful all of that was just a crazy side effect. Yay!

       We are trying a much milder med in different class to help her focus and to stop her mouthing all items. She seems even happier now and she is making more sounds ALL the time! Her focus seems to be improving each day and she is still so happy and playful!

WORDS!!!!!

Saturday & Sunday

Lots of random sounds but these days she was nonstop movement so sessions were not the best since we took her off ADHD medication. We were all exhausted afterwards but at least Miranda, Jeremy and I got some good exercise. :)


Monday

She made lots of gibberish and we were able to get some eye contact with tickle games. She was still all over the place but at least Wendy got almost 30 seconds of continuous eye contact while tickling Ashley's feet!!


Tuesday - NEW WORDS!!!

Tuesday was a really amazing day for Ashley. She was very vocal with lots of sounds. She was also super playful with Brogan & Kimberly. Tracy brought a Marble Run game for Session time and Ashley LOVED it! She said "marbles" 8 different times during that activity!!!!

When I brought up Ashley's snack , I asked Ashley "Are you having fun with Ms. Tracy?". She said "Yes". What?????? I could not believe she answered my question!!!

Then at private swim lessons with a special needs instructor that afternoon she said "no" once and "duck" 4 different times to request for big yellow duck. I always get great eye contact at her private swim lessons too because she will swim to me and I really enjoy getting to be apart of it!

She also ate Melon at dinner which was a new food for her! So proud of her for trying new foods!

Wednesday

We did the water table outside that morning and she said "water" 4 different times when requesting for hose to be turned on (without prompting and made eye contact). Noah and Ashley play really well together at water table and love to see the water drain also. She even danced around with a hose for a little and I caught a beautiful smile after.

Wednesday continued.....

During Session times she said
- "marbles" again with marble game
- "whoa" when marbles got stuck
- "magic"
- "Jazz" when looking at Princess Jasmine
- "ju" two times for jumping
- "no"

My brother, Chris, made Ashley a CD of intro theme songs that she likes so we could use in Playroom. She has always loved the intro theme songs to shows and then barely even watches the rest of it. Last week I played some of the songs for her like Jake the Pirate, My Little Pony, Bubble Guppies, and Veggie Tales. She had the most confused look on her face.....I realized she doesn't know what a CD player is and was looking for the images along with song. Haha! On Wednesday, I got sticker eyes, a fake cucumber, and a fake tomato so we could make Bob and Larry. She liked it and they danced to the song 3 times. Then she was on to a different activity.




Thursday

She said
-"marble" again
-"water" multiple times in day requesting for water/ice
-"wee!"
- a few times sounded very close to "I want" while looking at crackers above fridge
- "bubbles"

I got a cheap bubble machine and did that for the first time. As you can see, she loved it and requested more!

Friday
During my session with Ashley, her eye contact was amazing! It is increasing in frequency and duration (5-10 seconds now). Every time she has a Session with those on Team Ashley she is seeing how fun it can be when you look at them and the positive encouragement she gets for looking!

During the day she said:
- "bubbles" again to request for the bubble machine!
- "iii" for ice
- "I wan" multiple times with speech therapist and a LOT of sound approximations
- "ba" for bath
- "duck" for duck toy during bath time

Ashley loves to eat ice chips which is a sensory need for something crunchy and she asks for ice at least once a day. Well,  Noah wants to do everything his big sister does so he always runs saying "ice, ice, ice, ice" until he gets his own cup of small ice chips. I thought it was so cute how he wanted to sit next to Ashley this morning with his ice and Ashley actually allowed him to sit there TOUCHING her too!

TINKER BELL SONG

I just love this intro song to Tinker Bell Pirate Movie "Who I am". I feel it is so fitting with the Son-Rise Program because Ashley is now free to be who she is with her excited hand flapping, isms and all her interests! She LOVES Tinker Bell and I wish I could take her to Pixie Hollow so we could fly around because it looks like a lot of fun there!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PLA59xLEOc

"I wanna feel free to be who I am
What I'm about is more than I've been
Ready to show the world who I am
Start letting out what I'm holding in
And find my own place to stand
So I can be who I am

I have it inside, I know that I do

All that I am is gonna breakthrough"

 

Ramps, Spinners, & Balls - Friday June 19th, 2015

This week has been a little challenging with Ashley testing boundaries with me and with Noah's tantrums over very small things. However, I am going to focus on the good things that happened, the progress we are seeing and brag on our amazing team of volunteers! One great thing we are seeing is that Ashley is trying approximations now for requesting items because we are not pushing PECS sentences. We want her to see there is value in her sounds and talking directly to us!

