Updated: 10 November 1998
This is a selection of notes from over two years of behavioral intervention sessions with a young child who ultimately recovered completely from autism. It includes many curricula ("drill sheets"), therapists' notes, and parents' notes, covering (in part) his development from no pretend play skills all the way to fully independent, spontaneous, creative play.
The notes are by the parents, Megan and Jim Sumlin (pseudonyms), who feel strongly that this information should be freely available to all who might benefit from it. They ask only that these drills belong in the public domain, and are not to be claimed or copywritten by any person who is or will in the future be seeking monetary gain for wide distribution of same. Feel free to re-distribute this document, but please include this entire preface.
These notes are just one part of a comprehensive program guided by a behavior analyst; there were other parts of the total program, not included here, that were necessary to the child's development and eventual recovery. They are specific to one individual child. Use them as a resource to help you plan your child or student's curriculum. What works for one child will not work for all. While much of the material here addresses problems common to many or most children with an autism spectrum disorder, you will want to select carefully based on individual needs, learning style, and personality.
A few notes on terminology:
Proper reinforcement is the key to learning. Much more common in these notes is DRO, which stands for "differential reinforcement of other behavior." In addition to reinforcement for "getting the right answer," the child was frequently praised for unprompted appropriate behaviors (in place of undesirable, 'stereotypical' behaviors). For example, when playing with dolls, the therapist may say, "I'm glad you're not banging the characters together," or as the notes say in many places, "DRO'd flexibility"--unprompted spontenaity. Remembering to "catch 'em being good" takes a lot of practice, but it is essential to the development of a truly natural repertoire of age-appropriate skills.
[ Animal pretend | Appropriate play | Listen to a conversation I | Listen to a conversation II | Listen to a conversation III | Listen to a story I | Listen to a story II | Listen to a story III | Parallel play | Play with narration | Pretend | Therapist and parent notes ]
See also: Sumlin Program Notes and
Sumlin Social Stories and
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SD: "Pretend you're [drill list items]......Do this." [model for child]
Discrete Trial Style: No-No-Prompt or No/Equivalent-No/Equivalent-Prompt if child is ready for that (i.e., by the time of this drill our son was ready for simple "no equivalents" such as "say it better", "almost", or "pretty good" when he was closest) used in the place of "no"s in a NNP sequence. We were using differential reinforcement (especially once items were mastered...although we were ALWAYS using diff reinf for better responses) to shape down stims and non-compliance and to shape up eye contact. It wasn't until later that we used NNP to directly attack stims, noncompliance and poor eye contact, although we may have already been using NNP for these things sometimes.
Physically prompt child re: list items. Eventually fade "do this" (only use "do this" if child needs it).
Later vary SDs to: "Act like....."
"Make like...."
["Make like" was an SD we hardly used...rubbed us the wrong way grammatically, but it does say this on our drill over sheet]
After all the list items below were mastered, we continued working on this drill for many, MANY months (randomly doing them and working harder on some than others at times).
we probably did some of the following (again) because he WASN'T eating food or drinking out of a cup yet, wasn't washing himself, etc.
Some examples of therapists' notes (other than the usual, which were therapists' initials and date and either "intro'd #4, still not at 90", "#6 at 90%, needs 2nd person to master", "mastered #5, intro'd #6..now at 90%, needs 2nd to master", etc., many longer (i.e., two or three line) descriptions of what went on in session came when we randomized these in the last few months of the drill's life:
"spoon...nice job, just needs a little more practice; wash hair - first prompted him by having him squeeze socks to get the hand movements & eventually did his head correctly, but w/the prompt of "squeeze" which now needs to be faded. Also, don't let him jump up and down while shampooing (stim)"
"Getting there with riding a bike. As he begins say "no arms" and he won't move them"
"Did well (eating) using one hand, but still turning the spoon upside down"
"When pretending to be a penguin he always says "say, 'Come back penguin boy' "
"Randomized. Drying hands needs to be reviewed!"
"Reviewed drying hands. He's perseverating on penguin. Leaves the room and insists on returning as a penguin."
"Washing hair: I poured shampoo in his palm, he rubbed palms together, palmed his hair (to spread shampoo) and then squeezed his hair (to lather) ...palmed again (to rinse). Watch out for: - he can't cover head and face with towel (like a ghost). Should look more like a nun (but DON'T use words "ghost" or "nun"). - has to look at body part as he dries. - for his back, it should be like a shimmy move. - he might start perseverating on "armpit" and "belly button".
"Great job eating raisins with a spoon. Did it quickly and easily. Shampooed well."
"For Cleaning with Soap and Drying, point to (for ex.) the top of his arm to the bottom of it to encourage using broad strokes. Make sure he uses the flat part of the soap and stands during the drill (no chair in bathroom)."
"Talking nonsense while using the soap. Getting broader strokes."
"Did entire shower routine in bathroom (in tub and at sink for Wash Hands). He pumps the soap well but needs to be reminded to wash the back of his hands."
"Shower looking good, but still perseverating on talking about different body parts."
"Worked on getting him to dry himself without talking about what body part he's drying."
"Beware of talk about turning water on/off, temperature of water, bouncing up and down, body part talk, closing shower door when he'd finished."
"Used a Lego for soap and he did a nice job. Persev a bit on washing his legs (but no talking!). Still bouncing. Asked if we were dancing or shampooing and he stopped."
"Outside - pretended to be a baby, various animals, a teapot. Did well."
"Car was a little sloppy (being silly). Other pretends were good, especially animals."
PARENT'S NOTES: - Ask him to do same movements for rinsing AND washing hair. Moving fingers harder in circles all over head. Rounded part of soap on body in broader strokes - "how about your legs?" "did you forget your neck?", etc.
- Work hard on #22-25 only!
- Pretend you're taking an entire shower
- Pay attention to details on there. See [therapist name] entry on 8/22 for an example.
- For washing hands use empty soap pump (see us) and teach him to push pump w/hands underneath; scrub hands and dry w/towel.
- Do this drill in the bathroom for now on
- Be sure to use a different towel than the hand towel so he can learn that there are hand AND face towels hanging in many bathrooms.
- Don't use "legs quiet"...dangerous if he ever says this in school (therapist must have said s/he used this phrase as a prompt)
- Have him go through item list once or twice and then back to shower within a few days
when we were 3/4 way through with the above drill, we began......
SD: "My animal is [action]" prompt child
R: "My animal is [different action]"
Each has a toy animal picked by you (this instruction to the therapist is probably because he would perseverate otherwise and insist on some animal he may be "stuck" on)
Using furniture (chair, etc.) as props and demonstrate by acting out the actions with the animal...therapist says, "My animal is......
Examples: climbing up the mountain, falling off a cliff, swimming in a lake, jumping on a mountain, rolling down a _____, running, dancing, etc. in the grass, eating on the beach, sleeping in the desert, singing in the rain forest, etc.
Prompt child to say "My animal is......" and it must be something different but a similar nature-wise. Child will get ideas for later from the therapist. Remember that there was lots of prompting in this drill because I really don't think he had any idea what the places meant (except perhaps from some category cards or colorforms in another drill), although he did know the actions and was getting some idea about what cooperative play was.
For us the first early drill that worked on not only on pronouns and sequencing, but also comprehension and recall. For our son, the third part alone (LISTEN III) lasted for over a half year (and he was a quick learner!)
Therapists tells short, one line story and child answers "Wh- questions about it.
We used a large flannel board with people, places and began with stories like, e.g.:
"The girl left her house and went to the bakery"
(On flannel board picture of house and a bakery. Have figure of girl "walk" o/o house and toward the bakery.)
SD1: "Where did the girl go?"
R1: "to the bakery"
[I'm not sure if we looked for "She went to the bakery" from the start, although I'm sure that we would have prompted fuller sentences soon after, especially because we were doing pronouns/pronoun labels at the same time. We apparently began ONLY with "the boy" and "the girl" because there's a note approx one month into the drill that says "put Man and Woman into the mix".]
We did many like this and once we were getting 90% across a few therapists, we began to add an ACTION to the story:
"...and then s/he [something incredible or wild that he would remember]"
Example: "The girl left her house, went to the factory and she JUMPED ONTO the roof!"
[I'd remember that we would say JUMPED ONTO to the roof w/a vocal prompt, especially at the beginning when we first added the extra information]
SD1: "Where did she go?"
R1: "She went to the factory"
SD2: "What did she do?"
R2: "She jumped"
[I'm sure that we may eventually leave out the word "she" in our story example i.e., "the girl left her house, went to the factory and jumped onto the roof" and would differentially reinforce if he'd say "she jumped to the roof" (we'd have been thrilled)...we would always shape w/diff reinforcement towards better, fuller answers and our SDs also would work toward this.
We continued "and she climbed the tree" and other wild stuff (to help him remember and make him laugh--we were lucky that he had a sweet sense of humor) for a while and then there's a note that says to begin making our stories "more contextual" once he was getting the wilder ones. This was a drill where we were able worked very hard on his pronouns and sequencing skills.]
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any notes on the early parts of this teaching program (Listen to a Story I or II) but we do recall that we would sometimes give him a chance to tell US a story and then prompted him to ask US wh- questions! This was great fun for him (we were doing CHILD AS TEACHER drill by this time so it was easy for him to understand turn-taking with therapists).
We did this for a couple of months and then it changed slightly to....
Also using the flannel board (although I'm sure that different things can be used...perhaps colorforms or just dolls. Whatever is used, the same props probably should be consistently used....but I suppose we might have changed it if he was perseverating or seemed inflexible. We had lots of problems like that later on in therapy and tried to be more varied with our props)
Tell the story w/ACTION (as before), but add a second destination after the action. This time there are three SDs (story should reflect this, some examples are in our actual therapists' notes below LISTEN III as well).
SD1: "Where did the [pronoun label] go?"
SD2: "What did [pronoun] do?"
SD3: "What happened next?" or "And THEN what happened?"
Story example: "The man went to the library and yelled 'Hooray!" AND THEN he went to the newsstand."
SD1: "Where did the man go?"
R1: "He went to the library."
SD2: "What did he do?"
R2: "He yelled 'HOORAY!'
SD3: "AND THEN what happened?"
R3: "He went to the newsstand"
Be sure you use "AND THEN" during the story when you introduce the third part. Make it contextual until he's getting it well and then get "wild" gain. [Now this seems like the opposite of what we did in LISTEN I... my guess is that this just keeps the drill interesting to him going from contextual: "The girl went to the bakery and then ate a cupcake" to WILD: "The girl went to the bakery and drove the car onto the roof!"]
Once we began these multi-part/multi-SD drills, we used No-No-Prompt (or simpler "no equiv/no equiv/prompt", i.e. NO = "almost", "say it better", "try harder", "pretty good"....) in the middle of our delivery. i.e., If he was unable to get R1 correctly (or even if he DID get R1 correctly but messed up on R2 or R3), we would "no" it and re-enact the same story with the flannel board from the beginning, NOT just repeat the SD sequence. This was important. If he could not complete the three responses twice in a row (w/full flannel board re-enactment by us), then we would fully prompt all responses. Although this may seem tedious, we feel it was necessary.
We seemed to have done LISTEN II for a short time (some may want to do this longer to help with pronouns and to keep it interesting...because of the flannel board), when we began....
As above in LISTEN II, pronoun goes to TWO places and does ONE action but without a flannel board (or props). Actual note on drill cover sheet says: Include some "Why When and How" but BEGIN WITH MOSTLY WHERE? WHO? and WHAT?
[There's a note that says "begin Why When and How six weeks after the start of this drill"...i.e., we were still in the thick of our Why When and How (separate) drills when this one began so I suppose he needed more experience with these first]
Get him to use WHY during his turns (when we give him any [he definitely perseverated on getting all the turns!]) by saying "Ask me "why?" [He would tell us a story and obviously forget that he's supposed to follow it up with SDs to us asking WH questions]
[Some yellow post-its that remained on the cover sheet: "WHEN" and "HOW" are OK again" (as if we began them too soon and he had problems with them) and also "TELL FULL STORY AND ASK ONLY ONE WH- OR HOW QUESTION AND THEN TELL ANOTHER STORY, ETC."].
In these drills, we often had to scale back and work forward again.
The following are some notes taken during this drill (notes were found for LISTEN III only). PN=parents note. All are notes on loose-leaf paper following the drill sheet. Please note that every one of these is a full entry preceded by therapists' initials and date.
"I had a hard time w/him in this drill. Insistent on how I asked questions and who my subject was. I worked through breaking the rigidity -- he cried, etc. & overall became quite upset. Did get through it though on my terms."
"Did very well."
"Did well. Two places, one action. Also able to do two places, one action and one 'why?' e.g., left school and went to pizzeria and bought pizza - Why? because he was hungry."
"Did well w/recalling places & actions. He attempted to come up w/answers to WHY but they didn't make sense so I had to prompt."
"He is recalling excellently."
"Impossible to get any answers -- total non-compliance"
"Did well recalling stories. Able to answer WHY questions."
"Not bad."
"I did one past tense and one future tense. He had difficulty w/WHEN questions."
"Did well. Also asked him past & future tense -- conditional as well."
"Did well. Worked on WHY questions. Story: 'Man went to subway because he needed to ride to work." Independently asking WHY questions!"
"Did fine on first two, but then had trouble w/concentration. Some difficulty with HOW questions."
"Did very well. Answered easy HOW and WHY questions. e.g., Woman went to shoe store and bought shoes but had to bring them back because they didn't fit. He answered WHY she had to bring them back correctly."
"Great attention. Able to answer WHY questions to emotion stories."
"Attention was fair, but he was able to get himself together when I picked up the pace."
"Refused to answer questions; NNP got him to know the answers. Then he began getting them."
"Tried hard --- need to remove WHEN and HOW."
"His attention was great, getting all answers, so I focused on eliminating finger/hand perseverative stuff w/NNP."
"Major compliance problems due to glue on his hands [from glue drill, a constant problem throughout therapy]. Once [mom] straightened him out he did very well."
"Major compliance problems. Began imitating what I was doing (physical gestures). Told him to stop and when he wouldn't, told him that I would stay all night, sleep over, etc. never go home. He stopped."
"Really nice work. After initial struggle where he didn't listen to two stories. Told him we will keep this going until he can listen to four stories and then he could take a break."
"He was being awful, covering his ears, etc. Told him I would work with him until he was good even if [next therapist] was here. Big improvement."
"When he gave a purposeful wrong answer, I let him have a turn and I gave HIM the wrong answer. He didn't like this, but he still continued to give me wrong answers. I then gave him an easy one (my mom gave me a sandwich and I ate it. What did I do with the sandwich?). He answered correctly and I let him go and did NOT return to the drill. At no time when he got the wrong answer did I 'uh-uh' him. I just said, 'OK, do you want to go?' After I let him go, I didn't call him back to the same drill. I felt this would show that he got to me. This entire drill lasted no more than about four minutes."
"Did ok. Listened carefully and answered well. Told him stories about a little boy who went to the park and had adventures. He seemed interested."
"Very good attention. I told a story about a little boy at the amusement park."
"This was the first verbal drill of the day. He was doing lots of stimming and had problem answering WHEN questions. Told him that if he acts like this in school, kids may laugh at him. He quickly got himself together." P.N. - Great!
"Nice job. Good on WHEN and WHY."
"Very well. Did well w/HOW and WHEN."
[Entry below is by same therapist who did short drill earlier....she was the only therapist who was asked to leave throughout our son's therapy] "Immediately gave a purposeful wrong answer to WHERE instead of answering '....to school', he said '....to the farm' and....' I left the rest of the story the same and this time asked him a WHAT question. He answered appropriately throughout the rest of the drill, incl. HOW and WHEN."
"When I let him know he's misbehaving, he has been continuing the behavior and saying 'like this...I go like this'. So far my making a face and looking away has sufficed."
"Problem with WHEN questions."
P.N. - If WHEN remains weak, do a few isolated ONE sentence WHEN stories with a WHEN question. e.g., Johnny bought ice cream after dinner; when did Johnny buy ice cream?
"WHEN and HOW questions still weak when they're in the context of a larger story. I switched to WHEN and HOW 1 liners and he did fine w/them."
"Did well with HOW in more complex stories, but WHEN was a problem, even in simple one-liners."
"Still having trouble with HOW. WHEN was fine only after we went over it 2x."
P.N. - Keep one-liners for a while and then go back to fuller once he gets it (on same day, in this drill).
"Answered difficult HOWs and WHENs after a few one-liners. Did well!"
"Excellent!"
"Complex stories. He did very well."
"Was very distracted and much more interested in playing with the glue on his hands."
"Excellent listening to a story."
"Good listening and answering."
"WHEN questions were problematic at 1st in complex stories. Told him some one-liners and then WHEN improved. At 1st he was confusing WHEN and HOW."
"Worked on WHEN, HOW, WHERE. Did not get them on 1st try but did on second. Probably because he knew at that point (2nd time) what to listen for. Otherwise he was not able to recall the info and dissect it for the correct answer."
"Answered perfectly HOW and WHEN. 1st story. Confused HOW and WHEN three times."
"At 1st asked him a WHEN question. He got this wrong and then for the next stories was listening for WHEN information and could not answer OTHER kinds of questions."
"He did the same thing as he did w/[above therapist]. First asked HOW and then kept answering HOW when I asked other things. Had to repeat myself several times to get a correct answer."
P.N. - Vary the placement of the KEY statement in your story before you ask the question. e.g., sometimes beginning/middle/end.
"Unable to answer HOW questions, but was able to answer others when key statement was in beginning and middle."
"Answered some basic questions in simple stories: HOW WHEN and WHERE. But when I made the stories a little more complex, he wasn't able to answer the question and usually gave an answer that had 'context' at the end of the story."
"WHEN was still difficult for him. All the rest he did well on. Compliance not too good."
