Swim & Outings! June 28th, 2016

SWIM LESSONS: Ashley's FAVORITE activity in the entire world is swimming and 2 years ago we got information on a special needs swim instructor in summers that lived in our area. I am so thankful we found her and Ashley has a special bond with her! Her instructor is really working on Ashley reaching with her hands this summer because she is great at swimming with her head under and kicking. She is doing great at saying "reach", "water" and answering some questions with "yes" or "nah"! I love this picture and the pure joy on Ashley's face as she is jumping off the side!

Wednesday, June 22nd

One of our goals for summer is to work on Ashley's greetings of waving and/or saying "hi" and "bye" so all team members are practicing when they arrive and when they leave. They get on her level so help get eye contact and say "bye Ashley!" while waving. We are not doing any more verbal or physical prompting because we want her to respond on her own and how she is feeling. Most times she will look at them and do quick wave. Today she also said "buh-bye" 2 different times and waved the therapists!

Our daughter gave me a good laugh today! She LOVES the pool and since summer break she has asked on her Ipad "I want swim" EVERYDAY and multiple times in a day. She doesn't accept no very easily so there have been lots of tantrums. However, today she asked on Ipad again when I was folding laundry. I told her to check her schedule. I then hear Velcro so I come in room to see she was able to reach binder and replaced event with pool! Now it's on her schedule today. Haha! Smart girl :)

I cannot even count how many times Ashley asked for "I want swim" on her Ipad and using sign language this past week. It resulted in many behaviors and meltdowns with self harm behavior when it wasn't on her schedule or if it was 6th event of day. This is one area where therapists are helping us with when Ashley needs to wait or needs to accept no. Having everyone around her being consistent in how they respond (no reaction) is what is helping so much and so thankful we have extra help in this area. Her tantrums are getting shorter which is great and it is not leading to full out meltdown!!!

Thursday, June 23rd

Today Becky (my wonderful mom) did a Session with Ashley and she worked really hard to prepare for it! The theme for the day was "Everything yellow". She brought a Strawberry shortcake book that focused on Lemon Meringue making lemon bars. While eating a few crackers, Becky was able to read her the book. After reading the book, they enjoyed eating a lemon bar. Becky wore a yellow hat, a yellow ribbon tied around her neck, brought lots of yellow toys in a bag, yellow flowers, printed handmade puzzles of Lemon Meringue character, scrabble letters to spell her name, made up a song about her name. Ashley enjoyed dumping out the yellow toys. At first she wasn’t too interested, but as Becky began sort of playing with them using 3 E's, she decided she wanted them in a special order. When Becky left for the day, she looked right at her, waved ,and said  “ba – ba”  for bye bye!

DANCE: We went to try a free Special Needs Dance class tonight and Ashley seemed to enjoy it! It was later at night and very close to bedtime so I could tell she was getting tired towards end. It was fun to see her following some of the instructions and she loved all the mirrors around too!

 

Friday, June 24th

In session today with me, we did Nemo theme using new pool toys of Nemo characters, books, goggles, magnifying glass and printed pictures. We matched pool toys them to her favorite book and I introduced a magnifying glass. It took her a while to notice it and I put it to my face first so my mouth would be larger, then did my eyes and nose. That got her attention and then I used magnifying glass on the Finding Nemo characters. Then she took the magnifiying glass and put it on images of her book. It was fun to see her understanding concept because she would move it closer and farther from the page.

Today she said spontaneously "ice" 4 different times when requesting ice and it was so great to hear her say it clearly and multiple times!

When we left for swim lessons she helped me carry the 3 towels to the car. She still managed to open her door, place towels in center seat and then she took the top towel and spread it out on her seat! :) I was so impressed! I always do this after swimming to keep seats from getting super wet so she noticed!

