Boat

This morning flew by in a hurry as the kids and I spent far too much time cuddling and being lazy. I worked on a grocery list while the kids jumped on the mini trampoline, played in their bins and took turns destroying the play room.

While the kids ate lunch I began tearing apart one of Daddy's tired old button down shirts to make it into a skirt. I finished it up during therapy, as it turns out, I'm not so good at it, the waist is still a few inches too big.

Mr N was playing catch in therapy and every time the therapist said "catch" he said "catch". I was quite proud of him for adding another word to his vocabulary to show off for his therapist. Towards the end of the session, she was working on some paperwork so I did some puzzles with Mr N. One of his favorites is a transportation puzzle that Aunt Wendy gave him. He really likes the ambulance and fire truck noises, he put those two pieces in first then the rest. I said each item as he put it in, after a few times of putting together the puzzle he said "boat" as he put the boat into the puzzle. Color me impressed, my little guy said two new words in the presence of the therapist. Woot. He also said "head" and touched my head in front of her.

He's been saying "I eat" when he wants something to eat, I am still of the opinion that stringing words together is huge progress.

I feel like the therapist is putting in very minimal effort to engage Mr N, since the discussion to push him towards meltdowns in order to achieve a "break through". After therapy ended today I read through her notes over the last few sessions and noticed that she's not mentioning the great things Mr N does do while she's here. There is no mention of the two new words he said during therapy, in fact, there are no words at all written down for today's session. Apparently he was completely mute the entire 3 hours she was here. At the end of the daily journal she wrote "did not record on lesson checklist sheet due to lack of program time today and insufficient data".

It seems like Mr N is no longer interested in his therapist and no longer desires to interact with her, his behavior has changed since the "discussions" regarding our unwillingness to push him to the point of meltdowns. It doesn't surprise me that he is reserved and clingy, he's heard the heated exchanges and most likely senses my anxiety, stress and frustrations.

My mom mentioned when she was here that she noticed Mr N struck out more on the days he had therapy, Mon, Tues, and Thurs the week she was here. I didn't notice, but decided to keep track. He hit his therapist on Tuesday and Thursday during therapy the week my mom was here. He also hit his sister several times those days, and hit me as well. Friday, Saturday and Sunday he did not hit anyone. Yesterday and today he has hit his sister. This is very concerning to me, he is hitting out of frustration and he needs to find a better way to express that.

I'm really at a loss as to what to do. It's so frustrating and stressful. I want my little guy to progress and do great things, but we need someone who is willing to work with him in the way he needs.