Another day at the day care. As soon as he went thru the little door, he sat down on the floor and scratched his legs! So I went in, pulled out the chair and told him to sit on the chair, not the floor.
I remember when he first started here, he’d lie down on the same spot. So nothing has improved. He has no awareness that people would get in /out that little door and might step on him.
I’ll try to remind him not to sit on the floor or ground; hopefully one time he’ll stop doing that.
Tuesday 8:30 AM
Dropped William off at the daycare today, while I was sign up, he sat right next to the kid entrance door with the lunch bag next to him. So I came in, put his lunch back away and asked him to go outside to play. He said his belly hurt and wanted me to rub. So I told him to wait because I needed to replace his swim suit with the new set I bought from home. He followed me outside to the wooden shelve where they put the children’s swimming stuffs.
So I rubbed his belly; then he wanted to go to the restroom. He sat on the toilet for quite a bit. Then when he was done, I asked him to go outside but he refused. He sat down on the floor in the corner next to the restroom. I told him to go outside several times, finally he did but as soon as he got out of the door, he sat down on the ground! I told him to go sit on any chair because the ground is dirty. He refused to stand up; until I told him I’d rub his belly if he sits on the chair. That’s when he followed me to sit on the bench in the playground. I rubbed his belly a little bit more; but I needed to leave for work so I told him to continue sit there.
As soon as I stood up and turned my back about to leave, he went back inside and sat in that same corner! I came in to ask him again to go out and sit on the chair. “I want mama to go to work!” – he said.
I guess he wanted to be left alone.
I don’t mind if he sits by himself but the fact that he sat on the floor near the restroom really sadden me. Plus, he leaned on the door; what if someone opens the door then he’d get hurt! After 4 years at the same daycare, I thought he’d be better at this place but obviously nothing has changed. He acts the same way as did the first few months when he started going here.
I looked around, Ms. Rose Mary and Jennifer and the new teacher were busy outside with other kids; no one really paid attention to him.
I left the daycare with broken heart and tears on my eyes. What kind of a mom I am that I left my only son there feeling lonely and unhappy. But there’s really nothing I can do; unless I quit my job and stay home to take care of him. Finally, I can’t do that.
Sunday Afternoon.
William’s hair is getting so long; and the summer heat is too strong so it’s time to get another haircut. We came back to the same salon we went to last time, Stephanie Salon. This time we had to wait for about 10 minutes; I let him watch videos on my phone while waiting so that he’d not messing around. This time we got a different barber.
He behaved better, get on the chair without whining. He only said “No” a few times when the lady changed the hair cutter or tried to use the scissor but I came and comforted him; redirected him back to the videos to distract him.
He looks thinner with the new hair cut.
Dropped William off to the day care in the morning as he still on the summer break. I went in to take his swim suit home and put in the new set for this week. I turned around and looked for him in the playground but could not find him. Turned out he was sitting on Mr. Gary’s laps in the office. Whenever Mr. Gary is in the office, William always comes there and hangs around. It’s nice of Mr. Gary that he lets William plays there instead of asking him to go to the playground.
As I saw William scratching his armpit, I walked in the office and tried to put some itchy cream on him. Mr. Gary asked “Eczema?”. Yes, I replied. Then he said if I’ve tried Coconut oil yet. To respond to my surprised look, he stood up and went to the counter near the restroom and took out 1 big Coconut Oil container; he put his hand in and took out some; rubbed both hands together and messaged it on William’s back. Then he put some on his neck too. It’s no question that Mr. Gary loves and is very good around children. And the children love him too; and so does our William.
He told me to bring a jar and get some home to try it on William to see if it works for him before buying it. He said he knew about this Coconut Oil for about 7 months; and that it works on other children. Hopefully it’ll work on William too.
William always has trouble sleeping at night; he usually falls asleep no sooner than 11:00 PM when he takes a nap at the day care. If no nap, he can fall sleep easily around 10:00 PM.
But today, it was 4:00 AM! This is the first time he slept that late. I recall he was jumping up and down on the old mattress that we moved to the bonus room; and he even walked on the trek mill with me. One would think all the activities would wear him out and he’d sleep easily but NO!
