ABA/ Juggling

Yesterday we went to Mom's house for a visit. While Ronin and Audrey trekked downstairs to play with the Thomas trains, Nikko hung out with me and the folks in the dining room. He ate a Cutie orange and a banana, but only because he didn't immediately see the mini-Kit Kats on the speaker table. All the kids behaved rather well and I was glad to give them a change of scenery during their spring break. Nikko's session earlier that morning with Kathy was good except for the usual focus issues and a few unexpected crying fits. She wasn't sure why he burst into tears over something, and seeing him in an angry element seems to take her aback. Kathy remarked that Nikko seemed even bored during some of the drills.

This afternoon, Nikko's therapy session with Rebecca was also deemed good except for an outburst toward the end of the session because he thought they were finished when they really weren't. Rebecca doesn't seem taken aback when Nikko has outbursts, but I can tell she doesn't like them either. Rebecca also voiced whether or not Jenna was coming to evaluate Nikko, and I said she was coming on Monday. Rebecca said she wasn't entirely sure what Nikko "knows" or which drills he has mastered because he doesn't consistently do the things with her that he does with the others. Great.

I am at that pre-summer planning crossroads where I have to figure out what Nikko should do over the summer. He will definitely participate with ESY right after school ends. We are also leaning toward putting Nikko into a day camp 3x/week for 5.5 hours through the NWSRA. I feel more comfortable with that idea because they will have staff trained specifically on autism and how to best deal with Nikko. The hard decisions surround continuing private speech, ABA and possibly adding OT (at the recommendation of Lisa). Of course, this all costs money. So the balancing act begins. I have my calendar printed out, now I need to crunch the numbers and figure out the headache of this planning. And what am I going to do with Ronin and Audrey this summer? I have to consider that if Nikko does back-to-back therapies at Arlington Pediatric Therapy, it will be very unfair for the other two. And can I even put either of them in classes with Nikko's schedule taking priority? The guilt is creeping in fast.