"Answered WHEN well. Had trouble with more difficult HOW and WHY questions, not necessarily using last line of story to answer, just various inappropriate parts."
"Difficulty w/WHEN questions embedded in larger story."
"Nice job on all."
"Great with everything."
"Good again. Told story about a boy who saw a grownup who was his friend and went with her. Why did he go with her? He didn't know why. I told him because she was his friend and he knew her well. I asked him if he would go with the grownup if he didn't know her and he said 'yes'. I explained that we NEVER go anywhere with grownups who we don't know."
P.N. - Start being more consistent working w/NNP on eye contact when he's getting correct answers [this drill was much later than PRETEND...where we still would have used more differential reinf re: eye contact Here we were already very purposefully targeting eye contact and shaping it w/NNP, something we had probably started doing across many drills at this time.]
"Did well. Answered all ?s appropriately. Good eye contact"
"Lots of problems answering questions. Especially WHEN."
"We did this outside. He kept talking about other things, the park, etc. and couldn't answer any ?s, particularly WHEN."
"Outside. He did very well. Answered all ?s incl. WHEN and HOW. Worked on better eye contact w/NNP."
"Missed the first WHEN, but got the second (different stories). Correctly got HOW. Was being non-compliant with his arms and legs. Fixed the arms and then announced that his legs were wrong. I told him "yes, I know, but I don't care" and he stopped."
"WHEN ?s were a problem in the beginning of sentences. Answered WHERE WHO and WHAT nicely (worked on eye contact during these)."
"WHEN still pretty poor. Nice eye contact"
"Had great eye contact Loved story about a boy whose nose fell off because he never blew it!"
"Major non-compliance. Lots of stuff w/hands, not looking, and "I don't know"s/"don't remember"s. I told him if he doesn't know, then guess. After I told a story he started asking me all types of questions: "What did they sing?" "Who did you see?" "Why did you see them?" "When did you see them?" I let him go play even though it wasn't a sustaining conversation drill. Very impressive." [this was w/the therapist who he often had lots of non-compliance with] P.N - Good judgement!
"Listening wasn't great. He had a hard time answering questions. He wanted to talk a lot (I think he thought this was sustaining conversation drill). I told him I like talking to him but now it was time for him to listen. He got himself together and he realized what we were supposed to be doing." P.N. - Great!
"Not sitting where I wanted him to; worked through this, labeled him 'rigid' and he finally quickly to the correct place. He was attentive and answered all ?s. Lots of DRO because he had been inappropriate early in the drill and he really got himself together nicely."
"Listening seemed good but he had hard time answering WHEN questions. Couldn't answer even two line stories. Able to answer HOW, WHY and WHERE. Worked on eye contact through these."
"Did great! Even with WHEN. Lots of DRO."
"Mostly wonderful. Had a little confusion with WHAT and WHEN, but I worked him through it. Great eye contact."
"Really good. Worked on WHEN, HOW, WHERE. HOW was good. WHEN still a bit weak, usually getting it on second shot."
"Needed prompt on HOW. Great with WHO and WHERE. DRO'd great eye contact"
P.N. - TO ALL - Thanks for all the info re: eye contact
"Said 'I don't know' two times at first on WHERE ?, then did better but kept trying to tell me stories. Got WHEN ?s right away. Huge DRO."
"'I don't know's at first. Worked on WHEN ?s until he got one. DRO. Moved onto HOW, WHO, WHERE and another WHEN. Got them all right. Big DRO. Good eye contact"
"Tried to talk back like conversation. I let this go on for a while & then got to work. Still weak on WHEN; better w/more concrete questions -- tomorrow. Harder time with stuff like -- in two weeks, over the weekend, etc."
"Did easy stories with WHEN. Got them. I tried a harder one and he still had to have it told twice."
P.N. - Focus a little more on WHEN (tomorrow, two weeks, next week, etc.). and definitely prompt and explain. Let's hammer the concept home!
"Concentrated on WHEN. Got about 50% right. I prompted and explained."
"More WHEN. Missed first ones but then got them all after that. I mixed up when the answer was presented within the story. He still does better when the answer is at the end of the story. The closer to the end the better he does."
"Still really weak on WHEN. Forgets to give answer at beginning of story if story is more than one line. Worked on WHEN in two line stories after he got it in one line stories. HOW was fine."
"Lots of trouble with WHEN. Seemed to have WHEN w/simple sentences but as soon as I threw in other WH- questions, especially WHERE, he began guessing a lot. Needs work."
"Wasn't paying attention at first. Then started listening more carefully and answered WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY, WHERE with simple stories and then started not paying attention again. I stopped and told him I'm going to write a note to dad about what he did. He said I couldn't do this, please don't and I told him I have to because he's not listening. We tried again. Got two out of three stories correct and I let him go on a positive note."
"Guessing WHENs....got last one correct so I let him go."
P.N. - Keep the focus on WHEN (tomorrow, two weeks, next week, after, soon, etc.) and add HOW MANY in as well where you can....notes.
"Some problems attending to stories. Got him to attend by telling him he needed to listen carefully and give the right answers if he wanted to go see [family friend he likes]. He listened, even with [brother] walking around him. Answered HOW MANY questions. Answered 2 out of 4 WHEN questions."
"Answered nicely. WHEN confused with WHAT a bit. He sat nicely, concentrated well with a lot of people in the room, all talking. Great eye contact."
P.N. - Always add in a few HOW MANYS (notes please). If prompt is needed, hold up # of fingers as you say the # in your story.
"He wasn't listening; had his own agenda. Got a huge T.O. Extremely effective. He finally answered one HOW question. Lots of DRO for sitting nicely. He was staring off a bit too!"
"T.O. immediately for sitting and feet. Wouldn't answer my questions so [dad] worked with him. Did well w/him on WHEN questions. This was a marathon drill with [dad] working and then myself. Wasn't able to answer my ?s but it was apparent that he was listening and knew the answers but just didn't want to give them. He was able to answer [dad's] questions very quickly and when he would ask him what I said, he was able to answer."
P.N. - If he doesn't answer, rapid fire your statements and questions and challenge him (e.g.: you: "did I say Tuesday?" child: "no" you: "Well then, what DID I say?"). This works!!!!
"Listening was good after I did the above. Asked "did I say she rode in a pizza?" .... he said "no, in a pumpkin". Then he listened nicely and answered HOW MANY, WHEN without problems."
"Got a T.O. for talking back. Then answered WHEN (DRO) and then didn't answer WHEN. Did rapid fire and then he answered HOW MANY, WHEN, WHO and WHY perfectly. DRO'd."
"HOW MANY, great! WHERE, WHEN, wonderful! Then he stopped listening and started making weird mouth gestures. Worked through this until he got better again."
"Didn't pay attention at first. I used rapid fire statements and questions and he did better. Towards the end he was much more focused and answered questions quickly, inc. HOW MANY and WHEN. DRO'd a lot towards the end."
"HOW MANY and WHEN got good at end after I changed my speed of delivery."
"Weak on HOW. Didn't seem to be listening well even with rapid questions and giving wrong choices. T.O. for continually biting cheeks."
"Excellent job! Answered all ?s correctly on first tries and he even interspersed some spontaneous questions. For example, I told a story about my kitten and he asked me how old he was! I think he was good because he was interested in the stories."
"Wasn't listening during drill and got a T.O. for various hand and foot stims. The T.O. really bothered him and he straightened out when he came back. Answered HOW LONG, HOW MUCH, WHEN and HOW perfectly!"
"Did great! Told him about Martin Luther King. Answered all questions? Great eye contact DRO'd."
"More on MLK Jr. Great job. Answered questions WHEN, WHY, HOW and then he asked for story about my cat. He did fantastic job listening. I told him my cat jumped on my leg and he got stuck. He asked if I put tape on my cat. Really cute."
"Great job. Answered WHEN, WHY, HOW MANY, WHAT. Sat nicely and very good eye contact I told story about a boy who wasn't well behaved at the playground who didn't listen, shoved things in his peer's face, etc. Asked him WHY the child's parents were upset at the little boy and he gave detailed answers. Wonderful job!" P.N. - Great story and notes!
Avoiding answers, not looking, changing subject. Last story he got some of the HOW MANY questions b/c the story had to do with a boy who had three T.O.s for not listening to three stories I told him."
This seems to have been one of the more important prerequisites to the Conversation - Dolls/Puppets drills we sent over the past few days. Seems that it changed into the "Dolls" drill after a while.
First have only person speak and ask child questions Then have two people ("Listen to us...."; "Listen to both of us...", etc.) speak and have him answer each. [Once he was able to do this well enough, we continued doing a form of this with dolls and animals.]
SD examples: "Listen...."
"Listen to a conversation...."
"Listen to us....Ó
Therapist and parents:
Therapist: "Yesterday I [action]; then I [action]"
Parent: " " " " " " " "
Therapist: "What did I do yesterday?"
R1: Child: "You [action]"
SD2: Therapist: "(Then) What did I do (next)?"
R2: Child: "(Next) you [action]
Once other grown up begins telling a story too (only after child has mastered remembering two things one grown-up has done) - this would be followed by (as SD1, R1, SD2 & R2 above) SD3, R3, SD4 and R4. We shaped additions of "first", "then", and "next".....
Yellow post-its on drill cover sheet:
DO THINGS HE WOULD LIKE SUCH AS "PLAYED WITH _______", "WATCHED [VIDEO TITLE], "LISTENED TO [MUSIC HE LIKES]", ETC.
ANSWER HIS "I DON'T KNOW"S WITH "LISTEN AGAIN...." AND RETELL
Therapist's and Parents' Notes (P.N.):
[Only found one page of notes, however these notes began after we were doing this drill for almost two months (we know that prob more exist but weren't able to find them). We obviously started telling stories so that we could ask more than "WHAT....?" Used all other WHs too.]
Used more future tense and conditional phrases...."if it's hot, I will wear shorts", etc. "After I talk to you I will say 'hi' to your brother"
Worked on WHY. Put on A/C because it's hot outside.
Worked on WHYs. He's doing well.
Worked with animals. He really liked this. Only problem is that he was imitating the voices of the animals in his responses.
P.N. - Please tell him not to, but we'd like to continue using voices. He will see puppets with funny voices in life and he'll need to deal with it without acting bizarre.
I used pig and penguin puppets. He answered well and I didn't allow him to imitate. P.N. - GREAT! [we always reinforced our therapists in the notes this way, although I'm not going to add them here]
Used rat and frog. Could NOT answer WHEN questions (as in most drills). Tried putting on various hats and having conversations with myself but it was too hard for him.
Chicken and frog; frog and skunk. Poor attention.
[After a couple of months, there was a NEW drill cover sheet for this....]
Include WHY sometimes... (e.g., "Yesterday I put a jacket on...it was cold. What did I do yesterday? WHY did I do it?")
Insist on eye contact with person who speaks.
Do ONLY things he would like or things we've [parents & him] done together. Very relevant stuff to him.
He doesn't always get turns--none on contingencies especially.
YELLOW POST-ITS:
DO WHY ONLY ONCE and PLEASE keep it obvious! [this was prob added when he was having a very hard time w/WHY]
Use Puppets Instead and have puppets ask the questions (in the first person - e.g., "Where did I go?") [This began about a month in ]
He gets a puppet and you get another - Stimulate appropriate social interactions and conversations.
Selected Therapists' Notes [many "positive" ones omitted] and Parent's Notes [P.N.] for LISTEN CONV II
Very poor attn at 1st. Switched drills. Then much better attention.
Great job! Answered WHY appropriately but still couldn't answer WHEN.
Answered WHY questions well, as long as they answers were given in context.
P.N. - Stick with WHY. NO work on other WH- questions.
Not good. I pretended the first two puppets were mad because he wasn't paying attention and left. He was upset by this and paid better attn.
Concentration not great (glue on his hands was more interesting) but eventually he did ok. I'm sorry but I asked WHAT questions to get him back. Only did a few WHY questions.
Did a pretty good job. Asked WHERE, WHAT and WHY.
Very nice job with only ONE question asked per story.
Only two stories with one question (WHEN AND WHAT) each. Answered both correctly so I let him go.
P.N. - Keep it this way because in REAL life we're requiring him to stop asking five questions about the same thing. [he'd ask the same question in five different ways..."verbal" stuff like this (all things being relative) as great as it might seem to many, was a new perseveration that lasted a very long time.]
Great job. Still one question per story.
I combined this with DOLL PLAY/SCHOOL. He had large problem staying focused.
Did nicely. Even had puppets ask me if I like chocolate ice cream (after I told story about eating choc ice cream).
Got confused on 1 story and answered questions on one character w/info about another character.
I had him choose the puppets he wanted me to use. Did a pretty good job. At break be careful of his using rat and telling story about going to the basement to eat cheese.
I let him pick too...rat and pig. He tried to dictate how the pig would talk. He did an excellent job.
Used Ses St characters from one of brother's toys. He was very interested in stories and did wonderfully. Even able to answer WHEN & HOW MUCH questions. WHY too.
[The following therapist constantly got into power struggles with him.... ] Awful. He could not answer any questions. Could be because he had glue on his hands. I finally made him sit on his hands and gave him some simple ones which he answered.
Great. He answered WHEN WHY & HOW ?s amazingly well. P.N. - [Ther], what did you do/use? Let us know if you think you can pinpoint why he did so well.
I used the chicken and the chick. Once in a while he didn't look at the characters so the chick said to his mom that [name] was being rude by not looking at the chick when he talked. He then looked and did nicely.
[obviously began using dolls after this] In context of SCHOOL, classmates (dolls) talking to each other and he had to listen and "Frankie" didn't want to be his friend. Answered WHEN, WHY, HOW pretty well.
I used the mouse and elephant puppets. I think he did well again (not first questions so well) with Ernie and Honker dolls.
I used Mickey and Buddy doll in a School context. M & B talked about their weekend and what they did. He answered WHO WHAT WHERE and WHEN nicely. WHEN was a little wobbly but overall he was attentive and engaged in the conversation.
[Other therapist] and I did a puppet show w/the chick and the turtle. He was unfocused at first...then the animals complained that it made them feel bad when he didn't listen. He improved.
Used the bear and caterpillar. We glued with pompoms. Didn't answer WHEN HOW WHY well. WHERE was ok. (glue problem)
Not very good. He was too busy looking at the new doll to do well.
Monkey and Chick. Did ok. Making conversation with some prompting and ans WH questions. However he was tactile s on the puppet too much.
I drew faces on my hands. He was TOO into it. We conversed. He did well; needed some prompting. Began getting silly. When I asked him what his father's name was, he said "[all the other therapists' names]."
Nice job. He was Big Bird and I was Bert. Look out however for his touching doll in S way [S = stimming...it was our school book code that transferred into our home drill book].
Saying things out of context. Not responding accordingly. Needs lots of practice.
Had conversation about trick or treating. What did you get [I said Milky Ways, he said water]. Kept talking about "brothers" and "sisters" EVEN WHEN THE CONVERSATION SHIFTED. We definitely need to stop talking about brothers and sisters for a while.
Squirrel and elephant. Worked on having him ans my questions and then ask me the same question back. He did fine answering various WH- ?s.
Working on HIS having PUPPETS maintain eye contact.
He put a fireman hat on and a cowboy hat on me so I decided to just go w/the flow and turn it into a conversation. He maintained good eye contact and proper distance. Ans questions appropriately. He needed prompting for asking questions.
We used the Barbie and Ken dolls. He carried on a decent conversation but had to be reminded to keep his doll still and facing mine.
[After another few months passed by, the drill sheet changed as follows....]
STAY IN CHARACTER!!!!
i.e., Animals are animals! People are people!
STAY IN CHARACTER
- Animals are ANIMALS!
- People are PEOPLE!
Stay in character ... he has to get into the mind set of the puppet and NOT assign human attributes if it's an animal.
e.g. - You: I'm a rabbit; I live in the garden
Prompt: I'm a monkey, I live in [state]
You: [Name], you're a monkey! Monkeys live in the jungle!
KEEP THIS DRILL SHORT! DON'T ALLOW IT TO DETERIORATE!
[Later, probably when "Sustaining Conversation" started, the drill cover sheet changed]
Use Puppets/Dolls AND props, etc. and have the kind of conversation outlined in: Sustaining Conversation, Snack Time, etc.
YELLOW POST-IT: Use blocks in this drill. Build house/place for them first.
[An additional related drill cover sheet, not used until much later, has no title but you can see it's an example of one of the ways to use Social Stories.]
1. Have two dolls/puppets/figurines (not in character...e.g., call Curious George "Alex", call Dopey "Murphy", etc.) act out appropriate and inappropriate behaviors based on the Social Stories themes above (improvise please...do not use word-for-word Social Stories).
2. Ask him questions about your Puppet (or whatever) Show. Ask the questions from both the positive AND negative side ("What would happen: if he kept doing that/if he stopped?, etc.)
3. If working on inappropriate behavior, re-enact it appropriately after asking him the questions.
4. He is NOT allowed to act it out himself -- just observe -- unless he is PERFECT (i.e., not zoney, answers all questions, does not stim on or grab puppets, etc.).
If he asks for a puppet, use it as ULTIMATE reinforcer for PERFECT behavior: e.g., "it might be a really long time because you have to be sitting perfecting and looking in the right direction", etc., etc.
5. If he's zoney, cut it short and go back to it later.
6. DO NOT re-enact incidents from his real life...only imaginary/novel situations.
THERAPISTS & PARENT'S NOTES (P.N.):
Rooster and Barney - We talked about my friend's birthday party that I'm going to tomorrow. He did an excellent job. Really tried to respond correctly and even added in a few "That's great!"s and "really excellent" when they were appropriate!
Barbie & Snow White - He asked too many WHY questions. Asked a WHO ? unprompted. Barbie (me) told Snow that she reminded her of somebody. He (Snow) said "who?" and Barbie said "Sleeping Beauty". Then he called Barbie a "bubble head". P.N - Let's slow this down too...Careful also of perseverative "reminds me of".
