Unfocus

3/29/11 School Report - Speech: What ?'s with pictures - good job today. Worked on "no", greetings. Loves singing Brown Bear song & Twinkle.

3/30/11 School Report - General note: Nikko was helper today, with minimal prompting. He said "[name] go play," after a first model. He used "I don't know" on his own twice, too!"
OT: Not a very good session at first. Refusing to say "I want_____" when grabbing for toys. Got very mad. Finally distracted him to another activity. Then worked on drawing & cutting. At end of session, was OK.

I emailed the OT in agreement regarding the I Want. He's been resisting it all week, despite being in a good mood. In fact, the good mood has lasted a long time but is also accompanied by lots of unfocused-ness. It's apparent in all his ABA sessions. Don't know if it happens at school all the time.

I mentioned this "unfocus" to Lisa the ST this morning before Nikko's session and she said that getting OT could really be beneficial to Nikko in this area. He could learn how to self-regulate and/or receive the input that would then help him organize his body to focus and work. I inquired about our summer schedule and she was in agreement that if we had to shuffle/reduce therapies, it would be beneficial to have ST and OT if we could swing it, especially OT. Regarding focus, Lisa pointed out that Nikko needed a lot of sensory breaks, and was probably getting restless from sitting for so long. This makes me think about ABA, where he is required to sit and do drills. He gets breaks in ABA, too, but maybe he's not getting enough breaks in his session. After a while, he may be sitting there and following the drills by rote, can even imitate what's being said, but Lisa questioned how much he is truly LEARNING and retaining. Lisa had an opportunity to be in a room with Nikko and the head of OT at the facility. Lisa pointed out that Nikko was trying to get OT, and the head OT person said the list was long but they'd really try to move on it. I'm glad Lisa pointed out Nikko specifically. When discussing the swing and his aversion to it, the OT said that perhaps it wasn't that he didn't like the swing (since today he actually tried it out and let Lisa push him a bit), but that maybe he wasn't used to being on a swing often and needed more experience and exposure to swings.

I've got to ask Karen on Friday her opinion on the "I Want" stuff.