WEEK 17 - SON-RISE DAY 24 - R seemed tired and stimming with piece of Carrot

was diagnosed with Autism 2 years backs. And recently got diagnosed with Apraxia . R is now 4 years old. We started SON-RISE program with R couple of weeks backs. SON-RISE is a Play-therapy program that I am volunteering for . The Play-Therapy is associated with son-rise.org to treat his symptoms related to Autism.When I refer to Stimming , it is the repetitive behavior R does while lost in his world


Besides all other challenges the biggest challenge for R is finding his voice. It seems now he tries but sounds are not able to make there way out right now. He is able to say Ba more clear but rest of the sounds still have to make its way.

Yesterday I had another son-rise session with R.  I took some chopped Organic Carrots in a sandwich bag with me to feed my son during the drive to R's place. We reached R's home and I had sandwich bag with Carrots in it. I screamed who want Carrots.... My son Y, R's sister A came running to me and grabbed piece of Carrot from me. I asked R this time specifically do you want Carrot pointing at the bag of chopped Carrots. He looked at me , gave me smile and came to me. He grabbed the bag of carrots from me and started eating them one by one.

While he was busy eating carrots , I took him downstairs to run the play-therapy session. Once R reached the last piece of carrot, he took that piece and started stimming with it. He lay down on the crash mat and was rolling the chopped piece of Carrot in his fingers. He gave me eye-contact once a while. During those eye-contacts I asked him if he was interested in playing any games. But he did not responded, so I joined him in his stimming.

At some point he pretend to feed me the Carrot. I took his fingers and pretend to eat the food from it with funny noises. He started laughing. This went for couple of minutes and he went back to stimming.

At some point he got up from the crash mat and started jumping on floor and back to crash mat. I did the same and made cheering noises at times while jumping on the floor. It became a game and he was enjoying it.

Again R went back to stimming. In between he did gave me some sounds mostly Ba. He did made some other sounds but Not sure what were they  !!

After an hour he wanted to get out of the room, so I readily agreed thinking he may be tired as he was yawning also during the session.

WEEK 16 - SON-RISE DAY 23 - R was stimming but he was still with me

R was diagnosed with Autism 2 years backs. And recently got diagnosed with Apraxia . R is now 4 years old. We started SON-RISE program with R couple of weeks backs. SON-RISE is a Play-therapy program that I am volunteering for . The Play-Therapy is associated with son-rise.org to treat his symptoms related to Autism.When I refer to Stimming , it is the repetitive behavior R does while lost in his world


Besides all other challenges the biggest challenge for R is finding his voice, He started trying more sounds with the help of Intensive Therapy. But he is still only able to say Aa, Ba. He keeps on putting his tongue out for every sound he makes. Even after intense speech therapies, R is not able to make proper use of his tongue,lips,back of throat .


This son-rise session was little different. I felt R was tired. He was stimming more. But at the same time he was following whatever I asked anytime he gave me Green Light.

As I entered R's driveway, he was standing in garage with him mom. I came out of the car and he gave me this wonderful look with smile.He also gave a cute look to my son Y.We went down the in the playroom. R went towards the crash mat.

R started crawling on the crash mat. So I joined him in his stimming.While we were on crash mat we played "feet war". Trying to touch each others feets in the air.

R again played Pretend n  Play the vegetable cutter. R was trying hard to say the names of vegetables that we were cutting. Even though only Aa or Ba sounds came out. But I think I did heard him trying to say "T" or "Ar" also.

R also played the Flash card games with me. He showed me Broccoli,Bed,TV,Plum,Apple,Banana,Umbrella and some more things. I asked him holding the flash card with "Bed" on it, R sleeps on ...so he filled in the Blank "Be" for me, I am not sure if he said Bed completely or just "Be".

We did some jumping on crashmat by holding our hands, on the count of 1,2 and jump

Overall it was interesting session. I felt R was more interactive, even though he was in between trying to stim more.We were in the play room for more than 90 minutes , but he still wanted to play with me and did not asked to come out of the room.

I need to search for some more new pretend n play games for R. I am still finding his voice, waiting for him to call me using his words !!

WEEK 15 - SON-RISE DAY 22 - R was taking my fingers to scratch him

R was diagnosed with Autism 2 years backs. And recently got diagnosed with Apraxia . R is now 4 years old. We started SON-RISE program with R couple of weeks backs. SON-RISE is a Play-therapy program that I am volunteering for . The Play-Therapy is associated with son-rise.org to treat his symptoms related to Autism.When I refer to Stimming , it is the repetitive behavior R does while lost in his world

Besides all other challenges the biggest challenge for R is finding his voice, He started trying more sounds with the help of Intensive Therapy. But he is still only able to say Aa, Ba. He keeps on putting his tongue out for every sound he makes. Even after intense speech therapies, R is not able to make proper use of his tongue,lips,back of throat .