Still too many WHYs but did nicely and asked a few unprompted ?s.
Rooster and Bug - He did well with WHAT but incorrectly asked WHY to everything else. Told him once that his rooster wasn't looking at me.
Oscar and Elmo - Good job sustained - Too many WHYs still. Prob with HOW. WHAT is fine. At end Elmo (he) was not looking at Oscar. Oscar walked away from Elmo and said he wouldn't be his friend.
Did well. Had to be told 2x to look at my doll but asked WHY only 1 inappropriate WHY, a couple of WHATs and a WHERE and a WHO. WHEN is a problem.
Did this with Legos. Visited a Tinker Toy zoo. Boy and Girl talked. He initiated conversation at some points. Appropriate use of WHY. Looked at doll with his doll the entire time!
Asked too many WHs. Asked me a WHAT for a WHO. I said "Not something...SOMEONE, and he got it.
He was playing w/a doll and doll furniture during a break (inappropriately) so I took a doll and joined him. His conversation was good. He was climbing on the dog house so I asked him if he had a dog. Said "no..I live in this house". I told him that house was too small. Then he said to my doll "let's play hide and seek" and he hid in the house. Conversation was good.
Used dolls - He was too focused on the doll and not on the conversation. Had to comment many times that his doll was not looking at me. Used [other ther's] prompt for WHO -- "I said someBODY." It worked.
Big brother (him) and little brother (me) went to amusement park and barber shop. Conv started out good and then his doll started doing weird stuff on little brother doll so little bro went home and told his mom he doesn't want to stay with big bro anymore.
My doll and his doll were friends playing...Talking about zoo. He asked good ?s but walked away from my doll 3x so my doll didn't want to play w/him anymore. He still had his doll and I told him to give it to me. He threw it so I made him give it to me again nicely and he did.
He was chicky and I was froggy. Went to the ice-cream parlor to buy ice cream and had a good time. We picked out flavors. Vanilla for me; green choc mint for froggy. Good eye contact
He was rat and I was kangaroo. We met at a desert. I told him I saw a great big snake. Used this to arouse his curiosity for sust conv. He had good eye contact but still tends to utter choices when a WHAT ? is presented -- i.e., "what did you see in the desert..a rat or a bug?" Then we went to find food at a garbage can...he was creative! stiffed the shape sorter!
Again his doll wasn't looking at me. He had trouble asking most ?s and kept interrupting me to ask things that didn't make sense.
***Don't allow him to ask if the dolls can say "hi" to each other. He's perseverating on this.
P.N. - GIVE THE DOLL A TIME OUT!
His doll didn't look at me and got a t.o. He said "what isn't the rat (his doll) looking at the kangaroo?" i.e., he's VERY aware of what he's doing wrong.
His doll not looking at mine. [Child] got t.o. this time. Being rigid also when I took doll. Said "I have to hold doll." Before that needed prompts to sustain conv properly (WHEN WHO, etc.) Asked WHEN on his own. DRO'd.
P.N. - Better to T.O. him if he's doing it on purpose.
Played Barbie with [playdate]. At first it was hard to get their dolls to talk to ea other because she was so excited about all his stuff [toys]. At the end the dolls went to the movies. She took two other dolls and put on a puppet show. She just hummed...no words for show, but he didn't get stuck on this! (-: By end their dolls were talking more.
Our dolls talked to each other. Needed prompting. Good WHERE by himself. DRO'd dolls. Emphasis was on dolls looking at ea other. Did well DRO.
Was frog at first. Not holding puppet approp so I took it away after two chances. Then I gave him kangaroo puppet. Did well for a while and puppet looked at me and asked good ?s. Then started doing really weird arm movements with puppet. Told him to stop..he didn't so I took it away and stopped drill.
GAK puppets. We put GAK on our hands and had conv. His started to run after mine but my puppet was losing his hair so he had to stop running. Conv. was good. Lots of DRO (in puppet voice - for looking).
Blue dino and Cookie Monster. He needed prompt for WHEN only (got all others incl WHICH). His doll only maintained good eye contact when he was answering but while I was talking it was fleeting. I let this go...should I have targeted? Also, he kept trying to change topic..it was very rude.
W/Legos. Built hopscotch course. At first was ok. Asked Barbie to play w/her (Snow White) but then stopped looking and began talking weird and looking at dolls clothes and hands. 1st doll got T.O. and another doll came to play but he still didn't look so we had to stop.
He had puppets and said they were going to bite me so I put them away in toy chest and told him why. He ans ?s really well. Not WHEN first time, but answered two well. DRO.
Terrible w/WHEN and HOW. Good on other ?s.
He was chicky and I was bear. Talked about bear going to the movie "Beauty and the Beast". We planned on going together and inviting friends so that we can all be together. He tended to start talking about how he wanted to go too... He forgets that it's "chicky" who is supposed to be talking and not him. I responded by only acknowledging chicky and asking chicky "who's [child's name]? what are you talking about?" He got idea and tried to focus more on chicky and not himself. Needed prompts for WHICH.
Nice vocal animation. Prompt for him to volunteer things about his doll and ask other doll.
He was Clifford and I was Beany-Bear. We had nice conv about going to the store together. Good doll eye contact, but needed to be reminded (a little) to talk about the doll and not himself. Asked lots of good ?s, "what will we buy?", etc.
I was lamb and said something scared me. He said something scared him too. A bug bit him on the tongue and then he went to the doctor and got a shot in his tongue! Then brought the cow back to me and said "what bit you?" -- I corrected "what scared you?" VERY GOOD!!!!
Did nicely at beg. Took Dopey doll and started talking to me indep. Then when we started talking about school pictures tomorrow I tried to prompt Dopey w/concrete statement and ?s but Dopey wasn't paying attn to me so I stopped talking to him. [Child] was really affected by this and said "not me...I was listening. Will you still talk to me?" !!!
P.N./T.N -We played with Barbie and Snow White dolls. He wasn't too good at pretending b/c he had trouble being only that character. He tends to bring himself of others (family, therapists, etc.) into the immediate pretend situation. The boundaries of pretend and reality are blurred in this program. Megan & Jim recommend that we should just state to him that we are pretending NOW and can't talk about anyone else except the dolls.
Did well. Stayed in pretend mode. Held man doll & I held little boy doll. Little boy was worried b/c he got in trouble in school. Father told him not to worry b/c he does good things in school. Boy was upset 'cause father didn't listen to him. He was not good in school and he wanted help to be better. Voice was appropriate. No high talk. Mild DRO.
Good voice. He had a prob w/giving the "man" a name. Kept calling it Daddy. I told him he had to give man a real name, i.e. Mike, Alex, etc. Fooled around and said "Susan". I said I'm serious and that this would be his last chance. He finally named him "Joe". Once he did we had a nice conv about work. He worked at an office. I worked at MacDonalds. Told him I had great idea "why don't we go to eat?" He had asked what idea do you have. Did this to get him to eat. It worked.
He was Doc & I was Barney. I was sick and Doc prescribed OJ (in the bottle from toy chest). I had to prompt approp ?s - Doc just shoved the bottle in Barney's face. Doc even sort of got a joke and we both laughed. Doc said something about his glasses and Barney said "yeah, they're crooked. Oh wait...it's just your face".
Used Sleepy and Doc. Had very good eye contact I had to prompt him in places where he needed to ask WH ?s b/c I didn't give leading statements. Otherwise, the other reciprocal statement were very good and were said without prompting.
He was brown horse and I was white horse. He was very animated. Voice and affect were good. I told him my name is "Giraffe". He said "Why don't they call you 'Horse'?" It was really cute. He helped me find something I lost. Changed topic of conversation once but I stayed in character and steered him back.
He was man in car, I was a chicken he run over (my foot so I was ready to start a lawsuit..just kidding). I said OUCH, you ran over me. Had the police come and reprimand him. He explained that he had a prob w/his car and that was why he was speeding. He said he needed to take it (the car) to the car dealer! Police told him he can't speed and he must help the chicken go to the doctor to fix his leg. Lots of DRO for being creative.
We were Santa Claus (he was skinny one--used tree ornaments). Said he was going to order in...I said is it b/c you're so skinny? Conversation was downhill from there. He perseverated on banging on the piano with Santa and repeating nonsense words so I told him if Santa did this again, I'd blame it on [name]. He stopped.
I was Dr. (Barbie) and he was the other Barbie. Right away he told me I have to say "What's wrong?" and stuck his finger in Barbie's face (T.O. for this and doing strange tactile s w/Barbie's stethoscope). Conv required a lot of prompting but instead of telling him exactly what to say verbatim, I instead gave him open-ended choices. e.g., say "I have a cough or cold" or say "I caught the cold from..." and he would fill in the rest.
Selected from subsequent Ther Notes:
- No changing topic. DRO'd
- Used the Octopus we made in Arts & Crafts for conv. Was animated & motivated to go on even after drill ended
- Changed subject 2x & had trouble w/Big Bird keeping contact w/Cat, etc.
P.N. - THE DRILL HAS CHANGED...See new cover page. Extensive notes please.
He was whale; I was seal. He did pretty good job staying in chair. Prompted answ & he elaborated on them. Started talking about something unrelated (but related to his own life) so I said "good-bye" and told him he can't come out of water b/c he's a whale. Had hard time saying good-bye. Needed prompts.
Did this w/Math. Two Barbies asking for food; sharing beads. He had easier time staying in character because they were people. I worked on liking things and WHY.
Nice. He was a rhino; I was a whale (bad choice) (hah). I stuck to conversation about the animals- i.e., habitat, where they eat, drink, etc. I had to prompt a few answers for him. He did nicely afterwards -- prompts were accepted.
Good. He was squirrel. I was a dog. He immediately asked what I ate, initiating conv. DRO. Good imaginative answers. Said he lived in a stone house in the park. Told me that most dogs say "ruff ruff"--asked ?s about what my owner fed me and what I liked!
He was groundhog and I was giraffe. Asked him about what he would do and why. Prompted answers where he hesitated or was moving off character.
He was pig and I was dog w/puppies. We used puppies for a conv about giving birth, being pregnant and the names of baby animals. Towards end he started doing weird things w/the pig (talking w/his nose and tail). My dog told him he didn't want to talk to him anymore b/c he was weird. Then dog told all the other animals in toy chest not to play w/or talk to the pig. He did not care.
At lunch the onion ring spoke to the french fry. This was really cute and he got into it, elaborating on prompted statements. DRO'd and stopped on a very positive exchange (leaving him wanting more...maybe).
Demanded his eye contact for asides, prefacing these w/ him, otherwise if he was looking at doll that was acceptable. Hot dog man and witch. At first he wasn't really engaged in task but got into it. Told him hot dog man has to look at witch. Prompted conver - then he initiated some on his own.
P.N. - For this drill his eyes should be FOCUSED on the doll/puppet UNLESS you are talking directly to him. In other words if you said, "[name], rabbits don't drive cars", he MUST look at you since you addressed HIM and not the rabbits.
Nice job. He looked at me whenever I directed comments towards him, otherwise he focused attn on the animals' convers. Very appropro. He stuck to the topic. He was the kitty; I was a pig. Asked appropro ?s. At one point he used a remark about the kitty working. I told him "[Name] (he looked at me)..cats don't work. Only people do" He accepted this and had no complaints.
Used two cats. Prompted most of his answers. He stayed in character nicely and looked at me when I addressed him.
Horse and teddy bear. Often needed prompts repeated before he said them. Needed prompts not to bounce horse up and down.
He stayed in character well. He was cow, I was camel. Looked at me only when appropriate.
He was sandal and I was snowboot. He was anxious to say his own stuff. I tried to prevent this by prompting all the answers but occasionally he managed to slip them in. Two of those times he went out of character and said something about eating and growing. I reminded him that shoes don't eat and grow and had him say it.
He was blue crayon and I was a red crayon. Full prompted answ -- he elaborated. He went out of character once. I prompted with a quest and had him repeat "when I go out of character I'm not pretending anymore and the game ends."
I blew up balloons and drew faces on them -- we discussed ?s and answers [See Qs & As post] that are on the wall. My balloon did the wrong thing and I prompted his to correct mine. Stayed in character (DRO) and looked at me when appropriate. Elaborated appropriately on his answers.
Needed prompt for eye contact two times. He was pig and I was bunny. He went off topic 1x. I corrected this and he looked -- DRO. Full prompted convers except when he jumped it with something of his own. This only happened once and it was not successful.
Man and woman...married couple of dolls. All was prompted. I had him mostly answer (prompted) my ?s rather than having him ask me ?s. As usual, he elaborated on the prompts -- they were all appropro. The only prob was he kept playing w/the man doll's arms -- I used physical intervention.
Played students in class. Girl (me) was not following rules (ones on wall - calling out, touching other kids). He was boy she was playing with. He kept correcting her bad behaviors and then told her he couldn't play w/her until she learned to control herself. At end he got T.O. for rigidity (he didn't want to stop playing and was stuck on moving doll's arms).
Played with two girl dolls - good friends on way to school. We forgot to do our homework and were worried about what the teacher would say. I prompted him w/?s and answers -- he also spontaneously added some phrases. Needed a couple of prompts to look at doll when he talked to my doll and to look -- when dolls didn't talk and I gave him instructions. Accepted prompts nicely. DRO.
In classroom three kids and 1 teacher. Went over various situations where kids were either rude or were able to control themselves. His doll was behaving beautifully (he said "I controlled myself") and teacher really DRO'd him and other kids said they wanted to be just like him. No prob accepting prompts. Glanced up during breaks when I gave him instructions. Lots of DRO.
Mom and little girl went out food shopping (#13, 11 & 10) [these refer to our Q & A sheet--a precursor to Social Judgement/Social Stories]. He was the mommy and I prompted him to ask girl ?s. Good eye contact One phys intervention for laying doll on the floor.
I was the teacher doll and he was the student doll. We were having a private conversation while a little girl was riding a donkey across the table. We covered Q & As #7 and #9.
Dr. Barbie talked to Aerobic Barbie. He was Dr. He was great. Aerobic Barbie (#3, #18) asked Dr. B how she did so well in school (by controlling herself). Also for beh in schl #5,6,7,9. He needed prompt not to bounce doll up and down. Otherwise ok.
School with dolls. Hit Q&A #s5,6,7,9,18. He stayed in character. eye contact w/me was poor. Needed lots of physical intervention. Distracted by Q&A signs on wall! Prompted control questions and then self pride questions about it. This worked!
P.N. - Sometimes do unusual stay in character stuff, but keep up school situations (for Qs and As).
He was gorilla and I was giraffe. Gorilla came to visit at giraffe's home. He touched things w/o asking. Did Q & A for this. E.C. was ok...needed physical prompt once.
He was a kid at magic show and I was magician. Performed tricks, etc. worked in Q&A #12,13,15. Then his doll wasn't looking at mine so he made her go back in the audience and picked another kid. This upset his doll. What could you have done to stay on stage --- Looked at you when I talked to you.
Two adult sisters (dolls) discussing day. Set it up to make his doll do things that would cause Qs and As. His doll took the prompts very well and even corrected itself after saying the answer!
He was [girl playmate he really sometimes had] and I was him. Dolls talked to ea other. He was good. DRO'd self for looking. Lots of reinf.
Great --- he was hen, I was bear. He looked at bear nicely. HAD A LOT OF SPONTANEOUS COMMENTS AND ideas. BIG DRO (i.e., he sat on the couch with him and bear went to foot of couch and said, "Hey bear...come down, I can't see you" His hen said "Well, why don't you come up here?" !!! Really smart! Big DRO. Did Q&A #13,10,2. Wonderful!
Q & As #s 3,2,7. He was elephant, I was alligator. Stayed in character. "You swim in the water - Can I swim with you?" BIG DRO for these appropro statements. Played with elephant and stopped talking for a second. Otherwise great. Prompted positive self-control statements.
He was baby doll and I was variety of other kid dolls. Had my dolls do the wrong thing and he corrected them with Qs & As. He was resistant to correcting my dolls. Instead would say things like "...but you didn't try to guess what would happen. Good job." When he did this 2x in row (not taking my prompt), I said, "I'm giving you a warning." Then he straightened out. I hope that was ok.
He was boy doll & I was whale. I wanted to go to school and asked him if I could. Even though I knew how to behave, I couldn't 'cause I had to stay in water. He couldn't control self - kept playing with boy's shirt. Being R [rigid] about touching boy's clothes so we had to stop. Got him in control w/statements, prompts re: control & forgetting about obj stuck on.
I was little sister and he was big brother. He told little girl rules. He needed some prompting to keep hands still. Controlled self. Praise.
We were two best friends. He was Nico and I was Josh. Josh invited Nico over to his house to play w/his toys. Did lots of Qs & As (4, 2, 13). He needed some prompts to look at who he talked to. Was pretty good otherwise. Lots of DRO & self-praise, esp when he caught his own mistakes (i.e., not looking at the doll, etc....he accepted prompts nicely and generated a few spontaneous conversations following the prompts.
He was man and I was frog. I had lots of ?s for him b/c I wanted to be a human. He was really cute. In end we made a compromise. I could go to school but I had to stay in the tank. Needed prompts & control statements to stop moving doll. Did this .... praise & "proud I'm in-control" statements.
I was new student in class. Teacher appointed his doll to show me around and teach me the rules. I did everything wrong and he had to correct me. Only one reminder for not looking at my doll. DRO & self-praise from teacher.
He was Sara and I was Samantha. Basic classroom stuff except Sara didn't stand still when she was talking to Sam and Sam didn't want to be her friend. Full prompts through control statements. Then Sara controlled herself. Lots of DRO.
He was Mr. & Mrs. Piggy; I was gorilla. Talked about where these animals live and like to eat. He was great. Looked at animals & me appropriately. He was really up w/the verbal descriptions of animals. VERY into it. Lots of DRO for eye contact -- not too bad with the shoulders either.