Saturday, June 25th 

In Session today with me, we did Jake Pirate theme with play swords, eye patch, gold earing, Jake figurines, Pirate ship, and Jake books! She was not too interested in Jake theme at beginning so we put it to the side and had a snack first. Then she wanted to do Letter matching (lower case and upper case) at table which she did great at. She even put letters A-F in order along with saying letter "A" and "G"!! After she was ready to change activities and I took the green light to try Pirate theme again. She had no interest in sword fighting but she was looking at my eye patch and earing. I asked if she wanted to wear them and she let me put them on her. Ashley walked over to the mirror and it was cute to see her admiring how it looked on her! After she wanted to take the eye patch off but she kept the earing on so I tried to build by getting more play jewelry down. I could see her mind turning and then she pulled my hand over to the shelf and said "bow" for boat. We got the boat down and she put each piece of jewelry into the boat but first the piece had to touch her pink necklace first. It became an "ism" because it was repetitious and exclusive so I started joining her and grabbed a different necklace. She let me join her with a few earrings and the pushed my hand away. I put a few earrings on my ears so later I might be able to get her looking at me which did work! :) I think this might be from Pirate Fairy movie which has the Pirate ship and she is putting all of her treasure onto her boat!

Sunday, June 26th

In session with Miranda, Ashley got to do makeup, jewelry, and face painting! She watched Miranda do face paint on doll and then let Miranda do a little on her checks! She also enjoyed watching Miranda use nets to catch jewelry and the brain flakes. She did answer one of Miranda's question with "no" and head shake.

We went to the pool as a family and one time Ashley came up to find me since I was staying close to Noah. She started laughing and making great eye contact! She then used her hand to turn my head to side so she was looking at my profile. I would wait 2 seconds and look at her in surprise. She just thought it was so funny! We played that game for probably 8 rounds! She left the pool again without any whining which was so nice!!!


Monday, June 27th

This morning she had a great time with Sascha on a neighborhood walk, playing with bubbles, water balloons, swing, and a trip to HEB!

This afternoon Ashley had to get her routine blood work done and she did so great! I took her out on a date afterwards while Noah got to stay home playing with Papa! I took her to Menchies frozen yogurt and we have never taken her to a place like this because of the buffet of candy so I wasn't sure how it would go. She got a cup and then I showed her how to pull the lever down so yogurt would come out. Then we went over to the candy and I told her she could pick 1 topping. She was looking at all of them a little overwhelmed so I encouraged her to go for Butterfinger. She got 1 scoop and was okay with that! Then we got a small pump of chocolate syrup and she enjoyed pushing down the pump. Once she was done, she put bowl into trash and left in great mood! I was so relieved and so thankful these therapists are helping us do more public outings with her!!!

Tuesday, June 28th

This morning we went for a walk but today I tried to switch it up a little. We went out the front door and there was no bike for Noah since it is really hard to steer. She did okay with the change and she picked the direction we went. I asked if they wanted to hold hands while walking and they ended up holding hands the ENTIRE walk which was surprising! They also gave each other a high five at end of walk too!

Ashley had a great day today with great eye contact and lots of vocals! She said "hi" to therapist and spontaneous "bye" to me when I was leaving! Her therapist took her out on some public outings and Ashley stayed with her and no whining! I am so thankful they are practicing outings with her! One outing today was to Petsmart and last time I took Ashley there about 6 months ago she wanted to run through the aisles and put her hands in the fish tanks. It was super stressful so I never took her back. She did great today and listened so well! She enjoyed watching the fish and birds so that is like a free zoo trip! :) We also had to get a bone scan done of her hand and her shot this afternoon. She did amazing at waiting and listening to doctors instructions! I was so proud of her!!!
 

First weeks of summer - June 21st, 2016

In May I was able to attend New Frontiers for more training to take Ashley's Son-Rise Program to the next level. It was so beneficial not only for Ashley's Program but for myself and analyzing my attitude in and outside the Playroom. I wrote a short blog about the New Frontier's Program .


General Updates


INDEPENDENCE: With summer getting hotter, I am so thankful Ashley can now buckle her OWN seat belt!!! She can do the entire process of opening car door, climbing in, shutting door and putting her seat belt on independently with no physical or verbal prompts!!!

SLEEP: We are having sleep issues again so that has been affecting some days more than others. I wish we could find a solution that lasts and that is all I will update on this topic. Researching some other options right now.

