BIG Weekend for Conor - THREE Accomplishments!!!

Back on the 10th of Feb when Conor and I went to see the group of doctors at SW Human Development, Dr Kessler recommended I get and read two books. One of them is called "Making Sense of Autism", the other being "Early Intervention and Autism". I was able to locate this first book and was able to download it to my phone. I did this on Friday of last week and have been reading it off and on ever since. I am not a reader by any means. To be honest, I actually HATE TO READ, but.... I know I need to educate myself on this THING they call Autism.

 

From what I have been reading and from what Dr Kessler had mentioned while we were there, seem to be pretty consistent. They both say when it comes to teaching a child with Autism, it is better to focus on a "handful" of learning issues and not try and overwhelm him with too much information at once. With that in mind, Conor and I have been working on body parts. This weekend, we focused on teeth and tounge. 

 

By allowing him to put his toys in my mouth, I would bite down and I would explain to him what I was doing. "Bite" "Teeth" etc. Of course he had to get gutsy and experimented with putting his finger(s) in my mouth in which I did the same to him. I would point to HIS teeth and HIS tounge. Then... he started to catch on with the biting part and bit my finger, pretty damn hard I might add. I immediately showed him that it hurt by my facial expression and verbally by saying "AAAHHHH!!!" He finally opened his mouth but it didn't seem to effect him that he hurt me. So.... we continued to play the putting the toys in Mommy's mouth game. Conor then put his finger in my mouth again. This time, I bit down (just not as hard as he bit down on mine). Once I saw on his face that he was uncomfortable (1-2 seconds), I released his finger. I explained to him "teeth".... "bite"... "hurt".... "be nice".... He never put his finger IN my mouth again. He would continue thought to put his toys in my mouth though LOL.

 

Several hours later, he would crawl up on my lap and want to see my teeth. He would POINT TO THEM. Yes, he was finally pointing!!! That was his first accomplishment, he was pointing. So he would POINT to my teeth and I would say "teeth" and I would open my mouth and stick my tounge out and say "tounge". Was so cute cause when I did this because he would also stick HIS tounge out. Accomplishment number two!!!! Conor was mimicking me sticking my tounge out!! YAY!!!!

 

Trying to do things in spurts, I would be walking by him or would chase him or we would be playing and I would pick him up and finally, I would periodically ask him.... "Where are my teeth?" Here comes accomplishment number three for the weekend......... 9x out of 10, when I would ask Conor "Where are Mommy's teeth", Conor would POINT to my teeth!!!! YESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Conor was pointing to things........... He was recognizing my teeth when I asked him where my teeth were.......... He was pointing to my tounge and mimicking me when I said "tounge" and stuck my tounge out. Big strides this weekend!!! Very happy. Baby Steps.....

 

Now........... We wait for the people from Early Intervention to call. Was hoping to hear something on Friday and I did not. I hope I get that call today. Need to find out what next step is. When Conor can start some real therapy.