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Thursday 5:30 PM, as usual we have session with Anthony. Today William is not complying at all: he pushed away the board when we just started playing Candy Lane game, he did the same thing on 2nd try. He ran around and hit his hands against the wall when being asked to read books, etc.
With Huy’s decision of stop sending BT to daycare, hearing about my concern about William’s social skill, he told me about the Social Group they have at the Orange office every Friday so we decided to join. It’s from 9-11:45 PM every Saturday and with Anthony as our BT.
It is a group of about 7 children, each has their own BT, gathering around in a room. The activities include circle time : the group organizer, Ms. T, sat in front of the children and called each child’s name, when a child is called by his/her name, he/she has to answer the question like “How old are you? Everyone say Hi to William!” then she chose a story from a mobile device and read from it.
Then they went out to the front of the office just to feel the weather, it took about 5 minutes and went back to the room for Craft time. Everyone sat around the Half-Circle table and made the little black sheep using black papers, cotton balls and eyes. William seemed to be fine sitting and making his sheep.
Then it was snack time: every one has to wash their hands first (in the kitchen near by the eating area). They bought out their lunch boxes from the refrigerator and sat to eat for about 20 minutes. When everyone almost done with their snack, Ms. T turned on the big TV in the eating room; William didn’t like the movie so he ran out of the room; Anthony had to chase after him.
After snack, they got to go outside to play bubbles. Too bad there’s no playground or lawn, so the children play in the parking lot. It’s kinda dirty there, especially when they sat on the ground. William’s pants got so dirty!
Then everyone went back to the room, it’s free time to play. Children chose whatever toys they want to play. William was paired up a with an older kid to play Uno. They practiced “Your turn”, “My turn”.
The BTs always with the children all the time to help them.
Overall William seemed to be doing fine in this social group gathering. I wish we know about this group sooner. The main idea is to have the children learn how to interact with each other.
We planned to stay for whole session but Huy said it’s ok to watch today but next week, we can just drop him off and pick him up around 11:45 PM.
Wednesday 10:00 AM. I texted Huy, the supervisor, about what happened at the daycare yesterday that Mr. Gary was so upset and wanted me to call him. So Huy called me to talk about it.
Huy came with our new BT Anthony to the daycare yesterday (3:30 – 5:00 as schedule); Huy talked to Ms. Chastity and Ms. Angelina asking how was William doing without aid for the past 2 months. They both said William has been doing great. So Huy came to Mr. Gary and asked the same question. At first Ms. Gary said it William is doing fine but then went on saying that William is talking deficit, and that William doesn’t want to play with other kids so Huy should set up some activities like small group to help William. Huy replied that it’s not his job to do so; he and his staff are here just to support William, not to interrupt or pull William out of his daily schedule. I think this is why Mr. Gary is mad because Huy would not take his advise and refuse to do so.
Then Huy concluded that it seems to him William doesn’t need any help at the daycare any more so he will not send BT to the day care! I felt very sad about his decision; he only came for 1 and 1/2 hour and only based on the 2 teachers’ words who each has about 10 children to watch.
Dropped William at the daycare as usual, Mr. Gary was sitting in the yellow bird classroom, and gave me a signal that he wanted to talk. So after I put William to his bed, I came to him. He was very mad, “This is exact his words: there’s nothing else I can do here”. Mr. Gary referred to what Huy told him. Mr. Gary was upset because he thought Huy’s quitting on William by decide not to have sessions at the daycare anymore so he suggested things that Huy still can do for William, like setting up the small group where William can learn to interact with other children but looked like Huy took it the wrong way: Huy said “He told me how/what to do my job!”. I explained to Mr. Gary that they’re here just to SHADOW William, they will not interfere or create opportunity because it’s not their job to do so; and Huy preferred natural settings. Mr. Gary calmed down and he said, “If they’re here just to shadow then he’s right, William is fine here, he doesn’t need any help.” Then Mr. Gary said “I should apologize to him”, I gave him Huy’s number, he called but Huy did not pick up; he left a message in Huy’s voice mailbox.
