I thought it would be kind of cool to reflect on all the kids I have worked with over the three years working with kids with Autism at Children's Behavioral Health Services. I have changed the names used here for privacy reasons.
Chris: Chris was the
first kid I worked one on one with. He was a special case because he had made a
lot of progress, but then started reverting backwards. I think he was
eventually taken out of the program because little progress was being made. I
would watch him make his bed, and brush his teeth, and we would go on walks. He
was still learning how to tie his shoes at 11 years old, and we would also cook
simple things together. He had a twin brother who was also on the spectrum but
less severe. He had a fear of going to his grandma’s house nearby due to her
dog so we tried to extinguish that fear by walking to her house and having him
step foot on her property or touch the garage door. His favorite celebrity was
Taylor Swift and if he could he would wear a Taylor Swift shirt everyday, as a
reward I would play songs from the album 1989. He wouldn’t really answer any of
your questions if they were more than yes/no questions but ask you the same
questions each time you were there. He walked on his tip toes, and liked watching
home videos or videos of babies getting shots. (Now: 13 years old)
Ryan: Ryan was
the second kid I visited when I started working with CBHS. He’s nonverbal and
we would work with him on many different things including getting him to talk,
potty train him, get him to eat something besides baby food, drink from a cup
instead of a bottle, learn colors/shapes, tolerate the vaccumn, wash his hands,
tie his shoes correctly etc. When I first started working with him, he showed a
lot of refusal and would instead scream, whine, or glare at you. He was good at
that. We think he showed a lot of refusal because usually his mom would give in
to him and do things for him. Put on his coat, spoon feed him baby food, tie
his shoes, brush his teeth, etc. This made it harder in the long run to get him
to do things. His favorite thing to do was go outside for walks or run. I got
him to say “Ready set go” before we’d run together. He didn’t say much but he
said a few words including: “potty”, “help”, and “wow”. He also liked playing
hide and go seek tag in the house. He would hide around the corner and you’d
chase after him. He had the cutest smile and giggle. His favorite book was an
elmo book, and in the beginning I would have to read it to him every single
time I was there, and pretty much have it memorized now. (Now 7 years old)
(currently not in ABA anymore)
Justin: Justin was
another non-verbal boy which I worked with in his home and at his daycare. He
was very smart and could write his name and the whole alphabet in very neat
handwriting, at the age of 4. One of his favorite words to write was pop. The
thing about Justin was he would talk a lot, however could not hold a conversation.
He was in his own little world a lot of the time and the things he would say
would be from shows he had watched, etc. One of his favorite things to recite
was the pledge of allegiance. Justin would often write in the air with his finger,
and could even read. We think one day he might be a genius J His parents are really
good at following through with doing what he’s working on and have him signed
up for ABA therapy, music therapy, and occupational therapy. Justin's biggest
accomplishment while I was with him was being potty-trained. One day it clicked
in his mind and he was then able to go pee in the bathroom. Though you would
have to take him to the bathroom to try and go, because he usually wouldn’t
tell you if he had to go. Sometimes we’d get to the bathroom and he’d say no
pee pee if he didn’t have to go. Justin was a very dense kid, so he was hard to
pick up due to his muscle tone even though he was 4 and not overweight. By the
end of my time working with Justin he started to get rebellious and would do the
opposite of whatever I said. Including jumping on the bed, slamming the door,
swinging on the counter, and laugh while doing so because he knew it was wrong,
which got a little tough. (7 now?) (still in the program)
Alex: Alex was an
interesting case. His mom had severe depression and would hardly get up from
off her armchair located in front of the TV, she and her older son were
smokers. The older son was in his mid 20s? and would take Alex a lot of places
because his mom would hardly ever take him anywhere. The inside of their house was very dirty.
There was piles of trash and stuff everywhere. The house reeked as well, and I
got a skin infection due to it. By the end of my time working here there were
mice running around. Thankfully there was a table we could sit at to work on
stuff that was semi clean. The mom would often forget when you were supposed to
come to her house. During the summer I would take him outside a lot, anything
to get out of that house :P. He was very disrespectful with adults, and would
swear. Repeating lines from bad movies. I made a whole list of rules, and made
a reward sheet for good behavior after a while to get him to behave better
which did help. Rules like he wouldn’t throw stuff when he was angry, he would
listen to his mom and not tell her to shut up, no swearing etc. I would say
them and have him repeat them. His favorite thing was fidget spinners and he
had a whole collection of them. For the most part he was nice and only hit me
once in my time working with him. If anything he would usually hit himself if
he were angry. I think they ended up moving and then left the program. (Now 13).
