Priorities and postponements

So Colin had a mini intervention for me wherein he talked some sense and told me I either needed to give up ABA for Finn, my full-time job, or school at this point in our lives because there is no way I can do all three - there just isn't enough hours in the week if I still care to sleep, and care for and bond with our newborn. I had to admit there was sense to that, even though it's hard for me to admit that I cannot do it all.

So, we discussed it. I am not willing to give up ABA for Finn. It is so, so important and he is making such great progress already. And, there is no way we can afford a bigger house - which we need we are busting at the seams - in a nicer school district if I do not work.  So, I have chosen to postpone school until we can afford for me to stay at home with the kiddos while I go to school.  That will probably be a few years in the future, once we are able to move and get settled into a new house.

At that point, I will be going to get my masters to be an Board Certified Behavior Analyst, instead of a masters in nursing as was the previous plan.

I love being a nurse. Being an ER nurse is so much fun, and I am dang good at it. However, I feel led now with my heart and soul into helping other kids like Finnigan without Access to ABA learn skills that provide them with the means to connect and communicate to the world around them. I recently went to a parent training seminar at The Homestead - which is the organization that is going to provide therapy to Finn - in one year when we are finally off the waiting list. The seminar was full of frustrated parents wondering why the wait is so long, and the president of the company admitted it was due to a lack of qualified staff in the area, which pretty much cemented my decision to become a BCBA in two - 2.5 years once we are in a bigger house.

Finnigan is doing so great already! I just know this therapy is going to be so good for him, because this has only been week one of therapy and I already see improvement in both language and social aspects of his functioning. He is talking in many 2-4 word sentences, although many are likely scripted. His SLP states that is fine, that she is good with that at first because he is using the sentences appropriately in his life to communicate.  He even told a peer goodbye, and called him by name! That is the first time he has called anyone by name, except for his self. He has multiple new sentences and words a day. The other day he looked into my eyes, deeply and intentionally while I sang several of his favorite songs. He can request what he wants, and make a lot of his needs met, so our tantrums and "problem behaviors," have decreased by A LOT. We haven't had a meltdown in weeks. *knock on wood*

We are utilizing a visual schedule in the home now, and I am trying to do 75 percent floor/playtime with Finn with 25 percent "table-time," where we work on expressive and receptive language skills. Finn runs to get the table out now, and will tell himself "sit down," and seat himself down at the table ready to work (although we don't call it that!) before I am ready or able to work with him a lot of the time. He seems to prefer table time to floor/playtime - probably because of the fun reinforcers that he gets from doing the work there. I am constantly trying to think of new ways to engage Finn in playtime, and Pintrest helps. I have taken pictures of everything in our environment as flashcards, and Finn has mastered all of them, so I bought a flashcard app for his iPad.

I want to organize a group of ASD moms in the near future, so that we can trade activities/puzzles and toys around to keep our kiddos engaged. Finn gets tired of his toys pretty quickly, so it's hard to keep him engaged without running out and speeding money on more toys - that will only engage him for a couple days or weeks before he is over them too.

One other thing that I am working on with Finn are sensory bins too, in an attempt to conquer some of his sensory issues. His sensory issues go over my head a lot of times. But I know he has them because come at him with food that he doesn't want to touch and he has a full blown anxiety attack. And he physically gags when he touches play dough. The sun seems to hurt his eyes. He will beg me, "Shush?" when the hymns start up at church. I won't have OT for years - and I do not know really where to start with that - so for now, we are just starting with sensory bins.

Our visual schedule is a little ghetto-rigged. I took pictures of things as we did them, developed the pictures and cut up an old photo album to use the plastic covers to protect the pictures from every day wear and tear. I am just using sticky tack now, but I eventually want to find and glue magnets to the back of each photo. It is funny how Finn will not want to do something, but I will tell him to check his schedule - he will see it is on the schedule and immediately comply with doing it. ie. Brushing teeth.

I have taken picture of all of Finnigan's favorite toys and activities and I get his input every day on what we should do when we are creating his visual schedule. I also let him choose between several different themes/mediums a day for sensory bins. He is more engaged if it is his choice what we do, I have noticed. 

Which makes sense, aren't we all?

So there is my plan. To use themes, ideas, that he already likes to teach him language and interaction. Right now he's super into Trucks, labeling the sounds of animals, and space. So we are working with that.