Then Mr. Gary turned to Ms. Chastitiy and another staff (?), “Is William lacking of anything that need to improve?” They both said No; “William is very independent, he wakes up from his nap, put on his shoes, go to the play ground and play, doesn’t make any trouble at all.” The only thing he needs to improve is Speech. So they agreed that William doesn’t need any aid here.
Mr. Gary turned to me and said, “if there’s any tears these should be happy tears because William is at a different stage now”. I agreed with him, William is so much different than he was 1 year ago before he has ABA sessions. Of course I’m happy that he has growth so much but to say he doesn’t need any more help then I disagree.
I’m so touched that Mr. Gary did not think twice to argue with Huy to fight for William’s benefits. Other daycare’s director would careless about an ABA supervisor’s decision. From bottom of my heart, thank YOU Mr. Gary! I know all you want is the best for all your children under your supervision at the daycare.
On the way driving back to work, I realized that it must be the daycare staffs’ words that influenced Huy’s decision. They all said William is doing fine. I just hope that what they said is true. Although I’m very skeptical about that because to them if a boy doesn’t make any trouble, it means he’s doing fine.
Bottom line is that as a Mom, who knows his son the best, I still think William needs someone to encourage him to participate and socialize at the daycare; otherwise he’d be often stand or sit alone near the fence , just like when I dropped him off in the morning during last summer break. When William has school in the morning, his time at the daycare is not that much so I would not worry about that too much; but when the school is off and he has to stay at the day care all day, it hurts me when I see him standing and holding on to the fence looking at my car as I drive away. Other children at his age would just run off to his friends, say hi and play in the group. Our boy would just stand there and watch with careless and emotionless eyes.
I felt hopeless that I can’t convince Huy to change his mind. He took over the case for only a few months; at first he cut the hours (we lost 7 hours/week) and now plans to stop ABA sessions at the daycare, and based on what? Doesn’t he need to base on the ABC data to decide? What would another mom do in this case?
Monday 5:30 PM, we have ABA session with Thomas as usual. Today Huy, the supervisor stopped by; Jody did not come because she will come to Truck & Treat event with Thomas and us on Friday at the Blessed Sacrement Catholic Church in Wesminster.
In a typical ABA session with Thomas, he would let William jumps in the Trampoline for about 10 minutes and/or walk with dad Tim outside the house to practice “Wait” and “Come Here”. Then William would take a shower. When he’s done with shower, Thomas would ask William what game he wants to play; and the the last few weeks his response is either Monopoly or Uno. He understands the basic rule of the games which is good; but sometime he cried or kicked because the game did not go the way he wanted. For example, sometime he wants the Chance card when playing Monopoly but it’s Thomas who got the chance card, so he cried.
William talks a lot more playing game with Thomas; they’re bot so cute when playing.
Friday, ABA session as usual from 5:30 PM – 7:45 PM. The supervisor Huy suggested we took a walk to practice safety rules: Stop, Wait and Come Here commands. William must learn to listen to commands and do not run without asking permission.
So when we’re walking, I’d tell him “Stop and Wait here with daddy” then let him standing there with Tim, I’d walk further up then turn around and ask him to come to me, “William, come here!”. He’s supposed to walk to me and hold my hand; but every time he’d just run past me! So Thomas would have to stand behind me to block him from running.
William did that every time on today’s walk so Huy suggested that we train William on walking nicely first.
Friday 8/24/2018. Today is Ms. Jeanne’s last ABA session with William, the Behavorial Technician, who has been with William at the day care for almost every day for the last 3 months. She recently got her BCBA credentials; and she found a new company that meet her needs. I’m so sad to see her go because I’ve seen her teaching William; she’s really good at teaching William to pretend plays like ordering food at Mc Donalds, in the airplane listening to the flight attendants instructions to put the bags under the seat, buckle up, etc.