Josh: I worked
with Josh at his daycare program and at his house. I would mostly watch him
interact when he was at daycare since his binder didn’t have many programs. His
biggest goal was calming himself down when he got frustrated. He’d get
frustrated a lot because he held himself to a high standard and was a bit of a
perfectionist, especially when it came to drawing. He was excellent at drawing
but wanted them to be perfect. Josh usually played alone at daycare so we tried
to get him to interact with the others, although most of them were a lot
younger so it was harder for him to relate to them anyways. Like all boys he
was into poop/fart jokes. When he got angry he got really angry and would
usually start screaming, crying, and shouting. He was not in control of his
actions when this happened. The littlest things could set him off. Like losing
a game, or getting a bad grade. He was not aggressive thankfully, and I’d just
take him somewhere else like to an armchair until he calmed down, and then he
was okay again. By the end of my time working with him he was able to calm
himself down pretty quickly. He would sometimes get really distracted and be
quoting Spongebob which was his favorite show. He needed reminders to focus and
not do this at times when I was there. He had a little sister and was really
good with her. (Now 13).
Jacob:Jacob was fun
to work with most times. We shared a similar music taste so it was fun to talk
about music with him. His other favorite thing was video games, and would talk
to you a lot about them, and get frustrated sometimes if you didn’t understand
what he was talking about. You would have to remind him that you didn’t know
about said game. I worked a lot with Jacob on social skills. How conversation was
a back and forth thing, so not to take control of the conversation. He also had
trouble with reading and comprehension and read at a lower level then his
peers, but he was from a bilingual family. His writing also needed help so I
would help him write sentences that made sense grammatically and help him
spell. Jacob considered the therapists coming to his house his friends, and
during the summer didn’t really have any kids his age come visit. He didn’t
want to be involved in any outside programs though. He ended up graduating the
program because he had made enough progress to not need our help anymore. (Now
12?)
Tyler: Tyler had been
one of the kids at another job I worked at the previous summer, so I had
already known him, but not worked with him yet. Tyler was always excited to do
work, which made it easy, and was refreshing. He had an interest in vacuum
cleaners and would often watch videos of vacuums, and vacuum for fun. When you
would say no to a one of his requests he would say “say yes”. He didn’t like
taking no for an answer. We would play “Trouble” a lot because it was his
favorite game. He would often ask about old therapists and when they were
coming back. When I would say I didn’t know he would say “today?” another
example of not taking no for an answer. He was good with most tasks but socially
odd/out of it. He thought everyone was his friend and nice, and loved helping
people. (Left the program after one of his dogs attacked me). (Now 12?)
Ally: I currently
work with Ally now and I feel like she has come a long way since I started
working with her 2 years ago. 2 years ago she couldn’t sit on her chair longer
than two minutes before getting up and going somewhere else. She had that
little of focus. Her binder work was pretty simple and she didn’t really talk
much. Now you can have decent conversations with her as long as it’s a topic
she likes, and she flies through the programs in her binder like they’re
nothing. Her biggest challenge is that her older sisters are higher on the
spectrum than she is. We’re starting to think she doesn’t really have Autism at
all and learned from her older sisters and how they acted. On her good days,
she’s fantastic to work with. Other days she can make it hard by acting out.
She seems to go through phases of making work difficult for us or easy. We
think the work in her binder becomes too easy for her quickly so she’s no
longer interested in reviewing it again. She makes hilarious comments sometimes
and one of her favorite songs is Do the Panic which is a song I introduced her
to. She loves being outside even when its cold out. She has a big imagination
and loves playing with her dolls….usually violently. We’re working on that. (Now
age 7.)