[fem playdate] was Snow White & he was Dr. Barbie, but he couldn't control himself so we had to stop. Then we played with family. He was Daddy, she was Mommy and I was little daughter. He needed to be refocused on interaction occasionally, but basically did good job. Needed prompts to not move figure's arms and look at other dolls. She was good at prompting.
He was Tophat and I was various trains from Thomas puzzle. Pieces were lost & not behaving properly & needed to get back to their resting places. He held piece appropriately & was very involved in play. A noticeable improvement from last time. DRO holding man still.
He was Josh and I was Julie. Had a conv about visit to the zoo. Talked about when & with who we went to zoo, what type of animals we saw, etc. Excellent eye contact & control. He self-praised himself for not talking w/his mouth full of oranges. Big DRO since this occurred after a major battle & T.O.
He was daddy & I was little boy doll. He praised me for controlling myself & standing still w/arms down. DRO. He needed lots of control statements to hold doll still when he talked to his son. Talked about school day & little boy told daddy how good he was (following various rules) & daddy was very proud and boy felt happy & proud of self.
I was lizard & he was frog. Talked about what he liked to eat & where we lived. He touched frog funny & squeezed him to make noise. Scripting took care of this. DRO for looking at my doll. Calling lizard a hermit crab! Lizard told frog we better not say that anymore
P.N. - Thanks for letting us know that scripting is working. ["Scripting" often consists of large amts of long, full prompts]
Kids at bus stop waiting to go to school. Talked about Qs & As re: school to see if JoJo [therapists' real-life dog] could go to school. Even though "Joey" answered all questions right and other kid said he thought JoJo could behave in school, at end "Joey" said "April Fools" because dogs can't go to school. Lots of praise for doll staying still when he talked to people. Control & self-praise for his great control over doll & attn to what other doll was saying.
I was Fluffy the cat; he was Ford the chicken. Talked about laying eggs and where the chicken lives on the farm (chicken coup). He was great. I asked him how many eggs a chicken lays ea day and he first said 100 and then said "Nah, that's too many. She really lays two a day." AMAZING! He held animals very nicely. Needed a little reminder to look at the other animal when talking, otherwise great job. Lots of praise and self-praise.
Man and woman w/doll house furniture. He had a hard time staying in character when asked to go to diff rooms or get stuff. Couldn't negotiate doll & accessories. With intensive prompting was getting a little better (phys prompting of how to hold doll, etc. too).
He was monkey and I was Barney -- not too good. He needed scripting to look at Barney & phys prompts to stop touching the eyes on his monkey & also Barney. I did Q & A re: interpersonal space. Prompted lots of answers and scripted T.O. warnings. He gained better control at end. DRO'd his control over not touching eyes on dolls & accepting scripting.
Needed scripting/control statements to hold doll still. He was teacher (at first resisted b/c I gave him man doll & he said I'm not a teacher; I'm a man but understood after explan. that men are teachers too) and I was student. His doll got in control. DRO'd him for holding doll still. Accepted prompts well. DRO & kept it relatively short so I could DRO holding doll still w/lots of praise & self-pride statements at end.
[At some point, this drill might have had more in it about building a doll house and putting it away w/o being rigid than conversing (though that was always in it as well)]
His doll worked for mine and had to get things and bring to "me". Needed to follow directions & manipulate doll. If doll didn't look at mine/answer, he could be fired (this worked to keep doll still also). He responded well & had his doll carry things to mine and kick ball to it. DRO'd following instructions. We worked in office. He told me about his other job where he worked with [names of dad's co-workers he's visited]. DRO'd for great job.
Playmobile playground & doll stuff out, so I joined him. Needed occasional prompting for doll to look at other doll & once used babbling instead of real words (did Q&A), but otherwise good job. DRO looking & holding doll still. Played many games. Self-pride for learning how to play nicely w/dolls.
Used bunnies we made from Play Doh. Bunny stood still & looked at other bunny. DRO. They used crayons as carrots. He needed some prompting to follow along in the game, but scripting worked. Praise & self-pride. Thinking/feeling scripting worked when he wasn't participating.
My doll wanted to buy his doll's Lego house. They made friends. I prompted him to make his doll give mine flowers, then they went swimming. His doll wanted to go inside -- talked about how my doll felt that he didn't want to be w/her. Then he started dancing w/her in pool (scripted this & it worked). He needed two verbal prompts to keep his doll looking at mine. Repeated -- scripted about this. He stopped.
It was a little hard to get him & [playdate] to interact b/c they both wanted to do their own thing. I scripted [name] to listen and look at whoever was talking & DRO'd great sitting/setting up dolls. [Playdate] had to be reminded to be quieter a few xs. Q&A about interpersonal space. DRO'd [name] about his remembering not to get into anyone's face. Also had him repeat answers to questions [playdate] responded to first. Good listening on his part.
Two kids met in park. Sat under trees (bean bags). He needed prompting & scripting to look at doll - w/feeling scripting. Otherwise nice job. Good attn. DRO. At first had hard time w/bean bags for trees but got through it relatively quickly with scripting. DRO'd control & listening to directions.
P.N. - Be sure the dolls/puppets do some IMAGINARY things (stuff where there are no CONCRETE props or where the props have another identity). Notes please!
We were two camels on the beach. Blue bucket was water...we were thirsty and almost drowned. He had NO problem pretending carpet was sand & bucket was w/water. Great participation and creativity. DRO'd.
I was tiger, he was gorilla. I pretended my pen was a tree. Did a few perspective-taking roles about friends I have that he doesn't know. Also things like what I see & what he sees from the position our animals were sitting at. Good listening & interacting.
P.N. - Be sure to integrate lots of social stories.
Enveloped was our dolls' school. Did lots of Q&A social stories & perspective-taking concerning feelings. Also kids discussed summer vacation -- if they weren't there, did they have a good time (there)? etc. He did great. Even made doll kiss & hug mine! Then suggested we dance. Did well until I tried social scripting & he kept singing. This led to a T.O. b/c he couldn't stop singing.
He was playing w/musician dolls so I joined him. Had his doll teach mine how to play drums. Used bucket for seat at drums (he resisted at 1st but then did it w/talk -- social story -- about pretending & rules & learning how to pretend). My doll walked away from his. Social story. Then his doll was paying more attn to drum than to my doll - perspective taking/emotion. DRO'd sitting still & eye contact Observ. learning at beg for eye contact -- self-pride. I can do it, etc.
Dentist office (Playmobile). He was patient, I was dentist. Needed only one prompt for doll to look in right place (non phys-gesture). Otherwise participated very well. At end girl was good so she got a lollipop (dental instrument). Lots of DRO for paying attn & being very polite.
Schoolhouse - he was teacher & I was kids. Asked various ?s in soc stories & he (prompted) answ. His teacher doll stood still & looked at people when she talked to them so the children would learn how to behave. Stayed in chat w/lots of DRO for paying attn.
Concen. on social stories & persp taking. Great imagination & very appropro responding. Needs prompts on most persp taking but accepts them. Great ideas. His doll wasn't facing mine at one pt. Used story about walking away from convers.
He got stuck on doing weird stuff w/elephant puppet so I took it away & made him be monkey. He resisted. Did control stmts. & soc story about rules. He finally settled down & did a nice convers. about where monkey lives & eats. Kept it brief & to the point. DRO'd getting into control.
P.N. - Make him work w/o STIM to earn elephant back as reward....lay this type of contingency out to him 1st.
He was lizard & I was dots all over. Piece of paper was lake w/area around as grass. At 1st he said "grass" w/double s sound at end b/c it has a "lot of ss" in it. Corrected this. He was great. Animated & involved in play. Finished on a positive note. Lizard had good eye contact & he received reward at end.
He was boy; I was girl & we played game where he asked me ?s & I only gave him the right answ when his doll was standing still when he talked to me. Great participation & his doll learned to stand still. Lots of DRO.
It was his doll's b-day party. Threw in some soc stories. His doll was jumping all over the place. I warned a T.O. & then he did great. Held doll still & convers was great. DRO.
Convers was really good. He was Curious George; I was a dog. Talked about where we live, what we eat, etc. Did persp-taking about feelings - e.g., Curious G had big ears -- I asked if people laugh at them and he said no. I as puppy said I was sad b/c little boys are afraid of me. Got him to ask why. He also said they shouldn't be afraid b/c dogs are nice. They don't bark at little boys.
Talked about my doll's prob of walking away from people when they talked to me & what I could do about it. Then used "camera" (crepe paper) to take pictures of ea other. He did nice job. DRO.
Used clay figures we made (snake & fish). Snake lost collar - clay & fish jumped into lake (Play Doh canister) to find it. Persp- taking & partic. were great. DRO.
P.N. - First set up a scene...always declare the dolls to be in a certain location. e.g., the kitchen, living room, school, museum, etc. & be sure the play is consistent with the setting -- Lots of notes on this pls.
From Parallel Play - He helped me set up kitchen in doll house & then he was the daddy & I was the little girl. He gave me hot cereal for b'fast (used button as dish). Then bought dishes to sink & washed them. Then we went to Snow White's house (puzzle) to visit her & her pets. great participation. DRO.
We were at the airport. I had to catch a plane. He worked at airport. Partic. well. Play consistent w/airport setting. DRO.
[When we realized he couldn't do this w/o stimming, we decided to teach him how to set up a house and then play with dolls in it -- we mostly used Playmobile 1-2-3 playhouse for this -- very Lego-like. We were able to use this as a visual tool to show him some of his own problems doing persp-taking as far as space, behaviors, etc. This drill was being done much earlier than our more systematic, general role play drill re: his behaviors. We also used drill to target ritualistic play behaviors (putting things away, banging toys together, etc.) Usually I don't include all the tedious therapist notes we had, but I've included many of these here to show how hard we worked stuff over & over until we got rid of perseverations & rigidities and made what we thought was a lot of progress in a specific area of play or whatever.]
P.N. - Build a KITCHEN on top of the small doll house (see us). Have him:
1. Pick what belongs in a kitchen (mix kitchen furniture w/non-kitchen furniture in a pile and have him pick) 2. Make a kitchen (he can't add characters until all the furniture is in place; vary the position of the furniture ea time you do it 3. Play w/the dolls appropriately in the kitchen.
*Do not let dolls/characters out of the room/scene.
*Be sure he applies proper pressure when attaching pieces to the doll house (also be sure he uses his hands appropriately)
*He must put things away when he's done with NO RITUALS. Have him practice (overcorrection) until he gets it right.
Built kitchen with small doll house. He got rigid about moving table so that doll had room to sit down on the chair. I modeled how the doll was stuck & wouldn't fit -- how it would have no place to move. Worked on problem solving the chair arrangement. He moved the chair to the other side of the doll table to make things fit. Nice strategy. DRO'd the prob solve technique. Putting things away --- he had to do it several times b/c he used weird rituals like putting baby in chair and THEN putting it away. He finally shaped up towards the end.
Kitchen - left some LR & BR furniture to choose from among pink refrigerator (didn't call it a bookshelf -- DRO'd that). Put doll house under the table. He had to move it out. Did it on his own - DRO. A little rigid about having all FOUR kitchen chairs and baby in baby chair. I talked him through. Put stuff away quickly. While playing w/dolls he figured out strategies to make room for them e.g., taking table away from refrig so doll could get through. No rituals when putting things away. BIG DRO.
Set up kitchen. I put out a few extra pieces of furniture that didn't belong. He sorted all the appropo pieces of kitchen furn & set it up nicely w/fridge, oven, cabinets, etc. Lined up on one side. Provided enough room for people to move. DRO'd his use of pressure when putting pcs on board. He had to put away toys 2x b/c he did some hand stuff the 1st time. Overall he was pretty good. Convers was excellent. He pretended to be a step mom & I was a girl, Jessica. Came home from school & wanted dinner. He was creative w/content of convers. He made a pasta sandwich. We talked about trying new foods.
Put out stuff to set up kitchen, mixed w/other stuff & baby with NO baby chair. Reminder to use two hands setting up -- DRO'd two hands. Needed prompt to look at what he was doing. DRO'd for this after. Set up house against table [his table in room]. Needed to prompt him to move it out so he could work better. Tried to make "grandma" come in house through roof window. Talked about how impossible this was & she went in through door & up the pretend stairs. Then made her go up the side of the house. Had him make her come in through front door. Resistant -- Told him I would put it away if I had to (going up the house & in through the roof window becoming a "thing" --- WATCH OUT for this). Talked about rules. When putting away first "walked" stuff in but had him do over & he did it right. DRO'd.
Kitchen - He sorted appropriate appliances for the kitchen. Set up nicely. Fridge, oven, sink in a row. DRO'd for leaving space so people can pass. We had a dinner convers. Had him go get dessert from fridge. He tended to pick up the characters and fly them through the air. Prompted to stay on floor. Putting away - got a t.o. b/c of wiping. Jim took grapes he was eating away. He gained control pretty quickly & put the rest of the toys away nicely after that. DRO'd quickness. [Wiping was something that came out of phys interventions -- e.g., if you touched the "offending" body part, usually foot or hand -- sometimes face for a grimace, to let him know he was stimming, he would "wipe" where you'd touch to negate what you were trying to tell him.]
P.N. - Have him set the kitchen up on one of the sides of the house. Be sure furniture is against the walls and table is out on the flap. Begin setting up a living room on top.'
Set up kitchen inside house against wall. Chose pieces approp. (table on flap). No problems walking dolls around inside house. Stayed away from doors & windows, except when pizza man came & it was appropriate. Still needed prompts to keep dolls on floor. Set up living room on top. Picked out correct pcs but had trouble pointing them in correct direction. Prompted that furniture usually faces middle of rm. Put pcs away nicely. Beautiful behavior. DRO.
Did kitchen on top. Tried to use the miniature pieces [I think this means the tiny forks, knives, cups, etc.] but he was rigid and didn't deserve it. He wanted them badly though. Every time he lifted people off the kitchen floor I took them away. Told him people do not fly & they have to stay on the floor. He set up kitchen nicely -- matched colors. DRO'd facing. Putting away was a prob - He had little rituals i.e., putting in the [can't read handwriting] before putting it away & walking all the people in the door first. Made him do it over & said he was acting like a baby & that's why he couldn't get the miniature stuff.
Kitchen inside house; living room on top. Needed prompts to keep dolls on the floor. Set LR up with couch in front of coffee table. Used square cabinet as a TV. Put chair at 90 degree angle to couch. Had a hard time w/plates & cups. He wanted to put them in sink instead of doll, but he listened when I told him that the doll has to do it. DRO'd. When we were putting stuff away he put dolls in through door. I used overcorrection & he finally did it right way.
Kitchen inside; LR on top. Kept dolls on floor w/o prompt. DRO'd great job. When putting away again tried to put doll through door. Wouldn't let him; otherwise good job. Then was moving fingers strangely & making noises w/furniture. Had him do it over until he got it right and then reinforcements.
Kitchen - Pretty good job. He started out by asking to build a LR. I said "no, we can only do the kitchen and only if you're good can we do the LR" -- I hurried to engage him in kitchen only so that he wouldn't talk about doing the LR anymore. This worked & he didn't persev on the idea, although he did ask at end to do it. Play & convers were good. He set kitchen up & some pieces didn't fit well so I had him problem solve it by throwing out ?s like "Can you open the refrig door if the fridge is over there?" He finally set up nicely. People moved off the ground a couple of times. I took away person & he didn't pose any arguments. I DRO'd this heavily & gave it back as soon as he started to play appropriately. Put away things nicely. DRO'd eye contact throughout.
Nice kitchen. Was a little rigid about LR. Wanted to line couch & chairs up in a row. I suggested L style. He was flexible so he could set up other furniture. Bathroom -- walked person through house w/o going near door. Kept person on floor. DRO'd. At end almost tried to stuff person through door but controlled himself. DRO and scripted pride statements.
We built kitchen on top of house. Did this well. No prob picking out furniture. Set it up nicely. LR - good. Tried to set up seats in one line -- put chair at a diagonal & said "I like to be flexible" BIG DRO. Put together bathroom. Needed some direction putting toilet next to sink & not in front of it. Good job otherwise. DRO. He was so well behaved & listened so well that he got to make the bedroom. Played very appropriately w/dolls when house was complete. Great job cleaning up. Natural Reinf -- got to play w/miniatures.
Started out nicely w/an agreement that he would get to build other rooms if he did nice kitchen. He became very rigid about arrangement & fridge color [there was a yellow & pink piece that looked the same]. I told him to use the same colors for the appliances b/c kitchens usually match. He started w/weird grimacing & hand stuff as well as head shaking. Threatened to take away whole thing if he didn't stop. This turned into an argument on his part -- I remained neutral & put away the house. He hit me & pushed. I cont'd being neutral & told him to sit down, be quiet & calm down for his T.O. He finally sat quietly. When he was done I went over T.O. in detail. Why it began, why it lasted long, what could have happened if he hit me again (i.e., he almost pulled my chain off -- I said I would have been very upset). He listened nicely. DRO'd good listening & calming down.
Worked on kitchen. He had to teach [playdate] how to build kitchen. Did a pretty good job so I let him use miniature utensils but he got stuck on putting little spoon between the edges of the kitchen floor. I gave him a T.O. - Took away toy. He pushed. Told him to calm down or T.O. would last longer. I remained neutral. He finally calmed. Said he wanted kitchen again...said please, but I didn't give in. Said that sometimes even though T.O. is quick & short, you can't always have what you want. Got angry; started to argue. I ignored this time & just turned to [playdate] and asked (in animated voice) "What should we do next?" -- [name] popped up and said "Let's play!" I DRO'd him for forgetting about the kitchen, etc. Nice job.
P.N. - Please don't use miniatures! [re: forks knives, etc.]. Each room can be a reinforcer for the previous room. If he does all the rooms well he can play with the dolls.
