What is all of this therapy for?

Ok so I've been trying to think of questions you might have that I could answer for you. I'm going to start out with explaining Waylon's therapy, but please feel free to use the comment spaces to ask questions that I can answer in future blogs.

Also, I included lots of links here to help explain these therapies better. Feel free to click on them and read a little more information about each therapy.

So what is all of this therapy for?
Well, for starters, let's talk about the types of therapy that Waylon receives-

• About 3-4 hours of speech therapy per week.
• About 1-2 hours of occupational therapy per week.
• About 8 hours in a peer-model preschool classroom per week.
• About 14-15 hours of "Autism Integrative Therapy"
• And Travis and I work with Waylon in the evenings as much as we can with a method called Floortime.





Waylon and his speech
pathologist, Miss Jennifer

• Ok, so speech therapy seems obvious because Waylon is unable to speak. But instead of working on teaching kids to speak correctly (like most speech pathologists do), Waylon's speech path has to work on getting him to actually say words. When his speech sessions started about a year ago, he was not saying any words. Our amazing speech path Jennifer started teaching Waylon to imitate her actions and eventually he began imitating sounds and then words. He is now learning the correct usage of words so that hopefully soon he will be able to spontaneously say a word in an appropriate way. Within his speech time Jennifer also uses some ABA (also called discrete-trial if you want to google it.) ABA is kind of like a good-behavior reward system, and Waylon quickly learned that if he wanted a reward from Jennifer, he had to sit and work first. Waylon also receives speech therapy at ABC'nD Autism Center. His speech path there, Keenan, has been working with him on the Picture Exchange Communication System. (PECS) I think most of you have seen Waylon's PECS book; he can now build an "I want..." sentence to get what he wants. Keenan hopes to keep Waylon going until he realizes that it is easier just to say what he wants than to have to use the book to build his sentence. Keenan also uses some ABA methods while working with Waylon.
• I haven't written a blog about Sensory Processing Disorder, (I will do that next) but the basic idea of it is that some people with autism aren't able to process their senses. A light touch may feel very heavy (wearing a t-shirt could feel like wearing a suit of metal armor) or a very painful touch may not be felt at all. Waylon sees an occupational therapist at ABC'nD Autism Center and they do a lot of highly sensory activities together. The purpose of the sensory activities is to help him learn to sort out the sensory input his body receives so he is able to focus more on his daily activities. His occupational therapist at ABC'nD is really great; she has come up with scheduled activities throughout the day that help Waylon get more use out of his learning time. At home, Waylon has a trampoline in his room and we are getting ready to hang a swing so he has a place to go when he needs a break. We have learned a lot of sensory techniques (like chewing gum or squeezing his arms and legs) that help him wind down when he is over-stimulated.

 

• Waylon started going to the peer-model preschool at Parker as soon as he turned three. Immediately, we noticed a difference. Not only is he able to get speech therapy and occupational therapy there, but also he gets plenty of social interaction with the kids and teachers. Waylon's teacher there is a special-needs early education teacher. She is very good at teaching Waylon to become more independent and encouraging him to do his best. Being in a classroom with typically-developing peers is very good for children with autism to learn socially-acceptable behaviors. Travis and I actually attended a conference last fall where the man who first came up with the peer-model classroom idea was the speaker (Phil Strain if you'd like to google him.) He said he got a lot of grief from people when they first began (in the 1980's I think) about using typical kids as "child labor." After doing studies they concluded that both the typical kids and the kids with autism made advances two-fold their assumed development rate. If that sounds confusing, basically it helped the peer-models as much as it helped the kids with autism.



Waylon and his teacher


in the sensory room

at ABC'nD.

• "Autism Integrative Therapy" is a term that ABC'nD Autism Center uses for the combination of therapy that they provide. They use a broad spectrum of autism therapies, but the two main ones I'll talk about are ABA and Floortime. (If you're interested in some more googling, the others are Pivotal Response Therapy, Verbal Behavior, and TEACCH.)

 

1. ABA- I've already said that Waylon's speech therapists use ABA, but I didn't really explain why. People with autism are often unable to learn skills by watching the environment around them. The process of "natural learning" really does not come "naturally" to them. So, when a therapist asks the child to do something and they aren't able to do it, they are given a gentle prompt to help them understand what they should do. If they are able to do it, they are given a positive reinforcement- sometimes just verbally ("Nice job!"), sometimes a minute to play with a favorite toy, or usually in Waylon's case, a bite of a cookie or piece of candy. Ok I know this is kind of confusing, so here's an example of ABA-

   The kids in Waylon's class are each given a set of Mr. Potato head and his parts. Instead of seeing Mr. Potato Head, Waylon sees a ball to throw and pieces that he can spin on the table. Even though the other kids are building Mr. Potato Heads, Waylon is unable to learn how to put it together by observing them. Waylon's therapist asks him to put Mr. Potato Head's nose on. The first few times, she may have to use prompts to help him get the nose in the right spot. Once he is able to put the nose in, he immediately gets a reward. This continues, but the rewards get stretched out until eventually, when Waylon's therapist asks him to put together Mr. Potato Head, he will only receive a reward when it is all complete. This helped him learn how to correctly play with a Mr. Potato Head.

   ABA is currently considered the most beneficial treatment for autism that is evidence-based (which means it has been studied and proven to work.) If you're interested in seeing the results of the studies on ABA, check this out. 



Waylon throwing a toy
to me through the tunnel
during Floortime.

2. FLOORTIME- Alright, last but not least, I want to explain a bit about Floortime. Although there are Floortime therapists in the city, we chose to try Floortime ourselves. We are definitely not Floortime experts, but we read some books and are giving it our best try. Just like the name suggests, we all get down on the floor and we basically just play with the kids. There's really more to it than that, though. For one, we follow Waylon's lead. We engage in activities that he is interested in. By doing things he is interested in, we are giving him opportunities to "invite" us to play with him. (Initiating play is very difficult for kids with autism.) Also, we provide opportunities for him to communicate with us; by intruding on his play he is forced to interact with us. (If Waylon is lining up cars and we put a train in his row, he is forced to "tell" us he doesn't want it there.) Floortime encourages you to create opportunities for "conversations" with your child. Even though Waylon can't talk, a "conversation" between us might go like this:

   When we're playing in Waylon's room, he pulls me to his closet door. When he motions that he wants something from the top shelf, I know that he wants the playdough. Instead of getting down the playdough, I grab a shoebox. When he whines or somehow expresses to me that he doesn't want the shoebox, we have completed a "circle of communication." I could go on with other things until I finally grab the playdough. He has to somehow communicate to me and tell me that is what he wants. This encourages him to communicate and be social.

   Basically, by using Floortime, we are pulling Waylon away from "his world" and forcing him to be social with us. The idea is that this will improve his social skills, language skills, problem behaviors, and attention span.

"By doing what your child loves, your child will love being with you."

—Richard Solomon, MD, Founder of The P.L.A.Y. Project (based on the Floortime theory)

Even though we started doing Floortime for Waylon, all three of the kids really love it. Caden is always asking if it's Floortime yet, and they are definitely less whiny after we have spent that quality time together!