Sarah: One of Ally's older sisters. When the company first started therapy with her, she refused to
talk at all. She has selective muteness, and as far as I’m aware she doesn’t
talk at school…at all. It’s surprising that she had ever had trouble talking
with us there before, because she talks all the time now, even when she’s not
supposed too. Sarah has a big imagination too so much so she pretends that
characters from shows are there in the room and pretends to be them or talk to
them, which is something we’re working on. When you’re working with her she
asks where the other workers are. She always wants to work with someone other
than who is assigned to her. Sarah can get really sassy and will usually whine or
talk sassy at you. I don’t even really know if she knows she does it. Another
thing we are working on is how she normally talks to you in 3rd
person. Sarah loves Rapunzel and Ariel especially the song “Under the Sea”. Like
her sister she can make sessions really difficult or easy depending on her
mood. (Now age 9).
Thomas: I just
started working with Thomas this summer. During the summer when there wasn’t really
a routine he wouldn’t like it when we would come over to do therapy. During the
school year he’s gotten a lot better. Thomas is sweet but he can get aggressive
when he’s upset and has even pulled my hair. He usually yells and kicks you
under the table not very hard or he has dug his nails into skin before. He is
usually pretty quick to calm himself down now. His usual mood is smiling and
giggling during session. Thomas is nonverbal and his language skills have been
really strong recently. He went from not trying to talk at all to requesting things
both on his iPad and saying them. Including “couch break please” or “apple
please”, which probably makes it a lot easier on his parents. Thomas is very smart
but also can be very stubborn as well. In the beginning of working with him
shoe tying was one of his programs and he absolutely refused to get up and go
get his shoes no matter how close they were. This is the only program he gave
us an especially hard time with, otherwise he’s pretty good with all the other
ones. The thing about Thomas is that he will usually elongate words instead of
saying them at an average pace. Not because he has trouble saying the words
just because he likes to, for example cat would be caaaat. So we have a program
that times him saying 15 words. Thomas's favorite thing is water. He will purposely
spill water onto the table and move it around with his fingers. Removing the
water bottle does little now that hes discovered he can make his own water with
his spit, and will use that as his water if his water bottle is taken away,
which is something we’re working on now. A surprising thing about Thomas is he’s
great at the game Jenga and even takes the pieces out slowly and
carefully….usually. (Now 10.)
Andrea: Andrea has
sensory processing disorder and behavioral issues but otherwise she is
neurotypical. I started working with her two summers ago. She constantly had to
change her clothes if they got wet or dirty, we were able to stop her recently
from doing that. Usually she is a kind little girl but sometimes she can be
very defiant. She doesn’t like listening to what her parents tell her to do,
usually. Sometimes she will. For instance one time her mom told her to fold
some of her pants. She folded two pairs and made excuses as to why she couldn’t
fold anymore and how much she hated doing laundry. Her mom asked her to
consider how she felt doing everyone’s laundry all the time and folding it. She
said that her mom liked it, so I tried explaining to her that there’s some
things we don’t like doing but we have to do anyway. Like how her mom might not
like to do laundry but does it anyway. She didn’t seem to have heard me and a
couple minutes later she set the basket in front of her mom and said “you do
it”. We had a talk after that. She also has problems with knowing about
personal space and would sit in your lap if she could. She really likes makeup
and doing hair, and is actually pretty good at it given her age. She likes
going outside, and going for walks, and playing with sensory things like slime,
and kinetic sand. She likes doing things that are simple, and doesn’t like
challenges, she gets frustrated easily. Being that she is an older sister, her
and her little brother fight a lot, but get along some of the time. Her mom is very sick so it helps when Andrea is able to help out. I think she knows this in her mind but actually doing the things we talk to her about is a little more difficult. (Now 4
years old).
Kyle: I only worked
with Kyle for a short amount of time but I don’t think he had Autism, but
behavioral issues. When eating he refused to use a fork instead using his
hands. He rarely would listen to you or his parents. He would yell at the other
kids at daycare and refuse to sit still. Getting him to do any of the programs was
complicated but he usually did better when a session was at his house. He would
tantrum a lot and I even caught him about to draw on the TV screen with marker.