Did kitchen 1st & then LR. Couldn't do BR b/c he didn't do nice job w/other rms. Was stuck on steps & door. Was flexible w/door. Able to leave it open. Lots of DRO. We played w/dolls in house. Nice job. No prob cleaning up. DRO. Sorry - we played w/dolls even though he didn't do all rms. I didn't look at directions carefully & told him if he does LR and kitchen he could do BR & gave him doll play for being flexible about door & forgetting about steps.
Beautiful job - He worked for stairs. He build the kitchen, bathroom & BR and then got the stairs. Wasn't rigid about anything. Gave him a lot of freedom w/the people he chose. We had a great doll conversation. Mom, dad, baby. Dad woke up, cooked b'fast for baby. Mom did dishes and drove baby to school and drove Dad off at work. Heavy DRO in the beg....then he was amazing during play. DRO'd a lot at end also. While I wrote notes, I let him play. Excellent job. No babbling! Used characters very nicely. Little weird stuff. Great job!
He built rooms by himself. I sat at a distance & told him that when the entire house was built, if he did a quick, good job, we could play w/dolls. He did an amazing job building LR, BR, bathroom, kitchen. Then great playing w/dolls, mommy, grandma and grandpa. DRO.
P.N. - All read [therapist/date] notes. We like the idea of having him do this independently!
Followed [ther's] idea about sitting back & letting him build rooms independently. Did amazing job. Quick. All the rooms done in 2 to 5 min. BR, LR, bathroom, kitch. Nice & neat. I don't think he did any weird stuff b/c he probably didn't have time. He got stairs & people as a nat. reinf. This was nice & funny. At one point I decided my person had to go use the bathroom. He watched the lady go downstairs to the bathroom. He said "Why are you going to the br?" I said, "I have to urinate". I sat the doll on the toilet and he said, "no silly, you have to stand up." Of course I was rolling w/laughter. I explained simply that girls sit & boys stand. Nice job.
P.N. - Please stop giving the stairs as a NR [natural reinforcer]...it will make him rigid.
First thing he requested was stairs. Told him he can't have it today b/c we were going to make the house w/o stairs. He didn't argue. DRO'd. Waited nicely until I brought the doll house in. DRO'd flexibility & patience when he was finished. I let him construct rooms on his own. LR was on top. He did nice job. Doll convers was very good. After we were done, I let him play on his own until I wrote notes. I noticed nothing bizarre. He was having very nice convers with the dolls! Lots of DRO when putting it away. He tried to set up some conditions about getting to play w/ the house later, but I ignored his comments & redirected him to put on socks to go out for Ball Play drill.
He didn't request stairs. Lots of DRO for getting into activity quickly. Set up rooms quickly & independently. There was some humming. I didn't interfere but I did DRO quiet working when I could but not directly after he stopped humming. Doll play was nice. I even told him he could walk his character through the door and he controlled himself. Lots of DRO. I was grandpa & I brought a TV so I moved some furniture in the LR around to make rm. He was flexible about this -- DRO. Some difficulty during clean-up but overcorrection / redirection worked.
P.N. - Good! Always use overcorrection and re-direction for cleaning up.
Requested stairs but accepted "no". DRO'd flexibility. Set clock at 12:50. I made the doll change it and he was fine about it. Lots of singing but I didn't interfere so I let it go. I will DRO its absence later (if it ever ends 0-:) He built all the rooms on his own & interacted beautifully in doll play. When I asked him to feed the cat he said he didn't like food (interesting). Cleaning up was difficult. Overcorrection & redirection worked though it took a long time. He hit me earlier in the drill w/a piece of doll furniture. We put it away (I was neutral) & I told him we'd do it again when he controlled himself. He apologized & calmed down so we started again.
I took the stairs away before we started. He asked about them but accepted that we couldn't find them. DRO'd flexibility. Stuck on making clock [doll clock] 10 to 1 again. Jim talked about how time changes. He stopped being rigid. Getting stuck then on having people talk through upstairs window. Put away nicely at first and then singing a little. Responded when Jim told him to do it quietly.
Before I brought house in, I told him I was doing so. He immediately said OK, I'm going to build all the rooms AND STAIRS too! I just neutrally said that I think the stairs are missing. He didn't bring it up again. DRO. Just gave him the condition that kitchen has to be on the top today. He didn't resist. DRO. Absolutely no weird thing occurred while building. No twisting, turning furniture, etc. Worked quickly & quietly. DRO'd this heavily since singing was a problem today with other breaks and drills. Very nice convers too. Told him he can play on his own until I finished writing notes but then he'd have to put them away.
Did a beautiful job setting up rms. We put bedroom on top. No probs with clock. He asked me what time it was (7:30) & he put hands on the 7 and 3. Didn't ask about stairs. Played appropriately with me using grandma & grandpa doll & put things away nicely. Only problem was clicking lamp into dresser which straightened out quickly w/overcorrection.
Excellent work - Beautiful set up w/rms. I asked if I can do some and he was flexible and allowed me to do bathroom & kitchen. Lots of DRO. Asked about stairs once but didn't mind that they were still "missing". Convers was beautiful. He was grandma. DRO'd that he didn't take both grandma & grandpa like last time. He did something "different" for a change. BR was on top. I let him play until notes were finished.
Doing lots of beh that interfered w/putting dollhse together so I neutrally said we'll do it later. Had a fit. Told him we could do it after he does a good job w/something else. Interfering beh were twirling objects in fingers & getting up to put lamp under blanket. He sat down and we went to expr. categories. Went back to dolls. NR - Oh the Places You'll Go. Putting lamp under fireplace before and asked me time to put on clock. So when we went back to this asked for those right away. Took them away on break. Then was piling furniture on top of ea other on floor. Gave SD - Put the kitchen in the house. He listened and I DRO'd. Lots of singing had to be ignored but tried to redirect by having convers. This worked. Refused to do LR so I said OK and started putting dolls away. Changed his mind quickly. Talked about doing house calmly in beg b/c he was body jerking. As I thought, didn't want to do LR b/c clock wasn't there. Taking long time & hiding bathtub so I put away the house. All this was done neutrally -- he got upset so I said next time he'll do a better job.
I told him to do three rooms & surprise me. He did LR, BR, bathroom, quickly & relatively quietly. There was some quiet humming that stopped quickly w/redirection. He was the daddy & I was the girl. Great job playing & putting things away quietly & quickly. DRO'd.
Let him do this independently. A bit slow at first but I told him I was really excited to see what it would look like when he finished and that I wanted to play dolls w/him. Worked quickly and COMPLETELY quietly! Lots of DRO. Was sticking stuff in the fireplace. Redirected. When I talked about why he was doing so well (being quiet), he started making mouth noises, so I pretended to go to BR & watched him. The mouth stuff gradually stopped, he quickly finished the house & came after me to tell me he was done. Then we played dolls. He was grandpa and I was granddaughter. Let him continue playing until I finished the notes. Putting stuff away was resistant. Didn't want it to be put away at all. Explained that he got to play w/it for a while & that now it was time to do something else. He put it away w/some noises.
Set up rooms quietly (LR on side-outside, BR on top) & quickly w/ [little bro] in the room playing with Play Doh. Lots of DRO w/statements about how little brother is learning to play nicely from [name] to which he said "I know" and DRO'd his brother! Beautiful job w/ rooms -- Didn't put away anything in fireplace. Accepted absence of suitcase w/o a prob. Played w/dolls. He was mommy & I was daddy. In the middle of playing he left situations & went to get grandfather doll. Game stopped. Reminder about walking away from friends. Put objects away nicely & quietly. DRO.
Set up rooms. LR was on top. Did a few weird things w/the fireplace. Put lamp under it. I took it away & asked him if he wanted to play w/it. He said yes. Told him he can only play w/ it nicely. Told him he was an angel all along & hope he could continue this behavior. He played well afterwards. DRO'd appropro play & quick set up of rms. At end was a little rigid about putting things away -- redirected by telling him he can read his Madeline book & he went for it. DRO'd flexibility later. Nice work.
P.N. - Careful -- no N.R. mid-drill [N.R. = natural reinforcers]
Set up house indep. Bookended no silly stuff with furniture, w/lots of DRO for putting items down quickly. I had to intervene as he was doing the 2nd room & he was going through box of furniture & making cat noises & playing w/cat. This interfered with his ability to set up rms. Redirected by asking him what room he was doing next. This worked. (He has no prob w/setting up this dollhse -- should we move on to something else...i.e., extra items or cooperative setting up of the dollhse?) Two young girls (friends) played together. He was very hesitant not to use adults but went along w/it
P.N. - Start doing cooperative setting up and get him to ask you to join him.
Built it w/him. I arranged things quite differently on my part (e.g., two sep bedrooms, LR & BR on same floor, bathroom & kitchen on same part). He was very rigid, esp about my putting clock in BR. Redirected by making him ask ?s -- e.g., can there be more than one BR? This worked. Prior to that he was trying to move the furniture I laid out. We talked about how people get angry when you mess up things they make. Then he played nicely. DRO'd flexibility. Putting away was awful.
Lots of rituals. Used overcorrection. He screamed each time I did. I told him to do it right & I won't take them out. Didn't listen so I neutrally put them away. Let [little bro] play w/it b/c he wouldn't let me put it away. He tantrummed & said he was younger and [little bro] was older & he couldn't play w/his toys. I ignored him.
P.N. - Get him to INVITE YOU TO PLAY
You: "Would you like me to join you?"
Him: "Yes"
You: "Ask me..."
- Sometimes say "yes" and sometimes say "no"
- Do cooperative play with each of you being a different character.
Notes please.
We worked on this for about 15 min. Very nice throughout except for when we got to end. He put away dollhse pcs very ritualistically. I had to overcorrect & this escalated to grabbing, pushing & ultimately a t.o. Tried to redirect when he came back, but still did the same behaviors when putting away. At beginning I prompted him to ask me to play w/him by saying that I was bored w/my toy. Asked him if I can help him build. He refused & said you can play w/the people when I'm done. This gave me opportunity to tell him NOT to forget to ASK ME! He did remember -- lots of DRO. Played beautifully w/dolls. Lots of DRO.
At 1st he told me he would set up rooms & I would play w/dolls w/him. I told him that's no fun. If he wants me to play with him he has to invite me for the entire thing. He did. DRO. We cooperatively built house & I prompted him that he couldn't touch other people's furniture & move it. He balked at 1st when I placed things in diff places but he complied & participated wonderfully. Tons of DRO & really good play. We finished on a positive note & he put things away nicely with constant DRO.
At first things were great -- played cooperatively, compromised, ignored [little bro], etc. DRO for all these things. We built together & he was flexible. Then when I asked him to clean up he refused and then was ritualistic (banging pieces, etc.). Stayed in clear discrete trials -- n/e, n/e, prompt [n/e = "no" equivalent] -- he hit me & Jim gave him a t.o. -- then put away Barbie dr.'s office.
P.N. - Keep using new doll house furniture, castles, etc.
While TV was on new channel...very nice setting up. Np persev on any particular toy. Lots of DRO for quick setup of all rms. Got right into a doll convers that was nice & coherent. Lots of talk about school & what he did at the firehouse he visited. Pretended to drive him to school & Drove him off with grandma & mommy. Very flexible about toys -- lots of DRO. While I wrote notes, no weird behs, except for singing "This Old Man" & trying to rhyme very strangely. Tried to redirect by conversing w/him. TV didn't seem to interfere w/his performance.
Used Barbie kitchen. We were husband & wife. Cooked dinner, put away the food from shopping, washed dishes, used the blender & food processor. He stayed in character & did overall great job. DRO'd.
Dollhse. Set it up together (TV on news channel). He had some difficulty leaving my pcs where I put them but no equivs & redirection worked. Play was OK; needed redirection away from windows & doors, but it was OK.
Dollhse. Set up. Had some prob w/lamp & fireplace. I spotted him putting lamp under fireplace. I let him do it & then, when it was time to have a convers., I made believe a fire had started b/c of it & burned down the entire house. Had the fire dept. look for the arsonist/culprit. He of course got very into this & wanted to make "excuses" about why the lamp was under the fireplace. I had detectives reprimand him by throwing away all the burned furniture & apologizing. Good lesson -- he said he learned to put things where they belong. Let's see if he remembers. I DRO'd good attn, play & construction.
P.N. - Great -- let him fail. He could handle this now & we can find good opportunities for teaching lessons.
Nice job. Cooperatively put house together. Needed prompt at beg to not move my pieces but otherwise no probs. Played nicely w/DRO for following my lead.
He & I both built the rms. Very nice job - no weird stuff w/toys. We sort of contracted in the beg that he would have a surprise for me -- i.e., move bowels -- He kept it at the end. Convers was great. Did whole skit on little Joey defecating on his own in bathroom w/o telling parents. He was very into this. A little rigid ending the "show" but redirection worked. I just started putting away things that I built. He was OK. DRO'd flexibility.
Some really bad grimacing & toy tapping as he built the kitchen & also opening & closing the window non-stop. I took off the window & the kitchen & redirected to having him build another rm. This caused a tantrum. I tried to ignore a lot of the behaviors. He was very upset. Almost hit me but managed to only squeeze himself on me. Megan told me to open & close his window. I did this and asked "what's wrong with this?" and he said "it's weird - you shouldn't do it." I told him he was right & that this was why I took his window away. He denied this -- I neutrally moved on. DRO'd being quiet & flexible as he started to build a new rm. Convers was good & so was play when we got into it.
Big dollhse. Wow! Really nice. We were both very absorbed in the details. he was good w/playing, setting up & convers. He wanted to open & close doors a bit too often, but redirection worked nicely. He was flexible w/the furniture & it's placement in rooms & with the characters. Lots of DRO. Needed a little n/e, n/e, p for eye contact [no equiv, no equiv, prompt for eye contact] and switching attn. (not too bad). All else was very good.
P.N. - This is DOLLHOUSE ONLY (which he perseverates on in school) to desensitize him. While you can include some of the themes we're working on in Play With Narration, remember you're restricted to the doll house, it's rooms and furniture. P.S. - Barbie extras OK here too; NEVER USE Victorian giant doll house...if he asks. tell him we said he's "not allowed".
Used schoolhouse. He did great job. We did show & tell and my doll asked his for pointers on how to do well. Nice job. Stayed in character, but after drill, in play, he acted crazy. No interventions worked. Kept playing w/him but he'd immediately go back to stims & babbling. Other kid's statements went ignored. Narration worked only for a moment & he didn't respond to switching attn ?s Got a T.O. from Megan.
Used schoolhouse. I tried to work on concept of sharing/asking instead of telling & grabbing. Worked in context of school situations i.e., in playground, outside, classroom, etc. Asked him to comment on all that was appropro & why. He understood that sharing & asking is better b/c kids will like you more. If he grabs or acts like a bully, kids will leave him.
Dollhse. Played beautifully! Assembled rooms w/me. Needed one n/e not to move my pieces but then did a great job. Was not bossy. DRO'd his not telling me but asking me things. Dolls conversed well & went to movies. He was great - stayed in character & did not get stuck on any pcs. Lots of DRO. WE played for a long time & ended on a positive note.
Used some old playground figures. Told him to help me set up. He could barely move b/c he had to go to the bathroom but wouldn't. I just pretended everything was OK & went about conversing w/ dolls. Did a whole story on the kid in the playground having to go to the bathroom to make. She didn't want to make in pants b/c other kids may laugh & not play w/her. The outcome was she went to bathroom on her own & was proud of herself for not making in pants. He listened w/intensity.
Dollhse - Nice setting up. I purposely did things to see his reaction, e.g., put cat in LR before all furniture was in the house. He moved it & we talked about bossing around, etc. He was flexible & not bossy. DRO. I moved his things & had to prompt a reaction. Played nicely for most part, ignored me at times so I told him he made me feel like he didn't want to play w/me. After some nonsense about being disappointed in me & other kids statements, he stopped ignoring. DRO. Made dolls do weird things. I used "other kids" & he told me it was b/c they had magic so I had him narrate his play so I'd know he wasn't doing weird things. Cleaned up nicely. Natural Reinf - keeping out the dollhse.
Great play. Beautiful convers. Nothing weird. Ans. irrelevant ?s on the side (should we be doing this -- sort of like switching attn?) P.N. - YES!!! That's great. No weird play. DRO. He did get rigid about ending dollhse & yelled at me. I played it out like a kid & pretended my feelings were hurt & started to cry. This caught his attn. Debriefed on what happened & what would or could happen in real school. He was attentive & cooperated w/putting things away finally.
P.N. - All read [therapist/entry date]. She brought in extra switching attn. as well as letting a rigidity play out, acting like a kid and then de-briefing.
Again, as w/[above therapist], he got rigid, but this time b/c I started playing before he finished setting up his rms. I also let it play out & debriefed. It worked well (I did this another time too - but results weren't as good. See [date/section].)
Used dollhse. Great job. Setting up was great. I did lots of switching attn. w/him while we did drill. Great w/both. Doll convers was amazing. Focused on one major theme throughout the drill (sick kid eats good food, feels better next day). eye contact was also very good. Gave him regular DRO. Nice.
Used school house. He got rigid about having "King Arthur" in the school. It was hard to redirect at first b/c he was banging on the door & asking for his servants. I picked up the teachers & asked the class to line up. Started talking about how kids shouldn't be wearing costumes to class & about how only on Halloween can they do this. He was rigid about accepting this but I remained neutral & persistent until he submitted. He finally did nice job. Defended "Jerry" (King Arthur) by saying it was only a "pretend sword" he had. Teacher gave lecture on school rules. Finished up nicely. Had a hard time looking up when name was called.
