Home has been an interesting mix:
On the one hand, Bug has been a lot more interested in balls and balloons. He caught a ball without help for the first time a couple weeks ago and has been fairly cooperative with us showing him how to throw the ball. Last week he spontaneously asked for a balloon, which we took outside for some playing. He really enjoyed throwing it over his head and watching it fall, putting it on the car and in the bushes and telling me to blow it up (because we kept popping them). It was super cool to watch him randomly ask for something and then engage with it and with me appropriately.
Today for the first time, he told me that he wanted a specific pair of shorts to wear. We've been working hard at getting him to get himself dressed and undressed (undressed is much easier). Hopefully we can start having him take the initiative to getting his own clothes out of drawers and getting himself ready in the mornings.
He's also been pretending to talk on our phones--just saying "hello"--which is cute and fun. (If anyone wants to call him, it'd be great practice and a good experience for him!)
The not good stuff:
Bug has completely refused to wear his headphones to do therapeutic listening for at least a week now. Adam and I are not sure what happened.
We feel like Bug is spending an increasing amount of time engaging in "self-stim" behaviors. Self-stims (for Bug: jumping, flapping, galloping and making strange noises) are supposed to be how autistic kids cope/calm themselves if they get overwhelmed or are anxious, but what's so weird to me is that Bug's self-stims are worse--much worse--at home. I would think home would be more calming. He spends almost all of his time during the day self-stimming, frequently while hyperfocusing on books, movie cases, or electronic stuff. To me, it seems they wind him up and then we lose him--like we can't get him to focus on anything else.
Almost any attempt Adam or I make to engage Bug, even in activities he typically likes, he refuses, runs away from, or throws a fit. Sometimes he'll tell us he wants to go outside, so we'll say "Let's get shoes on" and then he'll tell us no. If we ask if he wants to go out, he'll say no. Most of the engagement we get is repeating whatever he says, which isn't getting us anywhere. We bought him some new Angry Bird games (physical, not on the tablet) and he has almost zero interest in anything about them except the boxes. Any attempt to get him to focus on the game aspect, or even just playing with the little figurines, is met with serious resistance.
I'm reading about PRT, and want to implement it, but I don't even know where to start on my own. We were hoping to do PRT training with Virginia Tech this fall, but I haven't heard back in three weeks, so I guess I need to get a hold of them. I really truly cannot understand why I'm not hearing back from people.
The other big issue is that we're trying to make decisions about some form of preschool for Bug. One of the things that PRT really encourages is that the child has plenty of exposure to his typically developing peers, to help learn and build social skills. Truly, they encourage parents to give their children the same opportunities that they'd give them if they weren't autistic. I've been so opposed to preschool, but now I'm wondering if that would actually be the best path. I don't know if I can provide Bug with enough peer exposure without putting him in preschool. I don't know if I even want to be his teacher and interventionist, as well as his mother. I don't know if that's best for him or for us as a family.
It's just been such a mix of good and bad that it's kind of overwhelmed the whole house I think. But there's not much to do other than try to make small steps to lead to big changes. And keep wishing and hoping and praying that we catch the break we need.
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