The traitor! This morning I was drying her after her shower and she says "...thankyou Zoe!"
Seriously though .... this 'thankyou' was unprompted .... so it means that she recognized that the response was needed in the situation ... and she almost used an appropriate response. This is real progress! I feel that the rate of progress (in her acquisition of social responses) has accelerated over the past months. This could be due to several factors ....
- the excellent job being done by AJ and Zoe in 'keeping on her case' .... consistent reinforcement
- the 'mental relaxation' Kaylia must be experiencing due to the consistently lower anxiety levels because of the improved use of Lovan.
- the general developmental progress
Any way ... what ever the causes, the results are excellent.
After breakfast, AJ was quizzing Kaylia about what she needed to do to get ready for her morning trip to the beach ..... AJ had no problems gaining and keeping Kaylia's attention. Kaylia had no problem comprehending the questions and then working out the correct response ... then actioning them! What a far cry from twelve months ago!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
#778 Friday 14 December
We have a new friend in the house ..... BoB has just arrived and he has fixed our internet connection problems! He's really friendly and very easy to get along with. He looks good too! (I'm talking about the new modem/router that arrived an hour ago.)
We've been battling with connection problems for weeks now .... and found that the problems were due to failing hardware. The nice people at Westnet sent me a new one (gratis) ... and ....Hey Presto! Fixed!
It's been illuminating to see just how 'net withdrawal' symptoms have presented. I don't like it!
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Kaylia is off at the 'yake' with AJ .... that's Lake Leschenaultia at Chidlow. She loves it there.
She's just come home and I overheard her saying "Awesome" .... this is a saying of AJ's and it's very good that Kaylia has picked it up!
We've been battling with connection problems for weeks now .... and found that the problems were due to failing hardware. The nice people at Westnet sent me a new one (gratis) ... and ....Hey Presto! Fixed!
It's been illuminating to see just how 'net withdrawal' symptoms have presented. I don't like it!
.
Kaylia is off at the 'yake' with AJ .... that's Lake Leschenaultia at Chidlow. She loves it there.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
#777 Thursday 13 December
Kaylia is turning into a very 'canny' girl! She negotiates for things that she wants ... and when she doesn't meet immediate success, she changes tactic and tries a different bargaining chip. This can have very funny results at times.
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She has also decided that she wants people to sit in particular places in the loungeroom in the evening. Last night she tricked Zoe. Kaylia led Zoe by the hand toward her bedroom .... and we thought "Ah ... she's ready to sleep and wants Zoe for the bedtime routine."
.... but no ..... once she had Zoe out of the seat and a safe distance away, Kaylia left Zoe there and went back to the seat and sat down herself!
.
She has also decided that she wants people to sit in particular places in the loungeroom in the evening. Last night she tricked Zoe. Kaylia led Zoe by the hand toward her bedroom .... and we thought "Ah ... she's ready to sleep and wants Zoe for the bedtime routine."
.... but no ..... once she had Zoe out of the seat and a safe distance away, Kaylia left Zoe there and went back to the seat and sat down herself!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
#776 Wednesday 12 December
We had a 'sort of' night out last night ... the office Christmas party! A good night ... thanks AJ. Kaylia was fast asleep when we got home. She often stays awake waiting for us when we sneak out.
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Yesterday we had a 'bloggable event' .. we constantly battle to get Kaylia to use correct social behaviour ... such as greeting a person when she enters a room. We try to get her to look at the person and say "Hello XXX". Yesterday she came home and just said "Hi!" .... it was perfect in the situation ... so good that it seemed hilarious in the moment. But it's a good indicator of progress being made.
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Another anecdote .... last night as I was going out she gave me a big hug and asked ".... goo ger?" (Good girl?). She clearly likes reassurance (of which she gets a lot!) .... I see this as an indicator that she is slowly building external contact through the autism wall.
I've just returned from the city and I noticed this in Forrest Place ....
Kaylia will love it .... walls of water fountains rising and falling!
