It has been really long since we were regular with the blog. With so much happening around us, we are too busy enjoying the changes!
Just an hour ago, as the first volunteer walked in, Aditya had been busy in the playroom with dad. So busy, that both forgot that it was time for him to change into street clothes. He had already changed his shirt when we walked in. Then he said, "Can I get into the closet for a minute?
"Hmm"
"And close the door too?"
"Okay!"
"Mom, can I have my underwear?", Aditya whispered.
"Sure!" I had forgotten that I was still holding on to it, while talking to the volunteer. He came out in a moment, put on his pants and said, "Let's play!"
This was a dream moment! He was aware of the presence of people around him and that he should be dressed when out in front of others. Until a few months ago, he would roam around forgetting to wear his pants after using the restroom, too excited to get back to the playroom.
Way to go, Aditya!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Why are they "gone"?
Aditya, while eating his snack of Mary's Gone crackers, "Hey Mom why are they called Mary's Gone Crackers?"
Mom: "Well I don't know but I do think it is a strange name"
Aditya: "I think I know why. Because the company wanted the crackers gone to WHOLE FOODS."
Mom ROTFL.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Men at work!
On the weekend I went into the playroom with Aditya with a "game".
When anyone says "I've got a game for you" his face lights up. (Thanks to the wonderfully exciting games he played with his friends at the Son Rise house last month.)
"What's that game?" said he.
I announced the name of the game (still in the bag but some of the things could be seen from outside) ... the "Handy Man game".
"The Handy Man Game?" said Aditya with excitement, as he is fond of things the handymen get with them when they come to fix things around the house. (Handymen are people who fix all kinds of things in the house--- they are the combination of a "plumber", a "carpenter", and an "electrician"... no wonder... it is so cool to play the Handy-Man!)
I then drew out all those cool things from the bag one by one: a not-in-use remote control which would be our cell-phone, an empty box with pictures of light bulbs, batteries of 4 different kinds, a flashlight (torch), a digital organizer which would be our laptop/palmtop computer, some wires, tape, a screw driver, a clothespin doubled up as a plyer, a stud finder, a measuring tape, and 4 plastic bags (read more for why plastic bags).
The bottom-line is... the Handy Man game was not really a game. But we have seen this time and again... when you present almost anything as a game, it becomes a hit!!!
As handy-men we did a number of things together--- most of them with Aditya in the lead role:
1) Use a TV remote control as a mobile phone to take calls from people calling us with jobs
2) Answer phone calls from Jack who lives on 123 Washington Street and Joe who lives on 321 Main Street. Jack had a broken light bulb and wanted us to fix it. Joe, had a bigger issue. His bathroom had a problem and there was water all over in his house. Aditya agreed to go to help Joe first as he needed help more urgently.
3) Visit people's houses to fix things with Aditya riding his motor bike and me riding behind him
4) Wear plastic bags in our feet to make sure we did not bring the dirt from the streets into our clients' houses!
5) Aditya using a big vacuum to suck away water while I used a baseball bat turned into a broom to clean away the excess water
6) Aditya helping me move away the trampoline (pretending it to be a dining table) as there was water under it which had to be cleaned
7) Making a call to Jack as we were getting late going to his house to fix the light bulb
8) Going to Jack's house and fixing his light bulb after measuring the hight of his lamp post then deciding he needed to raise that a little more, then standing on a step stool which Aditya helped me with, to change the light bulb
Goals worked on:
1) Inspire Aditya to physically participate in activities chosen by him and by others... this one we did very well due to the nature of this game
2) Inspire him to be spontaneous in our interactions... such as "Joe" telling him on the phone about water everywhere, and wondering aloud how soon he would come. He responded by saying one minute. As another example, I would "wonder" how we could clean up so much water, and he would then come up with a response like "Let's get the vacuum cleaner".
3) Inspire Aditya to make his wants/not wants clear. Inspire him also to make himself clearly understood, e.g. I wondered if he was okay wearing plastic bags in his feet. He said "I am okay but it is wet over there" (perhaps with sweat). I laughed and readily offered to remove those bags.
All in all, we had a gala time. It was amazing to see Aditya's willingness to participate in such a physically interactive activity for about 20 minutes at a stretch. When he was done with the game, he clearly said "I want to stop playing this and..." thus making his want clear. Hurray!!!
When anyone says "I've got a game for you" his face lights up. (Thanks to the wonderfully exciting games he played with his friends at the Son Rise house last month.)
"What's that game?" said he.
I announced the name of the game (still in the bag but some of the things could be seen from outside) ... the "Handy Man game".
"The Handy Man Game?" said Aditya with excitement, as he is fond of things the handymen get with them when they come to fix things around the house. (Handymen are people who fix all kinds of things in the house--- they are the combination of a "plumber", a "carpenter", and an "electrician"... no wonder... it is so cool to play the Handy-Man!)
