I have been a bit busy between the new RDI stuff plus Steve traveling more than he is home plus an extended family situation needing some TLC plus my seasonal allergies (which I treat with local bee pollen and homeopathic eye drops) plus singing engagements for my trio. Yesterday was so exciting I just have to share.
Pamela and I baked brownies for the church's Mother-Daughter Day Banquet (another gig for the trio). The first time we baked brownies seven weeks ago, I did not film it. But, I remember comparing Pamela's interactions to a video clip at the RDI site about making Jell-O. Even though the teen seemed lower functioning than Pamela is, he and his mother engaged each other so much better than Pamela and I. I felt disappointed by the flatness of our interactions.
I did film Pamela baking on her birthday five weeks ago. We had improved somewhat, but nothing like today. The clip below is 179 seconds in length, and Pamela glanced at my face an average of once every fourteen seconds and smiled once a minute. She was very flat in her emotions and need something dramatic to smile and share that smile. She smiled while cracking an egg, but did not share her happiness with me until a pan crashed or David made a comment about the batter being mud. I had to work very hard to encourage her to reference me. Sometimes, she was awkward.
Compare that to a clip from yesterday. The new clip is 65 seconds long and Pamela references me once every five seconds with less effort from me to attract her attention. She smiled four times in one minute and shared her happiness by looking at my face half the time she smiled. She required less drama to smile! Our interactions have less awkwardness, too.
Tomorrow, I will post the brownie recipe!
AUT-2B-HOME IN CAROLINA ~ Teaching our twenty-five-year-old daughter with autism and aphasia, who is still learning about God, the world, and its people with a little help from Charlotte Mason
Tammy, I am really interested in how your rdi thing is going......
ReplyDeleteI find that a lot of the people doing rdi are doing it with much younger kids than ours.
Do you do rdi with david at all, or just with your daughter?
Sue
I am very happy with our RDI program. I am toying with getting a consultant to help me stayed focused. David is neurologically typical, but he is a big help. He too is learning to change his communicative style to be more slow, declarative, and nonverbal.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that children in the spectrum can learn and develop well into adulthood. I have a friend whose 27-year-old son started speaking after going on a gluten/casein free diet. So, I have hope that we see benefits, albeit more slowly.