Summer's Journey

It has been 12 days since my last post on DJ. I had another two sessions with him.  I am excited to share about those two sessions! Because DJ is no longer trying to get off-seat or trying to rush through the tasks.  I changed my approach completely... First, I removed the schedule board. Second, I moved the table aside. It was funny how DJ stretched towards the table to check out the schedule board, to find out what he had to do, but could not even find the board. I simply told him, "Come play with Teacher." He looked at me straight in my eyes and gave a cheeky smile. We played tickle... we played throwing/catching ball... we played blowing a windmill...  we laughed and had fun together... I obtained the rapport again!  Then... I told him, "Let's do work for 5 counts and we can play again!" He looked at me with moderate reluctance and I repeated calmly, "Just 5 counts." He trusted me and know that when teacher said '5 counts', i

Today I had my session with DJ, a 5 year-old boy with Autism. He communicates mainly with single words and gestures. He also has articulation difficulties, resulting in an intelligibility of about 60%. For the past month, I have been losing sleep over him. When we started therapy five months ago, I used a play-based approach. This decision was based on my experience working with children like DJ. Through his speech productions in fun activities, I used the Hanen approach to increase his language and PROMPT technique to work on his articulation. DJ was highly motivated to 'work' with me and Mum reported that improvement has been noted - he is talking more and with increased clarity. This approach boosts his motivation and confidence to talk. However, three months into therapy, Mum requested for structured oromotor exercises and speech drills. Maybe play-based approach looked like too much fun. Maybe she felt that I was not doing enough 'explicit' work about DJ'