I then drew out all those cool things from the bag one by one: a not-in-use remote control which would be our cell-phone, an empty box with pictures of light bulbs, batteries of 4 different kinds, a flashlight (torch), a digital organizer which would be our laptop/palmtop computer, some wires, tape, a screw driver, a clothespin doubled up as a plyer, a stud finder, a measuring tape, and 4 plastic bags (read more for why plastic bags).
The bottom-line is... the Handy Man game was not really a game. But we have seen this time and again... when you present almost anything as a game, it becomes a hit!!!
As handy-men we did a number of things together--- most of them with Aditya in the lead role:
1) Use a TV remote control as a mobile phone to take calls from people calling us with jobs
2) Answer phone calls from Jack who lives on 123 Washington Street and Joe who lives on 321 Main Street. Jack had a broken light bulb and wanted us to fix it. Joe, had a bigger issue. His bathroom had a problem and there was water all over in his house. Aditya agreed to go to help Joe first as he needed help more urgently.
3) Visit people's houses to fix things with Aditya riding his motor bike and me riding behind him
4) Wear plastic bags in our feet to make sure we did not bring the dirt from the streets into our clients' houses!
5) Aditya using a big vacuum to suck away water while I used a baseball bat turned into a broom to clean away the excess water
6) Aditya helping me move away the trampoline (pretending it to be a dining table) as there was water under it which had to be cleaned
7) Making a call to Jack as we were getting late going to his house to fix the light bulb
8) Going to Jack's house and fixing his light bulb after measuring the hight of his lamp post then deciding he needed to raise that a little more, then standing on a step stool which Aditya helped me with, to change the light bulb
Goals worked on:
1) Inspire Aditya to physically participate in activities chosen by him and by others... this one we did very well due to the nature of this game
2) Inspire him to be spontaneous in our interactions... such as "Joe" telling him on the phone about water everywhere, and wondering aloud how soon he would come. He responded by saying one minute. As another example, I would "wonder" how we could clean up so much water, and he would then come up with a response like "Let's get the vacuum cleaner".
3) Inspire Aditya to make his wants/not wants clear. Inspire him also to make himself clearly understood, e.g. I wondered if he was okay wearing plastic bags in his feet. He said "I am okay but it is wet over there" (perhaps with sweat). I laughed and readily offered to remove those bags.
All in all, we had a gala time. It was amazing to see Aditya's willingness to participate in such a physically interactive activity for about 20 minutes at a stretch. When he was done with the game, he clearly said "I want to stop playing this and..." thus making his want clear. Hurray!!!
Monday, September 20, 2010
A one week wonder!
Aditya's eye contact improved dramatically in 2 days. By the third day, he was looking at his friends before talking to them 80% of the times, and his Son Rise playroom friends no more had it as a goal! Wo-hoo!
Instead our goals became: 1) help Aditya communicate his wants / not wants more clearly 2) inspire him to be spontaneous in his play 3) inspire Aditya to participate physically in an activity chosen by him or by his playroom friends
On day 4 Aditya (who used to use a much more literal language before to communicate the same need) said: Hey can you please wait for me, I need to run to the bathroom.
Finally... before the beginning of the week, Aditya's attention span was assessed at somewhere between 10-15 minutes. By the end of the week it was 21 minutes.
Of course, you guessed it correctly.... the description above is indeed of the miracle that we saw unfold right before our eyes in the one week long Son Rise Intensive program for Aditya. Aai, Baba, and Aditya flew to the beautiful town of Sheffield, MA and lived in the apartment provided by "his friends at Son Rise" (which is how he thinks of them now). One room of the apartment-- the Son Rise playroom!
Love... it's what makes Son Rise-- Son Rise! Love... it's what they live and breathe at the Son Rise house. They = Aditya's special friends Kim, Camila, Amanda, Susan, Brandi, Juliet!
Love... we see it everyday around us now, being expressed profusely and enthusiastically with the "I love you Daddy"s out of nowhere, and a spontaneous "Excuse me" before talking to Mom as he sees her on the phone.
Some more:
1) "Hey if you do that it will be nice of you" on one occasion where I offered to do something to help him
2) Silence. It was a special moment as it happened when Aditya was running around the room swinging his hands which abruptly hit a volunteer this week. Aditya stopped and looked at the volunteer, almost as if he wanted to stop and acknowledge what just happened. Of course, it was celebrated enthusiastically (that is super important besides being a true reflection of how we feel about Aditya's fantastic work in the last 2 weeks!)
3) "I think you will be flying Delta right?" says Son Rise senior teacher William on day#5 of his intensive
Aditya looks at Mom and says: "Is that true?" then looks at Dad (who is on the other side of William) with NO WORDS, like he is checking in to see what Dad thinks.
