Jamison has 22 hours of Intensive Behavioral Intervention (IBI Therapy or some states call it ABA) a week, he does this Mon-Thurs all year long. The state currently offers this for 3 years in private institutions like Jamison is at but offers it through public schools until 21 years in Idaho.
He has 30 minutes a week of speech therapy and also 45 minutes of physical therapy a week.
Speech Therapy:
Jamison is currently working on 1 step directions with his speech therapist as well as his sounds. He is averaging about 5 out of 6 one step directions right now according to his speech therapist which I had the pleasure of watching today. She stated that he sometimes has a hard time following directions when he gets caught up playing with his toys, and he needs to be redirected. She uses props to help him with his 1 step directions, including a baby and a ball. She will tell him to "feed the baby" which he will do with a bottle and also "throw the ball" which he seems to really enjoy. He tends to do better without me there as a distraction.
We have noticed that Jamison often responds well to watching himself making sounds on video, and will start imitating them when otherwise not making sounds when prompted. He has an iPod we have at the school so we are going to load some videos of him babbling and saying his new word to help motivate him to make more sounds. He also is going to start using a mirror during speech and IBI therapy to hopefully help motivate him with his sounds. He used to really enjoy watching himself in the mirror while moving his mouth so I'm hoping when we reintroduce it he will enjoy it again!
IBI Therapy:
I can't say enough about his IBI Therapy, and I know most of that has to do with his wonderful therapists! We have been going to a private Montessori school for about 2 years now and the progress he has made has been phenomenal! He has improved his eye contact SO much as well as interacting with others. He is even to the point where he is walking up to strangers and wanting to have them chase him or follow him around, which is a new concern that we will be addressing, this little kid wants to just play with everyone (especially adults).
He follows a routine everyday:
9:00-9:30 Circle time with the class (the class has mostly typical peers)
9:30-10:00 Receptive Labeling (asking him to "point to the __" he uses pictures of animals currently)
10:00-10:30 Snack time with the class (brushes teeth after and potty time)
10:30-11:00 Recess time (he enjoys peddling a bike around the track and also going down slide)
11:00-11:30 IBI Therapy in his room
11:30-12:00 Work in classroom
12:00-12:30 Lunch time with the class
12:30-1:30 IBI Therapy in his room
1:30-2:00 Snack time with the class (brushes teeth after and potty time)
2:00-3:00 Community activites (going to the library, store or park usually)
Today I sat in on his IBI Therapy and watched him during his programs. He is "taking turns" with his therapist playing a game of Connect Four. He will take his turn putting his chip in and then wait for his therapist to take her turn putting her chip in. After they have filled the game they will put the chips back, red chips on one side and black chips on the other. He does this often without too much help. Even when it appeared he was not paying attention, he still waited for his therapist to take her turn before attempting to take his own. After they are done with activities Jamison will usually put all activities away when prompted.
Typically Jamison will alternate doing "work" with something more fun. Today he played with some homemade "gak" or gooey putty that he seems to really enjoy. His therapist said typically he will pull handfuls out of the container until it is empty and then want to take handfuls and fill it back up. Today he was being silly and grabbing clumps and smashing it back onto itself.
After he put his gak away he went back to working. He started his receptive labeling. His therapist had two pictures in front of him, a dog and a chicken. She would tell him "point to the dog" and he would place his hand on the dog. Then she would switch them around and ask again for him to "point to the dog" which he did effortlessly :) He receives "reinforcements" of some sort of snack of his choosing, today it was chocolate covered raisins which he gets after he does something correctly. According to his therapist he gets his receptive labeling of the dog correct about 80% of the time.
After we were done with this we did some community time. One of his goals I have is working on him holding on to the cart or standing next to me when we are out shopping. He does this very well. He typically only gets distracted when we are near the hot wheels isle :) He is very good in the community and rarely ever has any issues when we are out shopping.
The only time I have noticed him have any issues is if we try to go into clothing stores playing loud music or that smell strong of perfumes like Hollister, Abercrombie or Buckle. I think the music and smell are too intense for him and I typically avoid those stores as much as possible when I'm shopping with him. I have also noticed that he very much dislikes going into office supply stores, mostly Office Max, not sure why.. probably because they are boring :)
Physical Therapy:
Jamison has been making so much progress in physical therapy.
Currently he is working on his jumping skills, which have greatly improved this year, I think in part because we have an in-ground trampoline in the back yard so he can get really bouncing on that more than the one at the physical therapy office that is more like an exercise trampoline with little bounce. He used to really dislike going on the trampoline and now it is a preferred activity for him. He is also working on jumping off a platform to the ground. He usually just jumps up and down on it, but has been making much progress pushing himself forward while just holding onto one hand of the therapist.
He is also working on going up and down the stairs alternating feet. He currently walks down the stars placing both feet on each stair before going to the next one, but will alternate feet going up the whole way. He also is working on holding on to the railing with one hand up and down the stairs, currently he tries to use both hands to hold on while going up or down which makes it rather difficult for him to feel comfortable alternating steps because he is more unstable that way.
He is also working on walking on a straight line or balance beam for I believe 6 feet. He often will get 2-3 feet but then not pay attention and stray off the line or beam.
One thing he has almost mastered during physical therapy is hitting a ball with a bat off of a tee. He was getting about 80% last week at therapy and he is really enjoying this activity.
Home Activities:
I know there is so much I am missing about his therapy that he is doing, but I wanted to get a little bit of it out there so you can see what he is doing at school.
At home we try to have more play time but I do incorporate many signs that he does at school as well as signs that I want him to learn like "I love you"
We are also working on toileting at home as well. We ask him to sign "toilet or potty" and then we take him to the bathroom. We unbutton his pants and unzip them for him but he pulls them down on his own and will throw his diaper away and he sits on the potty now without crying while we sing the "ABCs" and sign them to him. He will often attempt to sign the letters or hum to the song. Afterwards we put a new diaper on and he will pull his pants up. Then he signs "wash hands" and we wash hands. I have noticed that he seems to do better with toileting now that we have a routine and aren't just sticking him on the potty and expecting things to happen. He still has not gone on the potty (well he has but only when we knew something was going to happen and rushed him in there) but he is making progress just tolerating sitting on it which I am very happy about.
He has a routine at home but it is somewhat lax on the weekends when we are just doing family stuff, but typically we always have the same routine before bed and keep the same bed time each night and he does very well with this.
I hope some of this information has helped and you get a better idea of what therapies Jamison is doing! If you have any questions please feel free to ask!
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