Thursday, late Afternoon. Mr. Gary sent us a video of the kids taking over his office, with William is obviously in his chair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QjhdnvTzsM
Category: Education
Refused to go to Class
Tuesday morning. As usual I took him to Mitchell school around 8:15 AM but today he refused to get off his car seat when we arrived at school. I used chocolate and chips but he said no to both; finally I told him he could play in the sand box then he let me carry him of the car seat and put him in his stroller to get to his class. But then when we got to his classroom, he refused to get in. He cried with tears coming off his face, sitting down on the concrete floor in front of the classroom door. Finally when I told him he could take the pillow with him to the room, then he stood up and walked in.
Yesterday when I picked him up, Mrs. Hana said that he was easily upset the whole day. He either sat in the corner or ran to the bathroom and sat there without peepee. Mrs. Hana had no idea what was going on with him.
Today when I picked him up, Mrs. said she found out what’s wrong. She said she has more students than 1 lunch table can handle so she arranged a 2nd table. When she asked him to come to the yellow lunch table, that was when he totally lost it. Other time is that she turned on the Mickey Mouse video, he said “Trolls” and totally lost his temper again. In her conclusion, if things are not the way he wanted then he’d act out like that. When she said “we’ll watch Trolls tomorrow” then he’d calm down. She said, at least now she knows what triggers his behaviors, she’ll know how to calm him down and gradually teach him to tolerate more to changes.
William’s Favorite Corner
Wed Morning. As usual I took William to his classroom and the first thing he did is to run to a corner. He does that almost all the time. Seems like he likes to sit there and watch others playing; or maybe he’s just sleepy?
Mrs. Hana said when he’s upset, he’d run to the corner and sit there.
One time he put his hand under the door that scratched his hand! :(. Mrs. Hana said this room has 3 doors, and she’s trying to block his access to the doors whenever she can so that won’t happen again.
4th Birthday Celebration at Mitchell School
Tuesday Nov 21 at Michelle Child Development Center.
It was the last day before the Thanksgiving break at school; I bought a birthday cake and brought to school to celebrate William’s 4th birthday. Mrs. Hana recorded and sent it to me via the Class Dojo mobile app. I love the smile and expression on his face! I forgot to bring the candle; I’m surprised to see the candle on his cake. Thank you Mrs. Hana for the candle so that William can blow it off. He loves to do that!
Refused to Go to Daycare
Thursday afternoon 1:30 PM. As usual I picked William up at Mitchell school and dropped him off at Children’s World Preschool. But today he refused to get off the car seat and go in!
I said, “Let’s go in”
He said, “No”. I asked why not but he didn’t say anything. William just learned the word “No” and he has been using it a lot.
Every time I tried to unbuckle the car seat straps, he put it back in and cried and kicked his legs. So I asked Mr. Gary for help. He came out to the car, William did the same thing: cried and kicked his legs. Gary was so determined to take him so he ignored his behavior. William’s head almost hit the car floor while he was trying to escape. Mr. Gary carried him inside while William still crying; and took him to the kitchen, let him sat on the counter and offered him water. I peaked thru the window and he still crying but I needed to go back to work.
Fri day afternoon, William did the same thing. This time Mr. Gary was not there so Mrs. Anita (new teacher) came out. William shook his head refused to go in.
Cried at School
Noon 1:10 PM. When I picked William up at Mitchell school, Mrs. Hana said he had a hard time today. He refused to sit to eat breakfast and lunch, he cried several times and ran to sit in a corner. On the communication book on Monday, the note said he cried multiple times too. So i’m not sure what’s going on with him.
As usual, I put the milk and hot dog on a small chair in my car so that William can have it if he feels hungry. He took the milk to drink, then grasped the hot dog! it’s the sign that he’s extremely hungry. As the teacher said, he didn’t eat anything so that explained it. Then he took the hot dog and climbed to the back of the car to get to the trunk! He sat there and ate his hot dog; he refused to get back on the back seat. He likes to hang out in the trunk a few times before but would climb back to the back seat after few minutes. This time he stayed there for a while. It looked like that he wanted to sit in a corner by himself.
