Wow, what a month!!!!!
Im sure there are lots of people that think we have disappeared off the face of the earth out there, but we have been working hard with Benjamin and his new therapy. It has been a wild ride, I can assure you. <ROCKON>
Let me assure everyone that Benjamins eyes get brighter each day and he joins the world around him more and more each day and you can tell he is very excited about it.
As many of you know, thanks to Randy and Larry of the AW4D, I was able to attend a seminar last Dec on a therapy I have been wanting for Benjamin. Well I got to go to the 2nd seminar earlier this year and knew at that point that; 1. Benjamin was well enough to take that step and 2. We were ready for it to happen.
First and foremost, I want Boogie, Ken and Pam to know that if it wasnt for them we wouldnt be going down this road right now and I am very thankful to all of them and to each and everyone of you that donated at Boogies race last year or bought a saddle raffle ticket or entered the July 4 race last year. If not for all of you, we would not be doing this.
Now, lets dive into an explanation of this therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis using Verbal Behavior techniques (think I said that right). This has really changed our life at home and it has definitely been for the better. There will be some things that we had originally planned on doing this year and now we wont and we are doing our darnest to not get to far from home this year. This is the year that I am going to do my darnest to recover the child that I know is in there.
ABA/VB as the medical acrynym goes, is based upon the concept that language is a learned behavior (and I believe it now <NOT WORTHY> ). No matter whether that language is sign, body or vocal, it is all a learned behavior.
Now, kids like Ben get left behind, due to illnesses, ear infections, pneumonia, etc, etc, etc. But, their language behavior always does its best to come up with something and that something is usually socially mediated. By that, I mean they develop a behavior (which is a form of language to them) that gets them what they want. Mind you, this behavior can be bezare, violent, self injurous etc, etc, etc. The important thing to understand is they are no different than us, they want to control their enviroment. These behaviors they devise are designed to do just that, control their enviroment.
We have been so excited with all the leaps and bounds that Benjamin has started to make since we started taking him to see Dr Kendahl Stewart and we felt that things were going great and they have been. But, as usual, I always want to control my enviroment and Bens
so I want him to be able to do MORE. <ROCKON>
Now, what few words Benjamin has aquired up to this point has been due to the techiques I could glean from the things I read about ABA/VB so I felt that he could advance a lot more if he was engulfed in the therapy in his natural and contrived enviroment. So, off to Plano we went, Bob, myself, Joseph, Joyce (his attendent) and Annette his Speech Therapist.
We were up there all day and again I want everybody to know that this wouldnt have been possible except for your contributions. Because it WASNT CHEAP!!!!!
We definitely had an eye opener. Quit literally, it shook the ground under my feet. I think I know what it feels like to be depressed but I dont have time for depression. Time is tooooo expensive and it cant be controlled darn it!!!! <..>
Anyway, come to find out, this is how I learned about all that "socially mediated behavior" I mentioned earlier. :! The behavior that Benjamin had designed and controlled his enviroment with was slightly, Oh hell, horribly established. In other words, he so totally controlled his enviroment (yes that means us also <(
> ) that he has an unique behavior for each one of us.
So needless to say we came home with a program designed to teach Benjamin complience. It is working really well and he is doing very good. Complience is essential for him to learn. If I ask him to say a word, he has to comply and at least come up with a close rendetion. If not for that complience, he will not be able to learn anything.
Anyway, the last 2 weeks have been very exciting. I was devestated the 1st 3 days after we got home, but determined I was going to make this work. The thursday morning after we got home I got up and said lets get this ball rolling!!!! Now, the interesting thing about altering his behavior, is you dont do it physically, you just wear them downnnnnnn
. It took an 1hr and 15 minutes for him to move from the couch to the ball, but we stood out ground and did the program. Benjamin screamed, did self injurous behavior and went through all the behaviors for each one of us to rescue him (It is hillarous to watch, but not really), but to no avail, he was moving on his own, if I had to stand there and do the program all darn day!!! :\\(((
Needless to say this is the therapy for me to carry out because Bob says I will argue with a fence post anyway (meaning I am hard headed and dont give in easily).
Some of the results we are seeing are; you tell him once to do something and he regularly complies, he is coming up with new words relating to what you are asking him to do and they are sticking, he is learning all sorts of new sign language and using it!!!!!!
We go back for our 2nd visit tues the 28th so stay tuned for more news next month. Remeber, if you know of a child with Autism and the parents are willing to do something about it, send them to Dr Kendahl Stewart in Austin, Tx.
>DANCE< >DANCE<