While in the city, a special moment occured .... the 12th minute of the 12th hour of the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year!
What were you doing at that minute?
And as I drove in the driveway I could see a big storm brewing .... spectacular sight with the dark storm clouds as a backdrop to brightly lit leave in the trees.
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Yesterday we had a 'bloggable event' .. we constantly battle to get Kaylia to use correct social behaviour ... such as greeting a person when she enters a room. We try to get her to look at the person and say "Hello XXX". Yesterday she came home and just said "Hi!" .... it was perfect in the situation ... so good that it seemed hilarious in the moment. But it's a good indicator of progress being made.
.
Another anecdote .... last night as I was going out she gave me a big hug and asked ".... goo ger?" (Good girl?). She clearly likes reassurance (of which she gets a lot!) .... I see this as an indicator that she is slowly building external contact through the autism wall.
I've just returned from the city and I noticed this in Forrest Place ....
Kaylia will love it .... walls of water fountains rising and falling!
While in the city, a special moment occured .... the 12th minute of the 12th hour of the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year!
What were you doing at that minute?
And as I drove in the driveway I could see a big storm brewing .... spectacular sight with the dark storm clouds as a backdrop to brightly lit leave in the trees.
Monday, December 10, 2012
#775 Monday 10 December
Summer is coming ... the weather is pretty hot and everyone is grumpy. Kaylia is "spaced out" .... it's been one of those days that you just don't want to be here!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
#774 Sunday 9 December
One of the harder aspects of Kaylia's poor verbal ability is that it is difficult to understand just what is going on inside her head! At times it looks as though its not much .... and then she comes out with little bursts of brilliance and I realise that she's like an iceberg .... we only see a tiny portion of the thinking that is going on.
Much of the thought processing that we take for granted as being correct is only so because our society says it is correct .... it's not correct in itself. So with Kaylia I have to consider what is going on and try to remove the "filters" that society creates.
Is she wrong/deficient? .... or just different?
It's great to see the way her use of language is improving ... take for instance saying "Thankyou Xyz"to the person who has given you something .... for a long time the battle was to get her to just say 'Thankyou'.... then she would say thankyou but she gets the wrong person .... she wasn't actually understanding what she was saying. In the past few days I've noticed that she is now getting the right person most of the time. This afternoon I overheard her practicing (while she was stimming ...) ... she was saying "Thankyou AJ"over and over! Then later she thanked Zoe and used the correct name ... so it isn't rote learning ... she is actually understanding.
Evening
IT is agin me! The modem is failing and a new one is on the way. At present we can connect by cable ... but wireless will not work on the laptops ... but wifi is fine on the iPhone and iPad. Go figure!
Today I did the wrong thing while trying to find a fix .... and my lovely ultrabook turned into a brick! Reformat, restore .... ho hum .... reinstall all the programs. That will teach me to create a disk image!
Much of the thought processing that we take for granted as being correct is only so because our society says it is correct .... it's not correct in itself. So with Kaylia I have to consider what is going on and try to remove the "filters" that society creates.Is she wrong/deficient? .... or just different?
It's great to see the way her use of language is improving ... take for instance saying "Thankyou Xyz"to the person who has given you something .... for a long time the battle was to get her to just say 'Thankyou'.... then she would say thankyou but she gets the wrong person .... she wasn't actually understanding what she was saying. In the past few days I've noticed that she is now getting the right person most of the time. This afternoon I overheard her practicing (while she was stimming ...) ... she was saying "Thankyou AJ"over and over! Then later she thanked Zoe and used the correct name ... so it isn't rote learning ... she is actually understanding.
Evening
IT is agin me! The modem is failing and a new one is on the way. At present we can connect by cable ... but wireless will not work on the laptops ... but wifi is fine on the iPhone and iPad. Go figure!
Today I did the wrong thing while trying to find a fix .... and my lovely ultrabook turned into a brick! Reformat, restore .... ho hum .... reinstall all the programs. That will teach me to create a disk image!
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