Something's clicking

Last week, we had a heart-to-heart with the 2 senior members of our team about B's lack of progress and our worries and fears. We're halfway through an incredibly critical 6-month interval following our last difficult review. This is our time to turn things around and get back on track so to speak. And well, it hasn't been happening. It feels like we have done nothing but experiment and fail. Together we agreed that we might need to re-think our overarching goal. The plan for this 6 months was to get a handle on B's self stimulatory behaviors that interfere with his learning. It was a great plan. If we could make those go away, his learning and progress would likely explode. The problem is that we're not confident that he knows that he's doing it or that he understands that it isn't an acceptable thing to do. And he doesn't have the skills to replace them. To him, this is what playing looks like - he can't separate his stims from the activity. So all of our attempts have primarily frustrated him and set us back. Without going into too much detail (as I've said before, it's all really complicated), we agreed to pull back from the strict requirements around his stims and go from there.

And something clicked. There's no way to know whether it has anything to do with what we are changing (and honestly I don't even care) but his requests have exploded! He seems to have figured out that he can just ask for things and get them. This may sound simple but for B, it's anything but. He is so used to being told what to do and so challenged to communicate his needs. He usually will do just about anything BUT talk as a form of communication. Until now. We are hearing things like "watch Thomas", "go downstairs", "want cheese", "go walk" and very specific requests for what he wants to watch or eat. Literally, he had over 25 requests in 3 hours. My favorite was this morning when he was slyly pulling trains out from the closet downstairs (which he is not supposed to do). Our PCA came down to greet him and he pushed her hand and said "go upstairs" as in "YOU go upstairs."  At OT yesterday, he told the therapist "want swing". These are 2-word requests, specific, spontaneous and very clear. And it's happening all day every day. He is also rocking it in therapy again. We've kind of come full circle to the way things used to be and it just seems like he gets it. He knows the drill and he is working like a champ. We're hesitant to get our hopes up, but something is most definitely clicking. And after the last several months we've had, it is HUGE cause for celebration.