4) "I hope you are having fun here with your friends" says Dad on day 2 as Mom, Dad, Aditya meet in the Son Rise playroom at Sheffield.
"And you guys too" comes the reply, looking at me, of course
5) "Byyyyye". This special moment came today as I was about to leave for office. Sensing that from my actions, Aditya stopped his favorite activity of making a paper gift for someone, and came down running.... ONLY to say goodbye to me. Priceless!
6) But the best of all his communication happened an hour after we came back home, as Aditya asked his twin sister: "Did you miss me?"
"No" says sis, "because I was having fun with grandma. Did you miss me?"
"No" says Aditya with a smile. "I was having fun too"
And then they both get chatty and engage in a conversation so lovely to watch it cannot be described.
We had thought Aditya's one week long intensive program would no doubt help. We had also thought it would be something we will do at some point for him... we just had to do it to help him experience being loved 24 by 7 with a 100% accepting and non-judgemental attitude. But we had no idea that the love and acceptance that Aditya's friends at Son Rise immersed him in, could cause a change in the wiring in his mind in such less time!
Our daughter often talks about going back to Disneyland which she thinks has been her best one week vacation. No wonder Aditya is already talking about going back to what is clearly the Dreamland for him!
Our special thanks to all the friends who helped us allow Aditya experience this life changing journey! Be it your volunteering help, your monetary contribution, or even your prayers, we truly thank you for it all.
We still have a long way to go. Aditya's evaluation at the end of his intensive program puts him in stage 4 of the Son Rise developmental model. (A neuro-typical child is at the end of stage 5 or more).
We think the next few hundred miles of our journey are going to be tremendously exciting, and we intend to drive with our hearts and souls!
-- Mom & Dad, still immersed in the love that was showered on us at the Son Rise house!
Monday, July 26, 2010
I am Growing!
Once we started the Son-Rise program, we noticed that Aditya had stopped merely existing, coping and actually started growing and thriving! Thanks to the program, tireless efforts of all our volunteers and the invaluable guidance from our teachers at The Option Institute, he has made tremendous progress in his social skills. We decided to try and put down on paper, his achievements in the past 11 months since we started this program. Here is what we came up with:
1) Increased eye contact
2) Increased flexibility, increased pretend play
3) Gained ability to hold pencil and draw or write
4) Gained ability to use scissors and cut
5) Learned to play modified versions of interactive games
6) Became more aware of surroundings and other people and their feelings
7) Improved at reading facial expressions
8) Some improvement in ability to use facial expressions
9) Became more assertive
10) Improved ability to handle sudden changes and transitions
11) Improved at answering questions
12) Gained ability to crack and understand very simple jokes
13) Easily accepts nail clipping
14) Stopped being afraid of being swept away in the toilet
15) For some time, became friends with the “hand dryer”. Became friends with the hair dryer and continues to be
16) Improved clarity of speech
17) Started talking a lot more, although usually without pausing for others
18) Showed willingness to play soccer
19) Stopped wetting the bed at night
20) Agreed to get on a GFCF diet (believing it when he was told it would help reduce the noises around him)
21) Is able distinguish between objects and people (No longer talks about families of Vacuum cleaners:))
1) Increased eye contact
2) Increased flexibility, increased pretend play
3) Gained ability to hold pencil and draw or write
4) Gained ability to use scissors and cut
5) Learned to play modified versions of interactive games
6) Became more aware of surroundings and other people and their feelings
7) Improved at reading facial expressions
8) Some improvement in ability to use facial expressions
9) Became more assertive
10) Improved ability to handle sudden changes and transitions
11) Improved at answering questions
12) Gained ability to crack and understand very simple jokes
13) Easily accepts nail clipping
14) Stopped being afraid of being swept away in the toilet
15) For some time, became friends with the “hand dryer”. Became friends with the hair dryer and continues to be
16) Improved clarity of speech
17) Started talking a lot more, although usually without pausing for others
18) Showed willingness to play soccer
19) Stopped wetting the bed at night
20) Agreed to get on a GFCF diet (believing it when he was told it would help reduce the noises around him)
21) Is able distinguish between objects and people (No longer talks about families of Vacuum cleaners:))
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Our very own Raffi!
A couple of months ago, I picked up a few audio CDs from the local library. Luckily, one of them was the "Banana Phone" CD by Raffi, the renowned singer (about whom I was unaware). Aditya got so hooked on to his songs that .....
Thursday, July 8, 2010
What's on the menu?
We have been taking turns coming down with cold and fever... on one of those days when Mom wasn't feeling well, Aditya wrote up on the easel a list of foods he wanted to have for lunch!
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