He had some caramel pop corn while jumping around; not sure if that’s the cause?
William’s compliance is getting worse so Jody/Elizabeth recommended that we stop sending William to social group on Saturdays. So from 7/20/2019 the session with Brenda will be at home instead at TasKids office.
“William bad behaviors of not listening and taking toys away from his peers affect other children” – Jody said.
I felt sad when I heard that; I’m always hoping that with Social Group, he can improve his social skills and learn how to interact with other children; so that he’s less likely to sit in the corner all by himself.
Another reason that I want him to go to Social Group is because I think it’s more fun to have sessions outside of the house settings. They have all kind of activities like read book, craft, dance; and especially when there’s a birthday party, he get to have a balloon which he likes.
Now that the session is held at home, a 3 hour session is too long!
“We will resume Social Group when his’s compliance level is improved” – Jody continued.
With William’s current behaviors, I can see that date will not coming soon!
Updates:
8/7/2019 We’ve had 3 sessions with Brenda on Saturdays at home since the stop going to the TasKids office. I could see that William is not enjoying time with Brenda; I guess he’s simply just bored. So I’m trying to find any events near by that we can go so that the whole session doesn’t have to be at home.
We’ve been afraid that William would not sit still and cannot be quiet inside a movie theater so we did not take him there until now.
We’ve been preparing him mentally of what to do in the theater: sit in your seat, do not run around, be quiet. He seems to understand all these rules.
So finally William got to see a movie in the theater: the Secret Life of Pets 2 at the Outlets of Orange, which is only 10 minutes from our house. We were late; and someone took our assigned seats so we ended up sitting near the screen but that seems ok with William. He could not sit still: he kept standing up or climbed on the rail in front of us. One time he got out of the chair and went up to the big screen to touch it. Anothe time he wanted to get out to go up the stairs but I blocked him and said No. Few times he used normal voice so I asked him to be quiet then he lowered his voice. Overall his behaviors was better than I expected. At first he did not pay much attention to the movie; he was looking around, up to the projector, then to the screen but toward the end of the movie, he seemed to enjoy the movie because I saw him laughing / smiling.
Currently, we have ABA sessions on M, W, F, from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM. Mondays & Fridays we have Thomas as William’s BT. He’s been with us for about a year now. On Fridays we have Brenda; which is our new BT for about few months. Brenda is also responsible for Social Groups on Saturdays from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
A typical ABA session at home would be Thomas/Brenda asking William what he wants to do or what game he wants to play. Most of the time I’d be cooking our dinner while listening to their conversations. Some times I sit down and watch them. We’re so lucky to have BTs who are patient and dedicated to their job.
Now it’s summer so some times we go out to the back yard and William plays in the trampoline. We also walk around the neighborhood to practice our goals of “Asking permission/Elopement”. William tends to run off to whatever he wants so the goal is for him to ask permission before he goes and to stay next to mom & dad when going out.
Recommended by William’s speech therapist, we scheduled for an OT evaluation from the same place, Providence Hearing and Speech center.
I took a day off to take William there, but first we stopped by at Dunkin Donuts: William loves chocolate donut.
The whole evaluation session lasted about 30 minutes; they asked me to fill out some questions: make a check mark next to the item that William can do or a cross mark if William cannot do. While I’m working on that, the lady worked with William: asked him to cut a circle, trace and color shapes and some other activities. And she took notes while doing so.
At the end, she recommended that we should have 1 hour / week for OT. Give it about 2 weeks for her to complete the report and then we should call in to schedule the sessions.
She asked what’s our concerns are. It’s that William is almost 6 years old but he still cannot button/un-button shirts/pants or tie his shoe laces. His skill of using utensils is very poor: he changes to left or right hand very often; it looks as if his fingers/hands get tired easily.
William rarely looks into anyone eyes. Eye contact is 1 of the goals in ABA sessions; we always try to ask him to look into our eyes when he asks questions but he never really does it. Some times it’s just a quick direct look but then he looks somewhere else.
This is 1 of the reasons why we can never get him to look at the camera when taking pictures. Another reason being he does not like to take picture.