WAITING: One afternoon Ashley was requesting to play with the water table outside and I had just sat down with my cup of coffee. I asked if I could finish my coffee first and then we could go outside to play. She didn't respond right away but just stood there looking back and forth between me and coffee cup. So she stood there the entire time patiently waiting and when I paused she leaned over to look inside my cup to see if it was gone! :) We will continue to work on her waiting quietly with no self harm behavior and have already seen improvements in these 2 weeks!

GOOD HELPER: At dinner, she is becoming a huge help and I love how she listens so well! It might have to do with food being a huge motivator for her but on some nights she will help me with just 1 of these items or all.   -Feeding Oscar food - letting Oscar outside to potty  -opening door for dog to come back in -getting out kids plate -taking a fork to Noah -grabbing her own fork -washing & cutting up strawberries -getting the ketchup bottle  -taking Noah his food plate -carrying her own plate to the table

POTTY TRAINING: We started potty training second week of summer to try a different method. We realized that Ashley has been "schedule" trained for almost 2 years because she does not care if she has an accident. So we all ended up taking her bathroom every hour and keeping a very close eye on her for BM signs. Now we are trying really hard to remove "scheduled" times and get her to a point where SHE will tell us when she needs to go. We are making some progress but it won't be an overnight process. We are having her use Ipad to make sentence "I want potty", use hand to make modified sign language (so she has way to communicate if no Ipad like at the pool), and we say word "ti-ti" which we have heard her say a handful of times this last year on way to potty.

WORDS: These past few weeks in Playroom Sessions, Ashley has been consistent in saying
"bubbles, want, water, juice, yes, ball, this" each day spontaneously with no prompting!
Words she will repeat are "push, jump, chips, more, one, bye." Some new words are "ice, white, blue, orange, purple, dry" and many approximations.

BATH: When Ashley gets out of the bath, she likes me to tightly wrap her arms & body in a towel and give her a bear hug. This is one of my favorite times with her because she leans into me and has no rush to leave. She will lean back, make eye contact with me, smile, either give me a kiss or turn her check, lean in again etc. I even heard her say "I love you" two different times after I said it to her while giving her a bear hug wrapped in towel!!! :) I treasure those times I hear her say that because it might happen 1 or 2 times in a month!



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Chronological Updates  (did not include every Session or day)


We had a Son-Rise Team meeting before school ended and met in Ashley's Playroom to discuss her Program this summer! Last summer we did a full-time program with Ashley and she has made so much progress since we started! This summer will be doing part-time Son-Rise program to work on social goals, flexibility, interactive attention span, speech, education and baking skills while most importantly having fun! We also found wonderful therapists who are supportive of our program and will be coming in to help on issues of potty training, self harming behaviors and public outings!

Team Ashley for Summer 2016

Sunday, June 5th
Miranda had her first Son-Rise Session with Ashley since last summer and she brought nail polish. Ashley wanted her to paint her nails and toe nails so that requires her to sit still for a while and she watched Miranda paint each nail. They even did a little bit of makeup and Ashley made some great eye contact!

Tuesday June 7th
We got free tickets to Round Rock baseball game from Variety of Texas which is a non-profit organization that supports special needs families. When we sat down we saw the team running on the field and the kids were soaking it all in. I thought I would capture a quick picture of our night and then Ashley showed with her facial expression what she thought of me taking a picture! Haha! We lasted about 20 minutes at the game and then Ashley wanted to leave. At least we got to try it for free!

Wednesday, June 8th
In session today while Ashley was eating her snack, Tracy was able to read 4 books while Ashley listened and looked at the pages!!!


Thursday, June 9th
In session with Tracy, Ashley was really wanting to learn today and participated for 70 minutes in educational games/activities! She is doing so well with letters and matching lower case to upper case for letters A-M only!


Saturday, June 11th
We went bowling on Saturday morning and Ashley did a great job waiting her turn with Noah. She lasted almost 2 games and then she was done! If she shows interest, I think we will look into the Special Olympics Bowling but she cannot compete until she is 8 years old.