Used school again b/c I wanted to work on listening to adults. He was rigid & doing lots of tapping w/dolls. Wouldn't stop. Tried to have [playdate] redirect but he had little effect on it. He got into "a little quarrel with [playdate] over a toy." They started to "fight" just like kids -- e.g., I had it first -- I took the opportunity to act like a disciplinarian teacher. Took away the school (& castle b/c he started to drift towards it) and "yelled" saying no sharing or playing. I made it look as if it was [playdate's] fault so that he couldn't act up, but then I generalized to the "whole class". He became VERY cooperative. Almost scared! Did everything I asked him to & listened, paid attn. & gave very good eye contact! Kept this going as long as I could.
Used dollhse. He was letting out a lot of S behaviors [s = stimmy]. I remained very neutral about it. He banged toys, made lots of weird sounds, etc. Convers was hard b/c of his beh. He did help to set up (even though he was rigid about where the BR went & how many beds there had to be). Helped to clean up. Complimented him on this.
Joined him in wild play -- tried to redirect (stop fighting at the castle). Worked well. I asked him why they're always doing this (fighting) and he said it's their last day. I said "Hallelujah!" Let's fight until everyone is dead (reverse psych). This got his attn. BIG time. He obeyed the rules that those soldiers who died cannot be woken w/any magic sword & they can only become alive tomorrow morning. Also - there will never be any more fighting in the castle (let's see how long this lasts). He totally stuck to this & continually responded when I called [name]. Gave natural praise.
P.N. - [therapist name]...He can fight (kids his age do); just make sure the fighting isn't stimmy.
Used dollhse. We made some compromises & we ea got to place some furniture. No fighting - DRO for respecting my choices. Played appropriately & stayed in character. Able to use narration when character asked what he was doing. Put everything away w/o a prob. Great job. DRO'd.
Worked w/castle soldiers but I sort of moved away from the castle, He was very flexible. Got him to change all his characters' names. We did Hamlet w/major script changes. He was really getting into it. eye contact & attn was good & he was excellent on following leads. Nice job. No wild or weird play. Gave him lots of compliments.
Played w/schoolhouse & dolls. He was flexible about set-up & played nicely. Stayed in character. No strange voices. Good job.
We used dolls & Lego airport he built. What a disaster! He completely ignored me & began stimming on elephants right in the middle of our dolls talking to ea other. He was stimming on Dr. Barbie's stethoscope so my doll walked away & Dr. B got bossy & hit her, so another Barbie, who was a police officer, put her in jail for assault & resisting arrest. He was upset b/c Barbie was in jail. [we had some fun therapists, we did]
Dollhse - good; worked through silly rules, etc. compromised, gave him what he wanted & didn't. When I wanted to stop playing, he walked away & ignored me. He picked up a brush & got crazy, roughly putting it through my hair (= hit). Told him to "take time for himself" [P.N. - Don't label it "taking time for himself" pls. Just do it.] - he refused. I ignored him. Asked me later if I was ready. Told him to let me know when HE was by showing me he'll stop w/silly stuff (hitting brush on things, etc.). I waited neutrally until he did.
[This drill went on for another FULL YEAR!!!!!! after the last entry.]
This drill lasted with different names for over two years. The descriptions on the cover sheet for the first part of this drill were as follows:
Bring [little bro's name] in and have him play with a toy while [name] watches (if brother isn't available, you play with the toy). Do not let [name] interrupt for a long time. Create your own SDs like:
"You can't grab...but you can watch." "Let me do it." "Hey, I'm/[bro's name]'s playing with that", etc.
Eventually, allow him a turn and share; sometimes grab it from him and prompt him to express displeasure with you (get him to say "don't grab it", etc.) Ask how he feels about you interrupting his turn (and prompt appropriately), etc.
LATER ADDED TO THIS DRILL COVER SHEET:
Work on Parallel Play here and in other drills, but report it not only here (or other specific drills parallel play occurred in), but in "GENERAL" so we never get into the situation where he's parallel played in too many drills too often!
A NEW COVER SHEET APPEARED APPROX 2 MONTHS AFTER THE ABOVE BEGAN (WE SUPPOSE THIS DRILL IS ONE OF THE FIRST THAT SOME MAY CALL A "PEER IMITATION" DRILL--THOUGH WE'RE NOT SURE...)
THE NAME SEEMS TO HAVE THEN CHANGED TO PLAIN OLD.....
...PARALLEL PLAY
Description: You do one thing while he does another. Prompt comments from him about what YOU'RE doing. He must show an interest in what you do.
Therapist and Parent Notes [P.N.]:
Nice sharing with brother. After some time I let him ask for turn.
Did well w/brother and reacted appropriately when I grabbed the toy from him. Needs work on letting me have a turn. I asked him if I can have turn and he said "no".
Played with Mr. Potato Head with brother.
Played Bang a Ball with brother, daddy and me (Megan) and did fine.
Played Mr. Potato Head again (sorry - had to come up with something quickly to end stimming on break).
Hammering wooden pegs. He was not watching brother play. I had to prompt him to watch brother. He still didn't watch. Finally, I told him he would have to stop playing with brother b/c he was being rude. He finally said he would stop being rude. Then played nicely.
Both boys were good at sharing and taking turns [In addition we had a turn-taking drill that began with building with blocks and progressed to playing board games...this drill went on across all three years of therapy]. He even invited me to play. At one time he didn't give bro a turn & then admitted that he was being SELFISH. When I grabbed toy away, he acted appropriately and said "You're being selfish [therapist name]; don't grab!"
Roly Poly w/brother. Brother not really interested. We then watched brother hammering some stuff. [Name] didn't get a turn b/c he wasn't watching brother play.
Brother again not too interested. [Name] was patient and attentive and offered me a turn. When I grabbed toy from him he said "that's not nice".
Brother sleeping so I did this drill with a book. He did well.
We took turns drawing. He was attentive and responded well.
Played with memory game. Excellent attention.
Brothers played w/schoolhouse. He was distracted and spacy. He pushed the toy at me too hard and I had him hand it to me again nicely.
He wouldn't share his toy w/me after I shared mine w/him so I took mine back and told him I did this b/c he wouldn't share. He was very unhappy.
Used one of his old toys that is now brother's. Brother didn't know how to use it so I showed [name] how to show brother. [Name] had to take brother's hand and place it on toy. Nice job.
He was non-compliant w/me in the beginning. It took a while for me to reel him in (w/Jim's help of course). After he was under control and I actually started to move around and being a distractor, he put a toy car in a specific place and told me not to touch it! I let him sit down then I picked it up. He was obviously upset but I got him under control. It was great after that...Switching attention [something we were working on within drills now].
Sharing was great. We played with the shape sorter. He understood when I was selfish and rude and v.v.
Sesame Street toy. Brother played and he watched. He was attentive and even commented on what brother was doing.
Brought him into the living room to play Magna Doodle with brother. He didn't want to share and when he was told to give toy to brother, he threw it at him. The drill was interrupted with a t.o. due to his tongue clicking.
P.N. - Switch rooms if possible.
[Playdate], [name] and me took turns blowing bubbles in the living room. Good job.
P.N. - Let's tone down the talk and get into more quiet play and sharing (try to let the talk be more natural...less structured). Also parallel play with him -- while he plays, play w/something else w/ the object. i.e., both peacefully co-exist. Notes please.
Played with cars on mat with brother. Working on getting him to tolerate brother playing with stuff in his own way.
Parallel Play combined with Arts & Crafts drill. He's busy looking at my work and not at his own. Began babbling so he got a t.o.
P.N. - Work on sharing with brother as much as possible!
(In "School"). He needed to be prompted when [other therapist] grabbed his checkers from Connect 4.
Brothers played with doll house. He was restless while watching but didn't touch. They read together too, but he kept trying to stim on brother.
Played stacking rings w/brother. I had him hand his brother the rings in the correct order but did not allow him to place the rings on the stand. His job was to help his brother only.
With [other therapist] we took turns playing Perfection game. He had to be prompted to tell [other therapist] not to grab. He tried to grab a piece from me and lost his turn. Didn't do it again.
Brothers and I played shape sorter. He explained to brother how to play. Tried to grab out of brother's hands once.
We played Squiggly Worms. We took turns. He cheated a couple of times b/c he wound up the apple twice, so I told him that he lost his turn. He understood and played nicely. We both took turns.
Animal puzzle - waited patiently. When I was finished asked me if he could go now. Didn't let me put piece in and I cried because he didn't share with me.
Very nice playing with brother. Helped brother fix his animal puzzles. Brother really cooperated. [Name] did nice job and didn't stim on brother.
He built a house of blocks. I handed him blocks and he built. Did nicely. Waited patiently for me to give him blocks and didn't grab. Good cooperation.
We played with a puzzle. He did well. Needed a prompt to say "share with me".
Brothers played with shape sorter and a car. Brother took the car and [name] ran after him. He had to be reminded to let him share. Showed him how to use shape sorter and gave him pieces. Shared his food w/brother. Asked brother if he "wanted one"? (Chinese noodles).
Played with bubble gun. He really wanted it and I wouldn't let him. He asked why and I told him b/c "I'm selfish". Then we shared.
P.N. - Add in Sustaining Conversation (see Sheet).
Shared Tinker Toys. He played appropriately. Conversation about my friend Patti and when we went on vacation together. I made Patti out of Tinker Toys.
Brothers and I played w/Lincoln Logs. He didn't play appropo; kept knocking down what we built and putting roof on his face. I put them away and he got VERY upset.
We played with a cash register. I was buying pumpkin. Incorporated the Sustaining Convers drill. Did nicely. I talked about Halloween events. He asked appropro ?s. He needed some prompting but it stopped at a minimum. Good work.
Played Perfection game. Very good. He played and shared nicely. Great eye contact
Parallel Play - with Play Doh. Talked about what we were making, etc. He did ok with some prompting.
Played with puzzles. I had him carry them over to me from on top of the dresser. We talked about my dog and the boo boo on her eye. He needed prompts...w/o them either asked "why?" or was silent.
Watched brother play w/shape sorter. We talked about what brother should be for Halloween. He had a hard time watching brother w/o touching him. He would either try to touch him or not pay attn. Had hard time sitting still.
We played w/spaceship we built from Tinker Toys. I ignored him, rolled over toys and broke them to show him how it feels when he does that. [Other therapist] was selfish. Then she shared and had to go home and even took "her" toy with her. He was upset. Said "could you give me that toy...please?" She explained that she had to go home.
Sharing and play was great. We played house and I visited him at home. We watched TV and then went to the park. I grabbed a lot of toys from him. He kept saying "Hey you're being selfish, you're not sharing." I kept pushing him for more comments. Prompted him to say "please, let's share....it's better that way. I want to play also". "That's mine...you can't take it away", etc. He caught on and he did great with this and had very good eye contact [THIS IS THE THERPIST ENTRY REFERRED TO IN ****PN A LITTLE FURTHER ON....]
Tinker Toys with [playdate]. Parallel play. Nice talking about what they were making. Then helped her with shape sorter. He needed prompts to watch her.
P.N. - Do this a lot with other "kid" in joint therapist School drill. He needs it badly in school.
Brothers shared dolls; at first played well. Brother sat on [name's] doll set-up. I asked him how he felt about that and he said he "didn't like it". I reminded him that he did this in school himself. Gave him a T.O. for not looking 3x during this drill while I was talking. He made no attempt to look at me when he answered.
P.N. **** Everyone look at [therapist note/date]. We have to generalize his comments out more. Prompt him [script him] through this kind of thing often. Thanks!
We watched a little girl playing Tic Tac Toe in the park. Then we played. I took his turn and we worked on saying "you're skipping me; don't take my turn." Needed prompts.
Played Tinker Toys w/brother. Nice parallel play for some time. He pulled toy from brother. Worked on having him watch what brother was doing. We talked about what he was doing. Sust Conv was not bad. Went to park and he sang rock-a-bye baby w/me while swinging the baby to sleep on the swing.
We played w/the doll set. I played in the "living room"; he played in the "kitchen". He watched a lot of what I was doing and seemed curious. Asked spontaneously "What are you doing?"!! He then started to play with his kitchen set. I threw in a little of the sharing stuff. He was good at this, esp when I started grabbing. He's gotten better at expressing his thoughts in such situations. Good eye contact
P.N. - THIS DRILL HAS CHANGED -- Please read NEW first page. The focus is on conversation and getting him to comment on what you're doing.
He played with blocks and so did I. I made a big tower, used a lot of blocks. Had to prompt him to ask me about what I was making. He was a bit curious but seemed more engaged w/his own work. I prompted him by slowly taking his blocks sort of inadvertently so that he can at least look at what I was doing. This stimulated him to look but I think he got the impression that I was being selfish. I started talking about what I was making. This got his interest a little but he still didn't really care to ask what I was making.
I did shape sorter while he played w/Legos. At one point I started to hit block on shape sorter. I kept doing this for a long time until he said "you're putting that in the wrong place", so I asked him to help me. Then he kept watching me and didn't go back to his work so I had to tell him to. Then I walked away while we were playing; he didn't notice, so I prompted him to say "where are you going? come back and play with me".
P.N. - Be creative. Try to engage his curiosity in your work [refer to therapist note/date]. Make what you're doing something you know he'd be into.
He made a train out of Thistle Blocks and I used Legos. My Lego animals were talking to ea other. He was looking intently and when he started asking one of the Lego animals ?s, I prompted him to ask ME about what I was playing, doing, etc. and then he went back to his work and I asked him ?s and then prompted more ?s and asked him for help.
He played with med-sized Legos and I played w/smaller Legos. He was interested in small Legos and indep asked me what I was making so I told him and invited him to play w/small Legos too. I asked him what he was going to make and he said an airplane just like you. Then I told him my airplane is going to [state]. He told me (w/o prompt) his is going to [another state].
I took out blocks, built a house w/Lincoln Logs and asked if I could use the fireman doll he was playing with. He gave it to me & played w/the blocks. Asked if he could have it back b/c I share so nicely. I told him as soon as I was done...my log cabin went on fire & the fireman came & put it out & knocked the house down. He was very interested. I had to prompt "what are you doin?" when I was building the house, but was very interested in the fire. Asked good ?s e.g. "why are you destroying the house?" DRO.
Good cooperation, eye contact and symbolic play. I asked him what he was doing as he played. He spoke appropriately about what he was doing. Good playing with figures. He asked me what I was doing also. Asked to play w/my characters too. Good reciprocal stuff happening.
Tinker Toys with [playdate]. They each built something to climb. Then prompted for him to look at hers. She looked at his w/o prompting.
Blocks. I started out building a tower. He didn't seem too interested in it. I prompted him to look at me and ask ?s. He didn't engage in any of these activities. He also wasn't too interesting in playing with the blocks.
I played with Lite Brite, which he loves. Had no problem gaining his interest. What was great was that he listened when I told him to play with his Lincoln Logs and was really into making a bldg. Needed prompts to ask me ?s, but asked right away and answered my ?s immediately. DRO.
I played with Thistle Blocks; he played with shape sorter. I yelled "oh no" -- Megan prompted him to ask "what's wrong?" - I told him that I needed a piece but I couldn't find it. Megan prompted him to ask if he could "help" me. I said "yes". Then he helped me and found piece.
I played with maze toy; he w/train tracks. Prompted him to ask me about what I was doing. Then prompted to ask me to play trains w/him and I built by myself and he built by himself. Prompted a conversation.
Played with the Musical Band toys. We had a little concert. School children came to see us. He named the band "Guitaro". He sang a little -- pretty good. In general this scene was a little bit slow and lacking in enthusiasm. He seemed a little too concerned with detail i.e., school bags in school audience. I ignored his comments and moved on [our Playmobile school characters had school bags and he always persev on them]. Also told him they were on a class trip.
P.N. - We need more prompting of incidental conversation. [I BELIEVE THIS MIGHT BE BEFORE WE BEGAN CONSTANT "SCRIPTING" AND DOING THIS HELPED EVERYONE REALIZE HOW WELL THAT COULD WORK FOR HIM TO PROMOTE SPONTANEITY WHICH WE STILL SAW AS A HUGE DEFICIT]
Great work. He talked a lot about what he was playing with, i.e., doll watching television. I acted like there was no food in the refrig and prompted him to say "What should we do?", etc. Great job. Great eye contact We pretended to eat. He actually had a chicken cutlet.
Very good. He played with Kerplunk game and I took out the GAK copy machine. He was looking at me and said "I want to do that". I prompted him to say "Can we do that together?" and DRO'd. Asked him to finish playing with Kerplunk first.
I played with Spaghetti & Meatballs game and he played w/shape sorter. It started out fine. I messed up pieces and said "whoops!" and he said "What's wrong?" !!! DRO!!! Then I tried to prompt him to ask me what I liked about the game but he was too busy grabbing my pieces. I shut down drill b/c he was not listening to me and was touching my toy.
He played with bubble gun and I played with his ball and Velcro glove. He needed prompts to ask me about glove, comments I made to incite reaction. He did ask on his own "How did that happen?" when the ball wouldn't fall. Big DRO.
I played with Bristle Blocks and he played w/regular blocks. I prompted his "That's a great car, [therapist name]" then I asked him what he liked about it. He said "they way it drives", then I asked him how he likes the shield I made on my car. He said "it's great" (appropro emoting - DRO), then he said - "Look at the house I made". I told him that I really like it, esp the roof. DRO'd his initiation of my attention to his project.
Played with Floam and he was using markers. He came over to me and started leaning all over me while he was looking. I prompted him to ask if he could help me fix the Floam (I'd said it was broken). However, he simply (after he took prompt) walked away and began playing w/the Spaghetti game so I asked him if I could play w/him and prompted him to explain the game to me.
I played w/Shape & Color coaster while he read. He became interested immediately and asked if he could play w/me (DRO). I did it wrong and he UNPROMPTED told me it was wrong and explained how to play. DRO. I said "ouch" -- took 2x saying it before he responded "What happened?" DRO'd.
