Our ABA therapist explained that Sara being in the hospital for four days as well as having to go in Saturday night for Aiden to receive some photo therapy to treat his slight case of Jaundice is definitely something Andrew observed.
I have felt like there has been no progress. When I expressed my concern with his ABA therapist, she pointed out how in the beginning, Andrew would get upset over her taking a toy. Today, he typically will ask for the toy back and think nothing of it. We have in fact made huge progress. Andrew speaks in full sentences, being able to say, "I want crackers" or "I want to watch DVD". It's fantastic.
It's easy to get hung up on negatives. We asked her what we should do when Andrew has a fit and starts throwing toys. We need to verbally remind him to not do that. We do the arm squeezing to help him calm down. And then we can ask him to fetch what he threw and bring it back. All different types of redirection. It feels tempting to put him in timeout like we would with Audrey, but I knew that was not the right course of action for Andrew.
She explained that as he progresses, there will be many steps forward as well as occasional regressions. A sort of rubber band type thing. But the progress forward has been terrific.
In fact, I was impressed how he and Audrey played last night with his new train set. Afterwards, Andrew took it all apart and put it away in it's box.