Wednesday, June 12th

One thing they reminded us at New Frontiers is to keep trying games that did not work in the past because our kids are constantly changing! So I got out the Dr. Seuss Felt hat from last summer with ping pong balls that have Velcro wrapped around them. The Son-Rise game was to wear hat and have child throw balls at the hat. I put the hat on using 3E's and started throwing a few balls directed at the hat. I could see Ashley's eyes narrow when the ball stuck to the hat and it was like watching her mind process it. She then got a ball and placed it onto the hat. She kept placing all the balls onto the hat so it was great to see her interacting WITH me during the activity even if it lasted a short time. I then took the balls off and we did it again while I got some great eye contact. We did it 2 times and then she wanted the hat. She actually put the hat on for 3 seconds, looked into mirror, and then she wanted to walk around the room carrying the hat. One of the balls did not have Velcro so I tried to go along with it and model flexibility since she was getting a little frustrated. Ashley came up with a very smart plan and put ball in between two other balls at base so it stayed on!


Thursday, June 16th

We can do neighborhood walks now!!!! Ashley and I have done that last 3 mornings together and soooo pleasant! Her teacher Callie walked around school everyday this last year and then last week the therapists practiced with her in our neighborhood. We couldn't do that before this summer because she would have meltdowns if not walking to car to leave, not walking to pool, not walking inside someone's house, etc. So thankful for our wonderful teachers and therapists! I would even slow down a little when we got closer to our driveway and every time she turned into the correct house! It surprised me because sometimes it doesn't seem like she notices things around her but she must soak in much more than we know. Now we will try to add Noah to the walk so eventually I can do this in the mornings with both kids by myself!

In Session with my mom Becky, Ashley got to play with new paw patrol figurines! My mom also taped puzzle pieces around the room that once put together was a picture of her swimming! She also did a great job trying to engage Ashley in rolling a ball with her by acting like a puppy to get the ball! I love seeing and hearing how others are willing to be completely silly to get her attention and increase her interactive attention span!


PAINTING TIME : Our friend Kimberly Dixon who passed away on June 7th has inspired me to give Ashley more opportunities for painting/crafts each week! Kimberly was nonverbal and had autism but she was so talented in her poetry and paintings. Her mom Marilyn Dixon never gave up on Kimberly and she glorified God in all she did! Here is more information on Kimberly.
This was Ashley's first painting at home today this summer and she enjoyed doing vertical and horizontal lines. She even wanted to paint the edges. I sat next to her and painted also and followed her lead! It lasted about 5 minutes and she was done but she enjoyed it!

Saturday, June 18th

Jeremy had a fun session with Ashley today and tried a weightlifting theme with dumbbells. She really liked rolling them around. She seemed to give him a lot of red lights but he just joined her in her isms. She did not sleep well last night...again.

In session with me today after the pool, she did great with letters A-M and was almost able to hand me each letter when I asked random order. There was a new Tinker Bell coloring book in her Playroom today so she loved looking at different pages. There was one page with all 6 fairies that she kept turning back to. I asked her what color Tinker Bells dress was so she grabbed the green marker from the bag next to me and gave me the green marker. I asked if I could color part of her dress and she gave me a slight nod of yes. I gave her the marker and asked if she wanted to finish. She then independently grabbed the correct color for each fairy (we did not have a blue in the bag so she picked teal) and colored the fairies in the right color! I was impressed! :)

We went to Chic-fil-a tonight for dinner and Ashley was so eager to leave she helped Noah get his shoes on. It was sweet to watch her help and even pull the Velcro strap over!

Sunday, June 19th

Today was Father's Day and we went to my parent's house after church for family lunch. It was great to see everyone but Ashley was not in the best mood since she did not sleep well. She did enjoy being outdoors and playing with the water fountain my parents have. She also played piano with daddy for about 1 minute! My parents also have a play room so all the cousins were together for a little while!

Jeremy, Ashley, Noah and I went to our local pool this afternoon and we had a great time! Noah found a friend from church he loved playing with and Ashley did great listening! She went into the deep end with Jeremy several times because she wanted to practice swimming so he was excited to see her swimming progress! Ashley even left pool without a tantrum!!!!! Around 5pm I asked her if she wanted to go home for chicken nuggets and she made it clear she wanted to keep swimming. I asked her 2 more times after that spacing it out and the 3rd time she got out of the pool on her own and walked to our towels!