Did really nice job playing along w/what I was doing. I sort of started my own classroom and pretended to play school. I asked him what he was doing and he said I'm pretending to feed the baby. DRO'd. He then switched to what I was doing -- played school really nicely and was quite spontaneous w/his verbalizations. He behaved nicely and showed good discipline and behavior as he pretended to talk for the students. DRO. He also stayed with the pretend situation and didn't bring in "[his name], [brother's name] or [daddy's name]".
I colored w/markers, he played w/Mr. Potato Head. Kept making "tsk" noises, acting annoyed. He said, 1st time on his own: "What's the matter?" DRO'd. Told him my marker was running out of ink. Incorporated "What should I do?" Said "Use another pen" - DRO Then said "ouch" - he said "what?" DRO. I said it hurts my fingers to press so hard - Asked if he likes my drawing. Said "it's good" spontaneously. DRO'd.
I played Etch-A-Sketch. He played with hourglass-shaped maze. He was really into his toy so this prob wasn't the best choice, but I worked w/it anyhow. Made disappointed sound and he said "what?" I prompted what happened. Then I told him that I made a mistake. I asked him how it looks. Prompted him to give answ. Then he indep asked me to look at his toy. DRO'd.
I played the piano w/the songbook while he played with the maze toy. At first he wasn't really paying any attention. [Other therapist] suggested hitting the wrong key. I did this and began singing off- key. This got his attn and he came over and pushed my hands away and tried to play! I prompted him to ask me if he could play w/me and told him that if he did then he needs to play w/it in the same way I do. He listened and tried to following the storybook. Very difficult for him.
He played w/nuts and bolts. I played w/plastic animals. I made animals have funny conversation. It took him a couple of seconds to catch on but then he indep took another animal and joined me. Lots of DRO.
I played w/farm animals, he played with animated characters. I pretended to need help with gathering animals. I spoke out loud and he came over to help. He appropriately used Jiminy Cricket to help. Lots of DRO after we were done playing.
I had drumsticks and he had the piano. He was staring at my drumsticks while he was playing so I pointed this out to him and told him if he wants to play with them to ask. He did, so I gave him one stick and we banged toy together to the beat of "Jingle Bells". Then I played "Jingle Bells" on the piano while he played the drumsticks and we sang it together.
Not too great. He was playing with train tracks and I was playing with an airplane. To get his attention I put the BIG airplane on the tracks. He didn't seem to care or think that the airplane didn't belong on tracks even though I was referring to it as "look at my choo-choo train". Finally got his attention by grabbing one of his trains. He wanted it back and asked for it nicely. Didn't really care to engage in play w/what I was doing though.
He played w/train as he was before drill and I played w/his new 7 Dwarfs soaps (Doc and Sneezy). Sneezy asked Doc to help him with his cold. He quickly came over and began playing with me. He's wanted these soaps in a bad way I hear, so I decided to really test him. I drove my soap and started playing with the train by myself and he followed me and began playing with me again. Talking about where we'd go, etc. DRO'd.
He played w/train tracks. Did a real good job. DRO'd. I took a doll & changed it's diaper and powdered it. He showed an interest...came over and asked "What are you doing?" DRO'd. I said the baby's wet and needs a change. Afterwards I fed baby and asked to play w/him. He agreed and let me and doll play. Very spontaneous comments. Great initiation. Lots of DRO.
He was reading a book. I brought in blocks (mini) to play w/ - he came over immediately and attempted to play with blocks and two dwarfs. I took them away at first b/c he didn't ask. I had to prompt him a little only. Did nicely afterwards. Creative playing. DRO.
Great job! Playing with animals and Disney characters on the Ferris wheel. We made an amusement park w/zoo animals and farm animals. Characters took turns on the Ferris Wheel and visited zoo. He commented a lot on all aspects of play. With Belle & the Beast he had a big scene where he had a cool romantic exchange of words. Belle: "I missed you so much" - Beast: "Me too!" Very cute. DRO'd.
He was using Mickey Light game and I was doing a puzzle. I tried fitting the Barney puzzle piece into the small puzzle and got upset b/c it didn't fit. He looked over and said, "No, not Barney!" Prompted him to say "Let me help you" and then we worked together. DRO'd.
He played w/matching clown puzzle and I played w/Mole game. He was very interested in his task but still unable to attend to my task. Gave me reinf when I won and indep said "I hope you win" as I was playing. Nice job.
He wanted to play w/Gak all night so.... He was really into keyboard while he was dancing. I took out Gak. Took lots of oo-ing and ah-ing from me [other therapist] and Megan for him to notice. Finally he came over and got interested so I went back to the piano. He came over so I went back to the Gak. Then he came. I started playing with something else and he said "help me". Make sure he says "PLEASE..help me". See Language section.
He was playing with dolls and doll house stuff. I sat next to him & played w/diff dolls w/other furniture. He glanced over at what I was doing and then grabbed the baby doll from me. I asked him what he needed to do..he gave right answ. "ask to play w/you" but continued to grab. I told him a better way of doing it. Then he interacted nicely w/me.
P.N. - Please work ULTRA hard on making sure he doesn't walk away from the situation -- physically prompt him back! Thanks.
He did puzzle - I played w/trains. First, he screeched for help - I had him ask nicely. Then he walked over and tried to put the gates down on the train tracks. I purposely left them open. I told him that I was playing w/ them and that's how I want them. Then he asked to play w/me. DRO. I purposely did things that I knew he wouldn't like (using the train backwds, going in the opposite direction from him, leaving the gates open, etc.) -- he kept trying to stop me, but I told him that I was playing w/it first so he has to play by my rules.
He played w/cowboy dolls -- I played w/Light & Learn. Prompted "Can I play with you?" b/c he was watching me. I said "sure" then moved on to dolls. He asked again if he could play (prompted) and I said yes and we played. He was cowboy and I was horse. Tried to walk away w/cowboy and a bull but I pulled him back and prompted "I never walk away from people b/c..." etc.
I sat behind him as he was coloring in book and I built w/Legos. Waited until he was really into it and then said in a relatively quiet voice - "[Name], what are you doing?" He turned around to look at me and answered & asked me what I was making. Tons of DRO!!! I prompted him to ask me if I wanted to color w/him. I said yes and we colored together. Prompted him to intermittently praise my work (I did the same for him), comment on what he was doing and ask me questions about my work.
He was playing w/his animals, talking to Jim. I started building w/Legos and talking to my characters. He came over spontaneously with his two lions. I turned this situation into a lesson where the two lions were lost in the city b/c they wandered away from their mommy in the jungle. The Forest Rangers helped them find their way back. Watch out for when he names his characters and tends to make up weird, asinine names -- like "Selfy"...and when you ask him to name it something else he tends to use a different version of the same, i.e., "Selfy" becomes "Sofie", etc. I told him he has to have different, not similar, names.
P.N. - This will be avoided with new prompt system. [I guess "scripting", i.e. - major amounts of prompting, started being interjected in all drill at this point in the therapy.]
He read and I played with the Magic 8 ball. He began to watch me so I prompted him to ask what I was doing, how it works, can he play w/me, have a turn, etc. He showed genuine interest. DRO'd interest.
Great! I played w/baby doll and puppies (made a house setting). The baby was crying, dog pooped on the carpet, etc. He came over and asked what was wrong. I told him the entire situation. I was the baby-sitter. Needed help. I prompted him with some answers, suggestions, and questions; he accepted all. Nice eye contact and he really got into this nicely. DRO'd.
He was playing with animals and I began playing guitar. He immediately came over and began touching the guitar and telling me to play a song. I prompted him to ask to play with me and to play a song.
He played with bulls and I played with Big Bird bus. Prompted him to initiate interaction w/me and asked Big Bird to take them to the farm. Big Bird would drive away and then I prompted him to call him back. They went to a variety of places. He accepted prompts, elaborated generally well but then told Big Bird that bulls were on the couch. I stopped the game and prompted him with "when I stop pretending, people won't want to play with me", etc. and other variants.
I was using the chalkboard and he was playing with the animals. When I got up to get an eraser, he went over to the chalkboard and began touching it. I said that I was there first and prompted him to ask to play w/me. Continuous prompting for appropriate play interactions.
He was playing w/Eggosaurus and I used miniature animals. Pretended animals were diving off a cliff. He came over and asked appropriately "What are you playing?" and it flowed from there. I also did Q&A, not from list but things that were relevant to task at hand, i.e., "What are you supposed to be thinking about right now?" Answer: "I should be thinking about what I'm doing right now only.", etc. Nice eye contact DRO'd.
Two dolls went to Dwarf school. I had him initiate interaction by asking if his doll could come in a car with mine. His doll did wonderfully answ Q&As in Dwarf school so she was able to drive in car. My doll had to answ more ?s (he was still listening to my doll answ even though he was playing with car). DRO'd eye contact when I was telling him something.
He was playing w/school house and I played w/animals. He was really cute -- basketball hoop broke off and he said "oh no" and whispered "sorry" to hoop. It was adorable. Then he asked (indep) to play w/me in his way "What are you playing?" -- I prompted him to say "Can I play w/you?" and then we played for a little while and I told him that I wanted to play w/the animals alone again. I prompted him to say "OK, now I'll play w/the school" and we went back to parallel play again.
He was playing with animals and I was using the timber blocks. He called to me from across the room -- I prompted Q&A #6 and then told him to come over and talk to me. Prompted him to ask to play w/me. We wound up combining the animals w/the blocks. He was rigid about this block [therapist made drawing of arched "bridge" block here] resting on top of this block [drawing of cylindrical block]. Q&A #11.
I played with pins & bowling ball. He played w/animals and Big Bird bus. I pretended to have a blast knocking down the pins. He came over and just watched. I said "hello [name]" and invited him to play but he said "no, you're supposed to talk to my pig" and I said "no I'm talking to you...you're my friend, not the pig. The pig is what you're playing with." He had no trouble w/this and continued w/me nicely. Needed constant prompting with eye contact when I talked as well as while we played bowling.
Great. He played w/dolls. I played with Shape N Color. He immed became interested. Came over and said "that's not the way you do it" and I prompted his "I do it a different way". He tried to grab it out of my hands. I stopped him and prompted "Can I please show you the way I do it?" I said sure and prompted him to explain what he was doing. Prompted eye contact during this. Then we played w/it taking turns.
I was building w/Legos while he was reading. He walked (DRO) over and asked to play w/me. I told him not now I'm busy bldg and then prompted him to ask me "What are you bldg?" I told him a garage for my crocodile. This was sufficiently absurd to get a response. He told me crocs don't live in garages.... P.N. - Great...this makes him think! ....He participated well in play and gave me advice while still doing his stuff. Then we played a game together. He (w/prompts) is getting much better at conversing while playing and commenting on other people. DRO'd.
He was reading and I was using the Labyrinth. I used a bead instead of the ball. This caught his attn and he walked over w/the book to see (he didn't touch - DRO'd). He asked why I wasn't using the ball (needed some prompting to find the right words but it was his idea to ask). After I answered he sat in front of me and read aloud. I told him that if he doesn't want to play w/me but wants to sit near me he needs to read silently. He listened and stopped reading aloud (DRO!)
[Name] and [playdate] were playing with a different set of blocks. [Playdate] started to build a crane and he spontaneously went over to him and asked "What are you doing?" BIG DRO! He asked to play w/him and to use the screwdriver. Then they pretended to build a cowboy house w/Legos. They decided parts they needed to build a house and garage. He needed some constant prompting for eye contact but was good otherwise.
We were outside. He and I were kicking around a ball. When he was running after it I started playing hopscotch. Prompted him to tell me that I shouldn't have walked away while we were playing. I apologized and told him I was bored. Played hopscotch again and he watched. Prompted "Show me how to play" -- He did it (hopscotch) slowly, but correctly.
He played with Duplo bldg kit while I did puzzle. I occasionally called him to look at my progress. DRO'd eye contact and prompted him to ask me to look at his. Worked on commenting on others' work w/o being a participant. Some prompting needed for eye contact Verbalization and affect were ok.
Nice job...tried to do what [other therapist name/date of entry--last entry] did in terms of commenting on ea others' play w/o being a participant. It was a bit hard b/c as soon as he saw me bldg w/Legos he was tempted to come over and play w/me. He asked appropriately and affect was good. E.C. was really good, especially when I asked him to hand me something (on purpose). He'd look at me as he handed it over. Lots of DRO and prompting for self-praise.
He's getting so much better at this. Today in school [this therapist is also a shadow] he handed another child something he Drove with totally appropriate verbalization and then went back to his work. He worked on lacing cards (at beg I went over pulling string all the way through until it stops). I worked on puzzle. Prompted him to ask me about how my work was going (needed phys prompting at 1st and then got it). Heavily praised his questions of me and his verbalizations about his work (even though they were fully prompted).
P.N. - Please always be sure to get him to comment on YOUR play (See [therapist name/date of entry]).
Nice job. Prompted him to comment on my play (I made a zoo cage). He accepted all prompts. E.C. needed more prompting but it wasn't that bad. He built four boats. Great job -- put seal in water -- recommended some other animals to go in my cage - DRO'd for commenting.
P.N. - Your game should be more interesting and reinforcing than his to attract his interest (e.g., guitar, fishing game, Squiggly Worms -- ask us). Don't let him join you FOR A WHILE (even if he asks). Prompt comments from him about what you're doing and you must always make comments about what he's doing (to model). His REWARD after a LONG SESSION of Parallel Play w/comments is that you let him join you, turning it into very regular play. Please take notes re: the above. Thanks.
I played with maze game and he played with Safari Sam. He wanted to play w/me but I told him I wanted to play by myself. I commented as he was playing and he answered me but needed prompts to glance at me. Prompted comments on my play. My toy was broken and he said "I'll help you" - Prompted him to ask instead of tell me. At the end I invited him to play with me.
P.N. - Read yellow-highlighted notes previous page and add the following concepts:
- Make sure he sits close to you - Prompt the following Q&A for this drill:
Q: What should you do if you see someone w/a really fun/neat toy?
A: I should ask them about it.
- Remember...we're rewarding him for good parallel play by inviting him over AFTER A WHILE for cooperative play. We're building up his tolerance for parallel play.
He sat close. He was reading and I took out Trouble game and started playing with it. At first he glanced but wasn't too interested. I prompted Q&A.....this was good. He continued to look at his books and I rearranged the colored thimbles of the Trouble game so that none were matching. This caught his attn immediately. He came over to play. I prompted him to ask ?s about what I was doing. I also told him to continue reading. He did and I asked him ?s too. After he was done reading he asked to play and asked more questions. Big DRO for commenting and saying that he can teach me how to play the right way.
P.N. - Please be sure to read our notes on previous pages.
I played with baby Shape Sorter. He played w/Tinker Toys. At first he said I'll play with you and I told him I wanted to do it myself. Then he tuned me out and needed a lot of prompting (Q&A) to ask me about my game. Then commented more naturally. I asked him about what he was making as we went along. I became bored w/my toy and joined him. He was OK with this (I prompted him to invite me to play w/him) and we built a swing together. P.N. - The Shape Sorter may not have been interesting enough. Always choose something VERY interesting to HIM for you to play with.
I played w/Smart Little Driver; he played w/his animals. Was really interested in playing w/me -- he waited a long time. I prompted him to comment on my toy instead of singing along with it or looking at it and leaving his toy aside. He needed prompting to continue to play w/his toy and look at me and not my toy when commenting on it. Used the Q&A to get comments -- When he was able to do this for awhile he got to play w/me. Had to take turns. I went first. This went well but when I was putting it away he started touching it. Got him under control with control statements, "Look, I can't stop touching this. Could I get a t.o. etc. if I don't stop?" This worked. DRO for controlling himself.
I played with dolls and school bus. He played w/Chinese Checker set. I let him start playing by himself so he would get into it, but when I came over he was totally distracted. I used ?s about his game to try to re-involve him but it didn't work by itself and he needed scripting & control statements to go back to his game. He did and then was able to control answ me or questioning me and then go back to his game. Lots of DRO for being able to shift back and forth.
I played w/Snackin' Safari and he played w/his band. We sat about 2 feet apart. I think my toy wasn't as interesting to him as it should have been but I still got his attn by pretending not to know HOW to play w/ the toy and asking for help. This caught his attn and he looked up and gave me a perfect explanation as to how I should be playing. Big DRO. I couldn't get him to come over and play though b/c he actually said "I like my toy better and I want to play alone". I thought that was a pretty good reason so I asked if I could play with him. He said "When I'm done you could play"!!! This prompted me to take away his toys which in turn prompted him to appropriately say I was "rude" and should "share". DRO for pointing this out. I also told him he was selfish for not letting me play with him. Reviewed some Q&As also.
He was doing a puzzle and I was playing with Little Tykes furniture & dolls. He was great and asked me about what I was playing with immediately. Lots of DRO & I prompted him to tell me what he was doing. I asked some ?s about his puzzle (some phys prompts & statements to look at me & not my toys). I was using large paintbrush to dust the furniture. He was really into this but really controlled himself (not easy). Big DRO. He finished his puzzle and then asked me to join him. Great job!
He was threading cards and I was setting up Honey Bear Funny Bear game. He was really cute at 1st. He said "hey, wait for me!" I told him I was doing it myself and prompted him to ? me (Q&A re: playing w/something "cool"). I asked him about his - still needed prompt to look. Finally I invited him to join me.
He was playing w/doll set. I started to play Perfection. He said "Are we going to play that b/c I'm being a good boy?" I said "how do you know you're being good?" He said "b/c I'm sitting quietly and not playing with my hands." DRO for the self-awareness but didn't let him play. He cont'd with his activity and commented on my game but needed prompting w/looking. Prompts from me were comments like "I don't know how to play this", "I can't turn the time", etc. Finally, I asked him if he wanted to play. He said as soon as I'm done I'll come (DRO'd this afterwards). He put away his things and came to play. We did "eenie meenie" to chose who goes first.