I only worked with him a short time and two summers ago so I barely remember
specifics. (Now 5)
Brandon: I just
started working with Brandon a little over a month ago. Brandon is one of the cutest kids
and I like to work with him. However I don’t like having to wake him up after
naps. The last few times he has given me a really hard time. I usually have to
put his shoes on and carry him to the snack table while he refuses to sit on
the chair and instead lays on the ground. I have to forcibly sit him up or he’d
just lay on the floor for a half hour. While I’m doing this hes yelling,
crying, and sometimes screaming no! After he gets over the crankiness of being
woken up then he’s usually great. I can hardly be mad at him long because he is
so adorable. He’s another one that I don’t think has Autism since he doesn’t
show the typical signs. He loves playing with his stuffed owl and takes it
everywhere with him referring to it as his baby. He loves being outside and
having us there to work/play with him. He has a hard time sharing which is
something that we’re working on because he’ll get angry if someone is playing with
a toy he wants or takes it from him. But has been getting better with that. (Age
3).
Adam: Just
started working with Adam the same time as Brandon. Adam is one of my hardest clients.
Not because of his behaviors, but because he isn’t interested in much, so it’s
hard to get him to sit still. His favorite thing to do is dump things out of
their containers. Puzzle pieces, cars, anything. He has a hard time sitting
still and will walk around aimlessly the entire day probably. He really likes
Disney Movies with Toy Story and Cars being his favorites. Sometimes he will
sit with you while you read a book and use your finger to point to different
pictures as you say what they are aloud. He’s another one who is nonverbal, so
getting him to use any sort of language including sign language is a big goal.
We hope that by saying words, or having devices that say words he will
eventually try to form words too. Adam has a high-pitch squeak he makes when he’s
excited. Adam is really cute and also has the cutest baby sister. When Adam is
upset which is rarely he will bang his head on the wall or ground, so we
protect him from hurting himself in those situations. (Now 3 years old?)
Dylan: Dylan is
incredibly smart and unlike Adam can keep himself entertained for hours with one
activity. He knows the whole alphabet frontwards and backwards as well as his
numbers up to 100. The thing is he is nonverbal too and likes to hide how much
he knows because he’s stubborn. Stubborn enough that if you let him he’d cry
and tantrum for hours straight. However it is easy to get him from being angry
to okay again through distraction. Distracting him so he even forgets why he
was even mad in the first place. Like Dylan look at this! One of Dylan’s favorite
things to do is color and usually anything that has to do with numbers or
letters. Unfortunately since he knows these things really well we don’t get to
spend much time on them. (Now 3 years old.)
Emma: Emma is a
really sweet girl who is nonverbal however can talk just chooses not to
usually. When you are working with her she’ll probably say 6 words max the
whole time. She has a lot of sensory items in her bedroom and especially likes
playing with the dried beans and burying her small figurines. She likes when
her dad listens to metal music but hates the sound of a baby crying, and will
get angry if someone brings a baby over. Though she rarely gets angry and is
usually a sweetheart. She usually uses sign language to communicate or says
“no” when she doesn’t want to do something. She is really good at doing
puzzles. (Age 4).
Hazel: Hazel is very
new to getting therapy so she is very defiant, which can make her difficult to
work with. She is young, but aggressive and has been known to push her little
sister over and even pushed a girl to the ground at school. She is nonverbal
and can be very stubborn. When shes in a defiant mood she makes things
extremely difficult. She will scream, try and kick you, pull your hair, throw
whatever your working on, and even put her arms around my neck once. When she
wants something she will rip it out of your hands. In the little time we have
been working with her however she has made improvements. Including waving bye
when you’re about to leave. Using sign language, but right now she only knows
“more” and signs that for everything. She has learned how to point and can
usually point to the things she wants. She is excellent at matching/sorting and
is slowly learning her colors. She absolutely hates when you wipe her nose even
if it’s really runny and will fight against you if you do this, she does the
same thing when she has to wash her hands. Sometimes she knows what she’s doing
is wrong like when she’s throwing and will smile while doing this. Her favorite
thing to do is jump on a small trampoline and she could probably spend hours
just doing that. Whenever she has something in her hand she shakes It, and
usually has a small figure in her hand 24/7 and shakes it in order to stay
focused. She has been able to stay mostly calm and focused the last couple of
times I have worked with her.