When he almost finished the hot dog, he climbed back out to the back seat and came to the driver seat and hang out there as he normally would. Few minutes later he pooped. Right after he finished pooping, he pushed his nose against my nose and smile! So was it because he had an upset stomach that he behaved the way he did? I hope that’s just it.
He felt asleep on the way to Children’s World preschool; and when I put him down on his tiny bed, he was still sleeping.
Nice Hat!
Wednesday noon. Picked William up and there he was with a nice hat. He looked happy as usual.
William Is Limping!
Tuesday 10 AM, Mrs. Hana from Mitchell called. She said William had been limping for 40 minutes now; he looked happy so she wasn’t sure if he was doing that just for fun. She also sent me a video of William limping via classDojo app. From the video it’s obviously that he was hurting that’s why he’s limping but he looked happy walking around the area. I messaged back to Mrs. Hana asking her to have the school nurse checked him out. 11 AM, Mrs. Hana called and said the nurse and the physical therapy (who happened to be in school at the time) took a look at his leg but could not find anything abnormal.
So I took off work around 11:30 AM, picked William up early; he was eating lunch when I came. He was still limping but I didn’t see any pain from his face. I called the doctor Huy’s office to make appointment; and they set us up at 2:00 PM. It was still early for our doctor appointment so I took him home.
2:00 PM. Doctor Huy Nguyen took a look at his leg, watched him limping around, touched his feet but William but could not find anything wrong either. He said to give his leg some warm water and massage it.
He felt asleep around 4:00 PM on our bed; after he woke up around 5:30 PM, he stopped limping. And I didn’t even give him a massage yet!
No one knows what happened; and William doesn’t talk so we’re clueless. Hopefully it’s nothing major. Dr. Huy said to observe, if it doesn’t go away then we might have to take X-ray to check out. Hopefully we don’t have to go thru that.
Later when he had session with ABA Staff Dan at 5:30 PM, he’s totally fine, no more limping.
It’s Friday!
Friday afternoon, another hot autumn day.
As usual I picked him up after my quick lunch around 1:00 PM. I always try to arrive before 1:00 so that I can find a parking spot near the gate. Almost everyday he walks out with Mrs. Hana; and today with a big smile on his face.
I told the teacher aids about toilet training William at home; and they told Mrs. Hana. So Mrs. Hana asked me if I want to do that here at Mitchell. I’m glad that Mrs. Hana is so willingly to help with toilet training. It’s been a whole week (since Monday this week) and she says there’s no accident at all; we’re so proud of you William!
It becomes a routine now that after I pick him up, I let him play in the car while trying to feed him some thing like hot dogs, sausage or cheese. Daily report says he doesn’t eat much at lunch so I always bring him some thing to eat before driving him to the daycare. As soon as he’s done eating we’ll take off and head to the day care; It’s usually about 1:40 PM.
Discrete Trial Training (DTT)
William has DTT every morning from 8:30 AM for 20 minutes. I heard the teacher and staffs saying the word DTT all the time, “William, let’s go to DTT” but never knew the meaning of it so today I asked Ms. Vanessa what it means. She saids it’s Discrete Trial Training.
So i’m looking up this word in internet and starting to understand more about this technique.
http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/discrete-trial-training.html
“Discrete Trial Training is one of the most important instructional methods for children with autism”
– Smith (2001, p.86)
Hopefully William is learning from DTT. William has made lots of progress over the past few months; I’m not sure it’s because he’s learning from school or from ABA sessions at home, which is 5 days a week from 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM (Mon-Fri).
Now he likes to sing Happy Birthday, ABC and Twinkle Little star songs. He knows to request for “More Time” when he wants to play with toys that he likes. He uses the word “Open” a lot when requests to open the door or candy packets. He learns to say in a complete sentence “I want iPad”. And he’s toilet training at home.
And importantly he responds to his name by looking up; which he never did before.