Shower Time

Posted on by MICHELLE N
William’s new toy

I think shower time is William’s most favorite time of the day,

He must have the little yellow inflatable duck with him in the bath tub.  I just bought a little water can, he immediately took it and ran to the bath tub to play with it.  How did he know that the water can is associated with water?

Newport Beach in a Hot Summer Afternoon

Saturday 5:30 PM.  It was so hot that we decided to go to the beach, the nearest one to our house is the Newport Beach. While driving on the Pacific Coast Highway we saw signs about free trolley ride so we decided to take a ride.  Luckily the stop is right on the parking lot Read More

Saturday 5:30 PM.  It was so hot that we decided to go to the beach, the nearest one to our house is the Newport Beach.

While driving on the Pacific Coast Highway we saw signs about free trolley ride so we decided to take a ride.  Luckily the stop is right on the parking lot at the Balboa pier.  It took half hour to complete the circle.   The trolley driver stopped at the Hoag hospital on the Pacific Coast Hwy to pickup more customers but there was no one around.  She said we can park here for free and take the trolley to go to the pier.  The trolley is provided by the city, and runs from June to July, from 7AM-9PM  It’s a good idea especially during the summer days, it’s really hard to find a parking near the piers.

This time at the beach, Williams showed sighs of interest in playing with the sand (last time he’d kick and cry when we tried to take him to the sand area) but he still refused to go near the water, so Tim just held him and stood there to watch the waves.  He also showed interests in listening to the music; he’d stop near the homeless man who was playing guitar and listen to his playing.  He also raised his hand to high-five with a young man who’s obviously the homeless man’s friend.

After all looks like William had a nice time at the beach today; we’re all happy!

Playing with the sand

Riding the trolley around the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William loves the view from the trolley
William with Mom & Dad
Waiting to enter the trolley

Mile Square Park with Marian

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Sat 9:30 AM, a nice morning.

We requested 3 hours for a caregiver from GSG Services, and they sent Marian; she’s the 4th one and the worse one so far.  She paid more attention to her phone (texting, maybe?) than my boy.  When she arrived to our home, William was still sleeping so I told her to have a seat; she settled on the couch and looking at her phone ever since.  Even when William came out, I introduced her to William, she said hi and then got back to her phone.   While I was getting things to go to the park, I expected her to come to William and make acquaintance but no, she was still sitting on the couch and looking at her phone.  She stood up only when I told her we were ready to go to the park.

I watched her from a distance while William was playing at the playground: she occasionally checked her phone!

I hope it was something very important that she needed to check her phone that often.

A Day with ABEST Staff

Posted on by MICHELLE N
William ate a whole plate of lasagna!

Thursday Noon, another hot summer day.

No Mitchell school until beginning of July so William stays at the daycare full day.

Ms. Nhu from AExceLearning Behavorial Services (short for ABEST) sent me a report of this morning session with Ms. Han and Nhi at the Children’s World Preschool via email, including a few pictures.  Needless to say I’m very impressed with how they’re guiding William.  Below is the whole email from Ms. Nhu.

“Hi Chi Michelle and Anh Tim!

Session at daycare today went great! William played with peers in the playground and ate snacks (crackers), was able to participate in circle time on and off (for now, we are ok with him sitting from afar since he doesn’t like to sit with peers, but will slowly work to ease him in), and he participated in art project (tracing shapes and letters). During lunch, Ms. Cheryl said that William usually does not eat or he will take a bite and then stop eating altogether. However, we were able to work with him and got him to eat the whole plate of lasagna and carrots (he spoon fed himself), drank his milk, and had jello for dessert. He did a great job today! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. “
William and Ms. Han

Is the day care good for William?

Posted on by MICHELLE N

On Fri June 16, Ms. Nhu from AExceLearning called me right after she went to the Children’s World Preschool to see how William is doing there.  She told me that she’s concern about 2 safety issues:

One  is that William’s bed is right under the hanger; if that falls then it’ll be on top of William.  I drop William off at school every day and watch him running to his bed but didn’t notice that.  I knew his bed is right next to a table but didn’t notice the hanger is hanging above his bed from the other side of the bed.  So the next day after that conversation, instead of just watching him running to his bed from the door, I followed him and sat by his bed, now it’s very clearly to me that the hanger is really over his bed!  I felt really bad that I didn’t notice this before.  So I told Ms. Cheryl who was in the room at the time to move his bed up away from the hangar.

Second issue is that, about 5:0 PM everyday the children will be in the big room waiting for parents to pickup.  William just sits in the corner staring at his classroom door.  The bathroom is between the big room and his classroom; which means he sits right next to the bathroom; it’d not be too much of an issue if the teachers don’t clean the bathroom at that time.  But they do, they use Clorox to clean the bathroom everyday about 5:00 PM so William has been breathing that stuff everyday!  Ms. Nhu said that is not good for William so she asked if it’s ok for her to take William back to his classroom so that he doesn’t have to breath that stuff.  Mr. Gary said it’s ok as long as she tells the teachers that she’s watching William.

Today when I dropped William off at the daycare and had a little chat with Ms. Jennifer.  She told me how nice the ladies from AExceLearning  agency are, “she’s really nice that she took William to the back room (means William’s classroom)  and spend 30 minutes with him there”, “William loves to sit at this corner to stare at his classroom”.   Now that I know the exact location where my boy sits, I felt so sad just to imagine William sits there everyday and no one cares to pull him away from the corner that’s full of toxic smell!

I don’t blame the teachers at the daycare, they have to watch quite a few children and have to clean up at the end of the day; they already have their hands full so they don’t have time to care for an Autism boy.

For the first time, I really appreciate the presence  of the AExceLearning staffs at the day care to watch over William!

 

First Session with AExceLearning Center

Posted on by MICHELLE N
Ms.. Nhi & Nhu with William

Thursday evening at 5:45 PM at our house.

William had his first ABA session with AExceLearning center’s staffs for 2 hours.  Ms. Nhi (supervisor) and Nhu (administrative manager) came to work out a permanent schedule for William.  Then Nhu spent the rest of the time to make acquaintance with William while Ms. Nhi taking notes. At first W showed signs of not wanting to be near them like push them away or ran into the bed room and closed the door.  But eventually he stayed in the living room and sitting next to Ms. Nhu.  At some point he cried because Ms. Nhu would not give him the iPad before hearing he said “B”.  I came to comfort him, wiped out his tears; that calmed him down a bit and he started to say “B”.   Good boy!

Ms. Nhu also tried to teach him to do the sign “More” and “All Done” to express what he wants.

At the end of the session, Ms. Nhi said W has lots of potentials and skills.  That’s my boy, we’re proud of you, son!

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All Done