 

SUNDAY SCHOOL on 6.14.15

Haley is Ashley's "buddy" at Hill Country Bible Church during 1st worship service and has been for almost 3 years now. She said last Sunday morning, Ashley did NOT even go near her corner of her classroom the entire time!!!! Normally that is where Ashley retreats to and will sit rocking. She said Ashley was walking around, observing and interested in what the other kids were doing! This was exciting for all of us to see!

OUTDOOR FUN

I learned a big lesson this week.......do NOT put Ashley in bathing suit unless you are GOING to an acutal pool or splash pad. A baby pool in the backyard is not an acceptable. Haha! From now on I will just put shorts and tank top on her if we use kiddie pool my brother gave us. Both kids did love the water table thankfully and played together really well. They especially loved watching it drain and then refilling it with water. Ashley said "Water" 3 different times when wanting me to turn the hose on!!!!

FIRST SESSIONS

Kellie and Brogan both started their first sessions this week with Ashley and she is really starting to enjoy them! They are shown on bottom row in this collage. I couldn't help but add these heartwarming pictures too of Miranda and Haley interacting with Ashley on the top row. There are so many more pictures but wanted to highlight everyone (Tracy is shown with ramp game below)! Big thanks to Chris also for watching Noah so I could be in the Playroom more this week! We have such an amazing team!!!! Wendy was on vacation this week and my mom Becky is recovering from surgery due to broken arm.

ADDED TEAMATE

We had a prayer request answered this week with Kimberly Hoeft from HCBC wanting to join Team Ashley!!! She volunteers in Kings Kids A on Sunday mornings and leads that classroom during second hour. We are so excited to have her join with us!

GAMES THIS WEEK

Joining
The last 3 days we have seen Ashley really notice us "joining" her. For example, she got a new Chicken Little book so she will "ism" with new books she loves. She opens to her favorite page, hand flaps (because happy), jumps up and walks around the book, sits down, looks at page and then repeats. She has done this little routine for at least last year with images or books for about a week until she grows tired of image. So in the Playroom, I got a book and did the same thing about 4 feet in front of her. I would catch her looking over a lot and smiling like she knew I would copy. She was seeing if I would do it the same way. This is soooooo exciting and encouraging because it means she is noticing our participation and almost playing a little game with us!!!! Kellie and Brogan got to experience the book "ism" this week too!

Picture Hunt
We did Strawberry Shortcake theme on Monday and printed out images online with individual characters and group pictures. We taped them all around her Playroom at different heights so she could search and collect. It went really well! She would ask for help for those pictures too high so we got some good eye contact and had a lot of fun! We tried it again with Jake the Pirates theme but that was not as motivating for her. We will try this again probably with My Little Pony and Tinker Bell but are going to spread out our games so she doesn't grow tired of it too fast.

Ramp
Ashley has really been interested in spinning items and spinning/rolling balls this past month so we are trying to create games using her interest and motivation. We created a ramp out of cardboard box declining from her table to roll balls or cars down in Playroom. She loved it! Tracy got to introduce the game to Ashley and they had so much fun the entire session! Ashley made soooo many sounds during this game!

Ashley eventually wanted to slide down also so we replaced support under ramp with her cushioned pink chair for more support. Brogan and Kelly even adapted this game to coloring and adding stickers on cardboard. It lasted all week and was a cheap easy game! (We really need to think of more like this one!). We also need to look into finding a cheap used slide for outdoors.

Spinner Game

I also created a Spinner Game with actions she loves. The hope was that she spins, then I would do action being silly and encouraging her to join me. She liked this one okay but we will need to adapt it somehow....Some games will be a success like the ramp and others will need tinkering ;) I was pretty proud of myself to creating this with K'nex and cardboard though!

MY FAVORITE SONG

Each day I am listening to this song to help me stay focused and encouraged so I wanted to include this in weekly update. "Be Near Oh God" by Shane & Shane has been my favorite Praise & Worship song since before college. We even had it sung at our wedding as a prayer for our marriage. This is also my prayer for Ashley's Son-Rise program each day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkglSDzb8vM

Summer Program has started!