May 11 – Aug 24, so Jeane has been William’s BT for a little bit more than 3 months; time does fly. I still remember the day when I heard about William’s accident with the Merry-go-round while under Jeanne’s watch, I was so sad and wanted to ask for a different BT; but I didn’t because I recalled the first day she came to our house; she would pay attentions to little details as to what William likes to do; and she put on the music softly in the background. She impressed me with her creative ways to get Williams to do things. I’m glad that I did not ask for a new BT.
Last week she asked if I saw William dance yet; I was like “Uh no, never!”, then she played the youTube video “Cha cha dance” and told William to dance. It was so fun to see William kicking his legs and swing his hands up & down. I’m so happy to see my boy having fun in the ABA session.
From her observations, she believes that William will understand better if she writes down the words on the papers and read it with him. For example, “Welcome to Mac. Donald, what would you want ?”
She only came once a week to our house, on Thursday from 5:30-7:45, so we did not get to see her much; but she was with William everyday from 3:00 – 5:15 PM. When it was summer, she’d be there with him in the mornings also. So I bet William grows to be closed to her and loves her as much as we do. We’re sad to see her go but at the same time we’re glad that she’s moving up in her career.
Good luck in your new role, Ms. Jeanne. We’ll miss you!
Thomas, William’s BT for every evening ABA session at home from 5:30 – 7:45 always comes with 2 bags full of toys. William’s favorite now is Pop the Pig and Monopoly. We love the way he’s being patient with William. He’s a very nice young man.
Monday afternoon, normally it’s the PC session with Jody and One to One session with Aaron but Aaron cancelled so Jeannie covered for him. The supervisor Huy also came to go over the progress report that he had to prepare to turn over to his director; the report is due to the Cal Optima on Sept.
He went over the goals that set by previous company ABEST and how William achieved the goals. There are about 7 goals that he marked “Discontinued” because he thinks William achieved them. And in conclusion he recommended to reduce the One on One hours from 24 hours / week to 17 hours/week, meaning cutting back 7 hours/week. He also cuts back the PC hours from 12 to 10 hours/month.
We’re not happy with his decision because William achieved a few goals but there are still lots of goals in the list that we haven’t started yet. He based on the ABC data collected by the BTs at home or day care sessions to conclude that William achieved the goals. I was learned from parent training from previous company that in order to master a goal, William has to demonstrate that skill with BTs, and with parents and can generalize that skill out in the community as well. We rarely take William out to the communities during session so Huy would have no idea how William behaves when in the community. From our recent travel trips, we were very frustrated because William would never listen, he would run off unexpected and throw tantrum if we did not allow him to do what he wanted. Huy only comes few times a month, and observes for about 1 hour per session, how much can he learn about William in such a short time; plus, he just took over our case for only about 3 months! As a Mom, I know William the best, I know William still needs lots of training on controlling his behaviors so cutting back the hours is not gonna help. 3 or 4 hours of cutting back is ok but 7 hours is too much!
Monday evening, we had ABA session with Arron and PC with Jody. Last week Jody mentioned that William seems to like the books a lot so she suggested that we should go to the library; so we planned for that to happen today.
Around 6:00 PM we Jody, Arron, William and I went to the New Hope library (in separate cars) which only 7 minutes from our house. We practiced holding hand while walking on the walk way. Once in the library we asked William to pick out the book, he picked a random one without looking at it; and then refused to pick any other book. He did sit down for 3 minutes while Arron reading the book to him. Then he stood up, walked around; at some point running and talking very loud.
I opened the library membership and we got to check out 2 books today: A pop-up book Red Car Blue Car and The Best Birthday Party. I read these book to him late at night and he seemed to like it: he didn’t ask for Baby Jesus or Zoo Animals which have been his favorite books for months.
He does seem to like listening to book reading; I think going to the library is a fantastic idea. I’ll try to take him to the library on the weekends when they have story telling time.
Tuesday, 5:30 PM – 7:45 PM, ABA session with Ms. Jody from TasKids. William loves to play with the sand that she brought. He has been playing with it for a month now and still not bored yet.