This session was similar to my last one. We played with Vegetable cutter Pretend n Play. I joined in his stimming. He won't let me bounce the ball. Somehow the game of bouncing the ball he will only play with certain people. He wont play that with me. He gave me much better look during those High-Fives !!

I did realized during the session, that he was trying to make sounds......but he was only getting As or Ba sounds out. He will put his tongue out instead of lifting it up. He wont even use voice back of his throat. I did celebrated his effort.
 
The interesting thing that happened during the session - R had gotten bit by some mosquito. So he got a little Redness on his shoulders. He kept on taking my fingers asking me to scratch there. He was enjoying everytime I scratched him. I just hope he could have used his words to ask me for scratching his shoulders.
 
We are trying our best, including R. We r waiting for that day when a miracle will happen and he will be able to use his voice.
 
#Autism #Apraxia

WEEK 15 - SON-RISE DAY 21 - R knows when you show energy to play with him

R was diagnosed with Autism 2 years backs. And recently got diagnosed with Apraxia . R is now 4 years old. We started SON-RISE program with R couple of weeks backs. SON-RISE is a Play-therapy program that I am volunteering for . The Play-Therapy is associated with son-rise.org to treat his symptoms related to Autism.When I refer to Stimming , it is the repetitive behavior R does while lost in his world



Besides all other challenges the biggest challenge for R is finding his voice, He started trying more sounds with the help of Intensive Therapy.


Usually I go for my therapy sessions on Wednesday, But sometimes I get bonus round - a playful priviledge to spend more time with R .....Always Fun.

Yesterday I went to my sister's house. And I volunteered to play with R in son-rise room. R was trying to take his mom in the son-rise room also. But at some point , I told him we will bounce on the Ball, R went with me downstairs. But when we came inside the room, R did not enjoyed sitting and bouncing the ball with me. I came to know afterwards that R likes sitting in the lap , facing towards the person and than bounce off the ball.

Oh, I am sorry my little,dear,cute - R .

But we did enjoyed pretend n play with Vegetable cutter. R even tried to make sound for Ah and Ba.

The first half session was little rocky, I felt he was not enjoying and that's why he went to stimming. At one point he even gave me sign language to go out. Not sure if he was tired also. But second half of the session was really fun. We did not even realized when R's mom came into room and reminded me that it was getting late, I should go back home to take care of my family :)

Dear R, You are always FUN, If someone is not realizing that they still need to know you, understand you :)

WEEK 14 - SON-RISE DAY 20 - R was very much listening to me !!

R was diagnosed with Autism 2 years backs. And recently got diagnosed with Apraxia . R is now 4 years old. We started SON-RISE program with R couple of weeks backs. SON-RISE is a Play-therapy program that I am volunteering for . The Play-Therapy is associated with son-rise.org to treat his symptoms related to Autism.When I refer to Stimming , it is the repetitive behavior R does while lost in his world


Besides all other challenges the biggest challenge for R is finding his voice, He started trying more sounds with the help of Intensive Therapy.



Yesterday was 4th of July, "Independence Day". I was just thinking to myself, when are our kids going to get independence from Autism , to live independent life !! 

Anyways with lot of thoughts I reached R's home for play-therapy session. Its like magic  when I see R's face, every thought just goes away trying to search for a smile from him. He was sitting on a chair holding onto Red Plum. I said "Hi Rohan" looking into his eyes. He gave me this shy smiley look. It was so cute and mischievous. I asked him do you  want to go and play Bounce,Bounce !! He immediately got up from his seat and came down with me to play-room.

R was still holding onto his Red Plum. I asked him do you want to help me cut the vegetables. so he pointed me to take the Pretend & play vegetable cutter game down from shelf.

We must have spend like 30-40 minutes playing it. But this time I had different experience . I asked R "what is this ? holding a fruit or vegetable in my hand." He was trying hard to make sounds to tell me what are they.

Somewhere R went back to his favorite stimming, by crawling on kitchen floor on his back, with his legs bended. I joined him also.

At some point when he gave me eye-contact. I asked him do you want to show me the house in flash-cards. He pointed at the flash-cards on shelf. I got the flash-cards down and R took all the flashcards out on the floor.

He was pointing at Plum,Pear,Tomato and Apple and gave me those flash-cards in my hand. Then he gave me the sound for "eat". So I pretended them to eat. At one point when Plum came on flash card, He pointed at the Plum from pretend n play game.

2 hours just passed by like that, we did not even realized that how much time passed by. Suddenly R's mom came in to room to give him something to drink, As R was suppose to get ready and get energy for his Speech therapy :)

I got some real good feedback from R's dad about my session. He told me that even if R tries to make a sound, even though it may not be correct, celebrate it. He also told me to give him pause so that he can process the information to say it. Last but not least I should not ask hims same thing twice, because it may be boring for R.

R's mom and dad told me that I should learn to prompt him for sounds, since he was showing interest in trying out the sounds with me.

 Dear R,  I am waiting for that day, when you talk and I am just quietly listening to you !!