Tuesday, June 21st

This morning I took both kids for a walk and both kids did great!!!! Noah loved being on the bike and Ashley even wanted to help push him part of the way. We also walked a different route and Ashley still recognized when we got back to our house!! I see many more neighborhood walks in our future!

Today was rough since Ashley started asking on her Ipad "I want swim" since 8am and mixed with bad night of sleep we had lots of tantrums. I did get all her pictures laminated so we can do a Visual Schedule of the day for major events so when she first asked about swimming I got out the binder so we could put images on schedule. We pointed to each picture and I know she understood swim lessons was the 6th event today but she wanted it RIGHT then. We had to do a lot of redirecting today or ignoring her behavior by walking into next room.

We did have baking time today and Ashley is getting so good at breaking the eggs, pouring in the liquids and stirring in the batter. We gave some to our volunteers and I hope eventually we can work on taking some to our neighbors! I like having our scheduled times with just Ashley and me each week for painting and baking! She has also been doing a great job each day helping make her PBJ sandwich and getting all the supplies out!

 

New Frontiers Parent Training - May 2016

I was able to attend New Frontiers Program May 15-20th at the Autism Treatment Center of America. It was a wonderful experience and I was able to fully understand the Developmental Model. It was great to see where Ashley started off 1 year ago (with only a few checks) and now she has checks in every area. Some areas she is now on Stage 2!!!





Part of the program was learning the Option Dialogue Process which almost felt like therapy. They introduced it at Start-up but I wasn't interested in that because I only wanted to learn all the details about Ashley's Son-Rise Program. However, my attitude affects Ashley and pours out into the Playroom so getting to the root of the issue is very important. I learned so much about myself that week and how I can help my volunteers using this process too!





One eye opener from the week was that I lost sight that the most important part is increasing Ashley's Interactive Attention Span because this will ultimately increase her eye contact, flexibility and verbal communication. We were able to do group brainstorming sessions on games using our own children's motivations and that was so helpful!





When I got home, I started really using the 3 E's again and I noticed within 2 days Ashley was being more verbal. I heard the words "Awesome, juice, chips, I want, French fries, bubbles, & I love you." We are also working more on her nonverbal communication of shaking her head yes or no.


I wasn't able to blog much but I did make some facebook posts which help catch up for month of may to end of school!


May 15th, 2016


Enjoying the scenic cold drive on my way to attend more parent training this week in Massachusetts so we can take Ashley's Son-Rise program to the next level! I know every parent pursues what is best for their child and we are thankful Ashley responds so well to Son-Rise! We are so appreciative God has guided us with open and closed doors for these upcoming summer months on the path to take! We will be doing part time Son-Rise program to work on social goals, speech, education and baking skills while most importantly having fun! We also found a wonderful therapist who is supportive of our program and will be coming in to help on issues of potty training, self harming behaviors and public outings! It can be challenging going places with both kids in summer by myself so now I won't feel so trapped at home! If you think about it, please pray for Jeremy, my mom and village of helpers this week while I am gone and also for Ashley's updated program! Thanks!

May 20th


I had an amazing week at New Frontiers (advanced parent training) this week in MA for Ashley's Son-Rise Program! I am so excited to have new goals to take her Program to new level, new game ideas, to see her progress on developmental model from where she started, and more tools to help Ashley! I also love the support and encouragement from all these wonderful Son-Rise parents from all over the world!

May 24th


Happy birthday to the best husband and dad Jeremy! I know the kids loved baking the cake and decorating with you! So sweet to see Ashley bring you her cake!

June 3rd


Ashley's last day of 1st grade and she made so much progress this last year!!! I caught a cute picture at the SLE class party of Ashley interacting with her peer and I love the eye contact they were making to each other! We are soooooo thankful for her hard working teachers Jody & Callie who encouraged, challenged, and loved our daughter

June 5th


What a sweet moment caught of Ashley and Tawni sharing a noodle while celebrating their good friend D's birthday! I think these girls will always LOVE the water!