 

FIRST WEEK OF SUMMER

 

New foods - Ashley is a picky eater so any new food she at least tries or eats is a huge deal! She ate pineapple and grilled chicken breast on Sunday night!! The next morning she ate part of my English muffin with peanut butter and cinnamon! She is also now eating a protein bar!!!


Helping in Kitchen - Ashley now likes to make her Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich at lunch! I have to monitor how much jelly she squeezes out or she would use entire bottle!


Outdoor Play - We cleared out our backyard of weeds and all bushes that attracted bees so we could enjoy it more this summer. We have gotten to play outdoors a few mornings this week and joined her in dirt play, sidewalk chalk, ball rolling, bubbles, tearing leaves, and she even wanted to use the broom after I swept the patio! She loves being outdoors!


New Sounds - Ashley had her first private swim lesson for the summer. Both the instructor & I were hearing "nah" for no after she would ask Ashley to jump or put her head under water. She can say sounds so quietly sometimes its hard to hear.


Evening Chase - Part of our nightly routine is playing chase in our house so the kids can get all their extra energy out. Our floor plan gives us a "track" around the staircase which is perfect! Both kids & our dog love Jeremy and I to run with them around and around and around! Ashley always wants to ride on daddy's shoulders too which is a lot cheaper than doing therapeutic riding. Jeremy takes a lot of hair pulling and endures back pain with all her movement but he enjoys seeing her so happy! We all have a lot of fun and it was hard to capture on camera because Ashley is a "blue blur"!

   FIRST SESSIONS

 

Sunday, May 31st    Haley and Miranda had their first Sessions with Ashley! They both said time flew by fast and they had so much fun being able to connect with Ashley even if short periods of eye contact or green lights! When you are "joining" Ashley, then you are always busy whether rocking, rolling balls, spinning small spinners, or looking at Disney character pictures!


Monday, June 8th  Wendy and Tracy had their first sessions with Ashley. However, she got mosquito bites the night before and she is very sensitive to bug bites. She was not her normal self this day because the bites were bothering her so much. Wendy & Tracy were both amazing being patient and understanding!

Here are some great pictures of Miranda, Wendy, Haley, and Tracy interacting with Ashley!

Ashley has always be very creative and has a great imagination! However, she doesn't let you join
her and runs off if you interrupt or say anything to pull her out of her own world. We are hoping that will all change with this program and she will play WITH us instead of parallel play by herself. Rapunzel was playing in her kitchen cutting fruit just like Ashley has been doing these past few weeks! It was too cute not to capture!

 

NEW GAMES IN PLAYROOM

SOUNDS
She still loves going to her Playroom and sometimes she doesn't want to leave! It is so quiet and calming in there. We had to put a white noise machine outside the door so that Ashley cannot hear Noah crying downstairs from terrible twos (which really bothers her). Some days she will repeat a sound randomly throughout entire day and now we "join" her by saying it back. She thinks it is so funny!!!! She will smile and make great eye contact! I try change up sound every now and then but she is not copying (yet!). Wednesday her sound was "puh puss" and Thursday (today) it was "bot".

CARDS
Ashley loves most Disney characters and some tv cartoon characters. Right now she is really into Tinker Bell and Nemo characters so I got Google images of all these characters and printed them out into 3x3 cards.

On Tuesday, I introduced "Nemo cards" and used Velcro to put them to a poster so Ashley would need my help getting them off. The goal was to get eye contact and she was very engaged wanting ALL the pictures! I also had a "cheat sheet" for me with all the names. After she got all the cards, she then decided she only wanted my large cheat sheet and the 3x3 image of Dentist fish tank.....I never know what she is going to like.  :)  She helped me line up the discarded images on the window and then let me name all the characters on the "cheat sheet". Then she moved onto wanting to roll balls, spin the spinners, jump, spin balls, and play with sensory toys. Her two pictures stayed in corner exactly how she left them (not allowed to touch) and she would go back to look at them at different times.

On Wednesday, I introduced "Disney Fairy Cards" using same poster with Velcro. I had images of each fairy on 3x3 and then some images with ALL fairies. They each got to fly around my head and by my eyes before they arrived to Ashley's hand. She only liked the group pictures with the entire gang together! One image had the original 5 fairies and then Ashley put Vidia next to it because she was missing! The game is working great with eye contact and its highly motivating for her! On down the road, maybe we can build on Tinker Bell game to identify colors and use Jake the Pirate treasure coins to count!