Morgan's Sweet Teacher

This is Teacher Deanna. She was Morgan's lead teacher this last year as well as the summer school program. She'd hate it if she knew I was posting this picture. She wasn't feeling well that day, so she looks tired, but otherwise is just the cutest person!

Deanna truly cares about each child she works with. She is firm, but also very motivating for the kids. Morgan liked her a lot. As a parent, she was also great to work with and listened to all of our concerns as well as being open to suggestions we had. She also put up with my random emails and calls to school when I wanted to check in on how Morgan was doing or feeling.

She has younger twin brothers with severe autism, so obviously this inspired her desire to work with this population. It was such a blessing to be able to have her as Morgan's teacher this last year. We're sure we'll see her around school next year as she has promised to "stalk" Morgan in her new class and keep updated on how she's doing.

The Music Truck

We've been lying to our children for a few years. Really. On purpose.

During the summer we occasionally hear the fabled Ice Cream Truck on nearby streets. The girls will hear the lilting songs playing and will ask where it's coming from. David and I would look at each other and knowingly agree on our approach. He was the one who came up with the brilliant idea to call it the "Music Truck." He'd say something like, "Oh, its a truck that drives around playing music...isn't that cool?" The girls would smile and listen. We were lucky that it never actually came down our street, until two weeks ago.

David was outside playing with the girls one evening and I heard the melody of "Home on the Range" or whatever song they usually play. Then I thought "Uh oh", because the girls have never been outside when the truck came. At that point one of our neighbor's kids, an eight year old boy, came racing out of the house and down the street to flag the truck down. Well people...the jig was up. It was time for our girls to learn the truth.

David came in to get some cash...and admit defeat. Of course the girls were thrilled!! All the kids on our street came streaming out and that truck had a jackpot he never knew about. Funny though, he hasn't been back since, at least when we've been home. Spokane must be short on Ice Cream Trucks...he must have a lot of streets to cover.

The girls scored some cool missile pops and both of them ate every last bit. Morgan even exclaimed at one point, "The Music Truck has Ice Cream!" Hee, hee. I guess we'll have to start calling it the Ice Cream Truck now. At least now we know they don't come around often so we can feel free to let them have the treat when it happens. We were just in fear of having to disappoint them if we had to say no. Maybe next time I'll even have one too!

Advertising for Toddlers

I don't know who Apple is targeting...but it seems to be almost three year olds. While David was watching the Home Run Derby last night, Piper became enthralled with one of Apple's ads. When it was over she turned to me and said "I love iPad!"

Thanks Apple!

It's all fun and games...

...until you run into your little sister with your new bike!

Piper's fine...just a few small scratches. Oops. But things we a little more successful later...

If you notice some odd behaviors or language in these videos, we are trying to help Morgan to learn to ride her bike using some RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) language. We're not great at it yet, but we are try to use much less "command" type language and a lot more non-verbal communication. This was our first try at this with the bike, so we found it was difficult to stay consistent when Morgan veered off course, or wouldn't stop...but we'll get there.

In the last video Morgan was upset because our neighbors just left to go out of town for a few days. She really wanted to play with her friend Mya. Our goal of this riding session was to get her to ride her bike from the sidewalk all the way across the street. This task was interrupted by her friend leaving. We wanted her to push through this upset state and complete the task (without sending her into a meltdown). One of the many goals of RDI is to help Morgan become more flexible and be able to regulate her emotions better. Also, note that she gets a little help along the way from Piper!

We thought it would be fun to show some progress of Morgan on her bike. We'll keep posting more as she gains confidence.

One step forward and two steps back

Just when it seems Morgan makes some serious progress, we seem to get hit with a stumbling block. Morgan really has made some strides with her communication lately, but one specific issue keeps arising.

The last few months we've had trouble with Morgan tearing her books. This just boggles our minds because Morgan has always loved books. She loves to be read to and she likes to look at them on her own. With this tearing, she will pinch the bottom of a page with her fingers and tear upwards...every.single.page. We've continually told her this is not OK. A few books have not been salvageable. Some we've taped, but tonight took the cake.

We went to do story time and each girl chose a book. Piper chose Madeline, one of my favorites. As soon as I opened it, I knew we had a problem. At first I thought, oh, maybe it's just the title page, but no. Every page was torn. I got upset...not in a yelling way, but a desperate why-do-you-do-this-I-want-to-cry kind of way. Piper got very upset because I was upset. I then told Morgan it was time to get in bed, I turned out the light and left her room. As soon as I was done putting Piper to bed, I went back to Morgan's room.

I then pulled all the books from her shelf and started to go through them. Even books I had repaired were torn again. Then, she started handing me the books she had torn, even ones that I thought, at first, were OK. Even her storybook Bible. Ugh. There are probably ten of them.

When I ask her why, she really cannot answer me. I'm not sure she is understanding any of this at all. I ask her if she likes the sound it makes or how it feels when she tears it, she says yes. Then I asked her if she does it to make me angry...she says yes. I asked her if she does it to make Daddy angry, she said "No, he's not here." He's on a business trip tonight. It's sort of like talking to a wall.

I don't know what to do about this. The worse part is I worry that she has some cognitive issues that have not been addressed. Her teachers, therapists and RDI consultant seem to think she's at least of average intelligence and have not brought up any cognitive concerns. Still, something tells me there is something we are missing.

We are going to contact a few people to see if we can get some insight on this. I really hope we can get some good direction on it so she will stop this behavior.

Wordless Wednesday: New Bike!

RDI and Star Box

Last week we took a, somewhat impromptu, trip to the Tri-Cities to see our RDI Consultant, Christine. We had been on a bit of a "break" from our program when Christine had unexpected surgery. We kept our activities status quo for a bit and then got back in contact as she was feeling better.

Christine had planned on making a visit to our neck of the woods this time, but with some scheduling conflicts we decided a few days ahead of time to head down her way. Both Morgan and Piper LOVE visiting "the hotel" and sleeping in their peapods (mini tents). They were so excited to make the trip!

We have been in a phase of our program where Morgan, David and I were all assessed on our skills and current status of many things such as, our mental health, obstacles that may be in the way of making progress, as well as Morgan's areas of "deficit". I know that terms sounds odd, but this is something you hear a lot when kids with autism are evaluated. Common areas of deficit are social skills (can be a wide range), referencing, joint attention, etc. It is different for every kid. A bit of great news is that Christine didn't see any "outside" areas that needed to be addressed with additional therapies. Some kids need help from an Occupational Therapist or Speech Therapist for specific issues that can be obstacles to progress in RDI. Sometimes these things can show up along the way, but for new we are grateful to not have to consider this.

I also fully appreciate how this program really takes into consideration of the whole family, not just the child with autism. Since it is to be parent led, we need to be in a place where we are able to guide Morgan in the optimum way to help her make progress.

When we met with Christine she gave us a report that included her assessments in all these areas. We reviewed videos that had been previously recorded and discussed the positives and negatives. In the end we received our first three goals. We scheduled meetings through the end of July and are taking new steps forward. David and I have quite a bit of homework to do on our own in addition to working with Morgan. It's going to be busy summer in so many ways!

The picture above is on our scheduled stop at Starbucks on the way home from the Tri-Cities. Morgan refers to this lovely place as "Star Box." Usually the girls get a treat of pink donuts...but that day they didn't have them, so they chose to share a chocolate chunk cookie (see Piper's right hand). Happy girls, make happy car trips!