He played w/Mr. Mighty Mind and me w/Playschool guitar. He immed wanted it. Used scripting to get him to go back to his toy and ask ?s about mine, commenting on "cool"ness. Had to prompt phys to get him to look at me and not toy. Then I got bored after he played w/his toy for awhile. Told him he could play w/it but first asked how to play his toy. Lots of DRO and got to play with guitar. Self-pride statements, etc.
He played with abacus and I played with fire truck. He had a really hard time and was very creative at first in how he tried to dissuade me from my toy. He told me that the fire truck is for only one person and it is only for children. Q&A rules, cool game. Scripted him out of this. Needed to prompt comments and phys intervention & script looking at me and not my toy (like [name/entry date]). I asked him to join me before he finished his toy. He came to play but wanted to play w/fire truck by himself. Almost got a T.O. for being really rigid about this but scripting and T.O. warning were effective. DRO'd self- control. Notably, he used thinking/feeling statements to describe what he was feeling when he wanted to play game. DRO & I countered this w/scripting about how I felt when he didn't want to play w/me.
He played w/Teddy Bear puzzle, I played w/his dolls (he really wanted them earlier). He wanted my dolls badly and scripting and phys interruptions were not enough to make him stop touching them. He was really losing control, so scripted about possible T.O. He stopped it. DRO'd for gaining self-control but soon lost it when playing w/his toys. Began clapping blocks together -- again T.O. scripting worked. Scripted for sitting still too. He finally got under control but wasn't allowed to play w/toy I was playing w/. We talked about why and what to remember about it for next time so it doesn't happen again.
He was reading "Really Rosie". I started playing Honey Bear, Funny Bear. He commented on the game but didn't come over to play until I asked for help on how to play. He was hesitant to leave his book but I pretended to be sad that he didn't come over. This emotional appeal prompted him to help me. I used the moment to script feeling and thoughts related to helping others and making them and in turn yourself feel good.
He was playing w/police doll and helicopter. I took out doll house. He hadn't played with it in a long time. Prompted comments about my dolls and made them about his. He was semi-interested. When I started to pretend that my doll house was on fire, he came to the rescue. Then I told him I wanted to play by myself. He didn't care. Talked about how it felt when I told him that how sometimes it's ok to play by ourselves but it's important to say it nicely to not hurt someone's feelings. Then he and I played together. He was still the cop and I was the little girl.
He was playing with small musician dolls and I brought out Squiggly Worms. He immediately asked to play w/me. I told him I was playing by myself and he walked away & ignored me. I prompted appropriate comments -- "I really like that game" and asked him about his dolls. He continued convers well w/prompts. DRO'd.
He was playing with a helicopter and I took a Playmobile set out and played w/kids on a playground. I was swinging and having a convers about school. He asked from where he was "What are you doing?" I told him I was playing and asked him about his toy. This lead to a really nice reciprocal conversation. He was patient and waited until I asked him to join me to touch the figures. DRO'd this control and a lot of spontaneous creativity (i.e., take boy to hospital b/c he broke his leg!, etc.)
He played with Trouble and I played with magnet hair man. He was more interested in his game than mine (my mistake), but he still accepted prompts and paid attn 1st time. He responded well to all my WHY ?s.
He was playing w/lacing cards and I played with dolls and schoolhouse. He immediately asked me what I was playing with. I told him that he can see what I was playing with and could say instead "I really like that game...what do you like about it?" He spontaneously volunteered stuff about what he was playing. DRO. Once he asked me something and I didn't answ -- scripted story about not answ. Also observ learning: I did some weird stuff when I was playing and asked him how it looked. Prompted him to say he wouldn't want to play w/me 'cause I looked weird.
He needed a T.O. Kept talking back and grabbing my toy. Just wasn't listening to social stories at all. Controlled himself after T.O. and long talk. DRO for that. I played with Maniac Mouse and he w/his dolls. I prompted appropo convers. Also did perspective-taking about grabbing my toy. After he behaved for a while, I let him play w/me.
P.N. - Good NATURAL reinforcer for gaining control!!! Great creativity and recovery -- this kind of stuff will go a long way!
He requested this drill! Used it as a natural reinforcer for waiting quietly. He read while I threaded. He did great job commenting on it but didn't want to play w/it so I moved on to bubbles. This was great but he grabbed it so then he couldn't play w/them. He said OK after a small outburst & he waited so nicely and quietly while reading his book he got to play w/the bubbles. His hands were occupied so no weird hand stuff -- DRO'd for this.
He asked me what I was doing and prompted me to ask him about his stuff at various points in the session. Lots of DRO and then I got the hint and would ask him at various pts about his activity. I colored while he painted. I drew a picture of a castle while he was reading "Beauty & the Beast". He was very interested in what I was drawing and asked lots of ?s. Then I asked if he wanted to paint it and he did. So painting was a natural reinforcer. I continued to color other pts of castle while he painted and DRO'd idea that when he's good, fun things happen.
He was doing Brain Quest. I took out Snackin' Safari. At first he didn't notice so I made comment about what he was doing. He then commented on my toy. I didn't have to ask him to join me -- he said he was finished with Brain Quest and came over to watch me. Then I asked him if he wanted to play and of course he accepted. Nice playing. Great behavior. DRO'd good sitting. After this was over he got a T.O. b/c he took a toy I told him not to and was banging the drawer shut. T.O. was short and he gained control quickly. DRO'd short T.O. b/c he listened.
I played w/Barney Matching (he was playing this prior to coming back) -- he really wanted it, and he played Clown Lotto. Prompted convers. then I asked him if he wanted to switch. He didn't know what this meant so I explained and we changed toys and continued drill.
He played with Clown puzzle and I took out stuff for science experiment. He was asking for it earlier. Prompted him to make comments about it. He came over and asked to play. I told him to put down his puzzle piece but he wouldn't. Control statements didn't work nor did listening Social Story. He tantrummed when I took the puzzle piece away -- announced a T.O. and after he got under control and was able to concentrate on the science experiment I DRO'd him for being good.
I tried to hit ball up and down w/paddle while he played Pie Face. He asked me ?s appropriately (w/o prompting about what I was doing and answered my ?s but didn't move when I said "look out!" and ball hit him on the head. I tried this repeatedly and then Jim used something a little harder (a plastic bottle) and he had more motivation to move and then got it.
He got to do Parallel Play as a natural reinforcer for doing a great job on #s and Letters drill. He picked Lincoln Logs to play with. Started out really nicely but did some hand stuff with logs. This prompted me to break what he was bldg b/c he didn't listen. He got angry and hit me. Megan and I left the room. He snapped back into shape really fast. We cont'd w/parallel play. Great job afterwards.
He played w/puzzle and I played w/doll house. He was working quietly. I prompted him w/convers about doll house. Needed scripting to look at me when he spoke to me. Looked at me so I wanted to be his friend and invited him to play with me. Natural reinforcer.
He put together a puzzle (all by himself...DRO!) and I listened to a tape and read a book (Crocodile something..?). He was interested in his puzzle but immed asked ?s about what I was doing. DRO. He said he wanted to play w/me as soon as he finished his puzzle. When he did he came right over and told me he was ready to play. Got to read Cat in the Hat (natural reinforcer) for not forgetting about me and putting puzzle together so nicely. Needed verbal prompts to glance at me while putting puzzle together and asking me ?s.
P.N. - Lay out a limited number of toys (3 or 4) in front of him and take the best one and offer him a choice of what's left. e.g., "I'll take the piano...what do YOU want?" He MUST choose from what's in front of him and then proceed as before.
Choice of Squiggly Worms, ball, chicken puppet, boy doll. I chose Squiggly Worms. He was able to play w/puppet and doll. I prompted comments about Squiggly Worms -- he wanted to choose this first. He was patient and played with his toys quietly so I asked him to play Squiggly Worms with me as natural reinforcer. For motor practice I had him pull back the lever on the apple -- he was turning it upside-down at first, doing it awkwardly. After lots of practice did it well. DRO.
Didn't exactly do the choice part. He was playing with Same/Diff cards -- I took out kitchen to set up and acted like I was frustrated b/c I couldn't put things together. He was great b/c he was giving me directions from a distance and he was getting frustrated b/c "I was not doing it right" - He finally came over and showed me how to do it. DRO'd this and asked him to help me build the kitchen. Nice job!!!
Put out Candyland, Barney puzzle, Memory Game and Lincoln Logs. I took Barney puzzle b/c he had been asking for it earlier. He picked Memory Game. Once this happened we proceeded as before. He was commenting on my puzzle. He really wanted to do it. Was saying when I was done if he can do it. I invited him over to help me. He commented that we were both working on something w/Barney. DRO'd his patience. Nice job w/puzzle afterwards. He was persistent even though he got frustrated at times.
[Playdate] was over. Amazing Parallel Play! They were ea working on a puzzle. I had [Playdate] comment a few times on [name]'s work, [Playdate] got stuck on a puzzle and asked [name] for help. He went over and explained how to match colors....he even DRO'd [Playdate] for getting it right! He said "Great job [other child]!" I DRO'd [name] for being a good teacher and looking at others while working.
I chose first and played with Teddy Bear Bingo. He played with Chinese Checkers. I was practicing putting out correct number of bears for card. I put out three bears for card that said four and asked him how I was doing. He said "Great!" without looking. Worked intensely on having him LOOK at what other person is doing. Commented on his work. DRO'd when he looked at me.
We had a choice of the light-up doll house, Barney Memory Game and puzzle. I chose the doll house and he did the puzzle. DRO'd for flexibility --- great parallel play but rigid when I wanted to help him. Told him he couldn't play w/my doll house then and he changed his tune. DRO for being flexible, attentive and talked about teamwork.
I put out three games (best was Fishin' Fun). He immediately came over all excited to play w/it. I stopped & said I'm picking this one & left the other two boring games for him to choose from. He asked to play w/me but I said "no, I want to play this by myself". I told him if he's good he can fish with me later. He was reluctant but accepted and seemed to be longing for the fishing game. I thus made it all the more tempting by exaggerating my responses while I played. He commented on my play a lot. I did the same for him but he wasn't too engaged with his choice (Barney Memory Game). I finally let him join me, reinforcing good patience.
He requested PlayDoh so this was a choice and I picked it of course. He chose blocks. We worked simultaneously. I made animals and he liked them. My animal got sick so he built a hospital for it. DRO - great job doing his thing and still paying attn to mine. This drill was N.R. [= Natural reinforcer] for manipulatives drill.
He was really on with this today. Throughout session, as he was playing he would engage me and question me about what I was doing. I laughed when I read [other ther's] Let's Play drill entry about Pinocchio and he asked what I was laughing about. DRO'd his attn to what I was doing. Then we played w/toys. I played w/dolls that he'd been playing with and he played with GAK. Needed prompt at beg to look at me when I asked ? but then did it w/o prompt. DRO & self-pride statements.
ALPHIE Jr. (the robot), blocks, a Barney puzzle. I of course chose the robot. He wanted puzzle & blocks...had to choose. I picked puzzle. I was getting things wrong w/robot and he yelled at me. After he tried to help me and I said no. DRO for being helpful & letting me figure it out for myself but when he yelled at me and told me he'd give me one more chance we had a long talk about it. He can't tell grown-ups or kids what to do or they won't be his friend, making rules, etc. He said he understood and when he went back to his puzzle and I got another one wrong, he said nicely "Try harder to get it right"!!! DRO for much more appropro response. Some subtle jaw jutting kept him from getting robot sooner. I told him this and he stopped. DRO'd for control.
P.N. - Set up PLAY STATIONS / CENTERS / AREAS Each area contains a different activity....One of them should be MOLDABLES.
Set up two play stations. One with Play-Doh and one with Silly Putty. Different tools (but similar in purpose) at ea area. He used Play-Doh (I, Silly Putty). He grabbed pizza cutter from my station. I told him he can only use things at his own station. His observational learning was great. He followed what I was doing but stayed in his own space. DRO'd his questions/comments about my/his work. Modeled appropriate conversation. He really enjoyed this and did nice job. Sat very nicely with no extraneous speech. DRO
He did well here. Set up GAK and Floam stations w/cookie cutters (I had the GAK and the good cookie cutters). He stayed where he was and modeled me -- made diff shapes and had appropro convers. DRO. Asked to borrow my dolphin cutter. Told him "later". He used his. DRO'd flexibility. Asked him if he wanted to use the dolphin. He wasn't listening so I put it away. Wanted me to ask him again. I said maybe next time he won't miss out.
Play stations with Play-Doh and Floam. Great job. Beautiful observ learning and great answering. Still needed occasional prompting for him to say things to me. DRO'd nice job.
Used GAK and Play-Doh. He chose GAK. I suggested he make donuts since he wanted to use tea cups beforehand. Said we can have donuts and tea after he does a great job making donuts. Worked nicely. No faces, only a little singing but it didn't interfere with work. Answered questions nicely when I asked. He also commented on pretzels I made. Good looking and paying attn. DRO'd.
Play stations with GAK and Play-Doh. I used GAK and cookie monster mold. He got to use these when he finished w/his Play-Doh and Bert mold. Talked appropriately. I asked questions about his favorite things and to tell me about various things. We made stuff for ea other. Then played w/our figures. He was very well-behaved. Once he babbled so I asked him who his favorite character on Ses St was and he stopped -- then I was able to later DRO no babbling.
Set up GAK and Play-Doh. I used GAK; he: Play-Doh b/c last time w/ me it was v.v. He seemed very bored and didn't want to do drill. He started to argue about wanting to use GAK. Didn't give it to him b/c he was stuck on it. Redirected by trying to start next drill: Manipulatives. Talked about what we made yesterday (carousel, etc.) He forgot about GAK. Megan brought up the "boy who cried wolf". I asked him to sit down and be calm when he was out of control. Said "I bet you can't and I doubt you could do it." He sat down. Big DRO and explained what "doubt" meant. That's how we got into the "boy who cried wolf". DRO'd quietness and listening.
Play stations with Moldables. Disaster.
P.N. - NO MOLDABLES IN PLAY STATIONS FOR A WHILE. Continue doing play stations though.
My play station was Lego wheel toys; his was puzzle. He was ok for a bit but then said he couldn't do anymore of puzzle (he did two pieces) and tried to take my stuff. Told him to leave it alone and that I was playing w/it & until we finished (me building railroad and him doing puzzle) we couldn't switch. He still didn't work on puzzle so I got "bored" and put it away. He flipped out and I tried to redirect him -- Jim helped by talking to him about his sandwich in the living room.
Set up picnic basket and blocks. He picked picnic. Didn't comment on my play unless I made statements like "oh no! it fell!, etc... He laid out his picnic nicely but did a few weird clucking noises with the food. Tried to redirect by starting up a conversation or asking him to give me blocks I "couldn't reach". Worked a little but he went back to it. Before we started drill told him to work quietly at the end. Told him he did a nice job b/c he was working quietly (not singing). Lots of DRO.
Set up play stations at table. Blocks at one and Legos at the other. He chose blocks. Made a boardwalk w/people (after he tried to play w/my toys); I made a house. He was interested in my work and engaged in appropro convers but started to play w/blocks in ritualistic/ stuck way. I ended play. It was only about five minutes (I think he has to up his endurance w/this). Big prob putting blocks away. Wanted to bury yellow blocks. Very rigid about this but overcorrection worked eventually. By the end he was singing while putting blocks away but wasn't burying them so I let it go.
Coloring at one play station w/workbook..painting at other. He chose workbook. Terrible. Totally ignored my questions. Didn't ask anything about what I was doing even w/prompts and was putting crayons around neck and rubbing them on face. Clicking them together so I just got up and told him I didn't want to play around him b/c he was ignoring me. Got upset. I said (neutrally) that maybe next time he'll pay attn to me and we can play longer.
Two coloring stations - He talked about what he was making w/my modeling. e.g., I said I'm going to make a snowman...he said I'm gonna make a house. Needed prompts to comment on my work. Did nice job and then cleaned up play station -- DRO.
Nice job. He took Legos; I took blocks. I decided to build a space shuttle and he was tempted so he did the same. Told him we'd have a contest to see who does the best one. He did a nice job building, watched me a lot and then developed his own shuttle. DRO'd independence and creativity. He traveled to moon as well and then I took him for a ride to Mars and back to Earth. He wanted to be Drove off in [place]!
Set up blocks and some toys (miniature doll pieces). Excellent listening & commenting. Lots of DRO for quietness (no singing) when he played. He engaged in some nice conversational responses w/the dolls and helped put toys and blocks away nicely. Lots of DRO. Really nice job.
One Play-Doh and one Legos station. He picked Play-Doh. Was focused on his work and needed modeling to ask me about my work. Cleaned up stations together. He had hard time putting tools for Play-Doh back in basket. Started taking pieces out. I modeled putting them away quickly and redirected him and he them put his things away. DRO.
P.N. - Work on his initiations. Get him to invite you over and/or invite him over.
Set up coloring / cutting stations. I picked coloring; he got cutting. I had a couple of buildings drawn together that he had to cut out. He did pretty well. Gave him some reminders about cutting outside the line. Improved as he went on. DRO'd looking at his work and trying hard to stay on line. Didn't invite me over even though I asked him to. Are we supposed to set up moldables or not? I forgot what we were told.
P.N. - No on moldables -- other art skills ok though.
Two diff Lego stations. I built a space car and he built "bricks". I tried to prompt him to make the bricks into something (a landing pad, a house, etc.), but he kept saying "bricks". His attention to my task was poor so I told him I didn't want to play w/him anymore b/c he didn't pay attn to me and he wasn't building anything fun. He got upset and we talked about what kids like to play w/ and then I redirected him.
P.N. - He's perseverating on "bricks" w/Legos which is only ok if the bricks are USED for a concrete (no pun intended) object.
I used Barney Play-Doh set and he did dot-to-dot work. Wanted Barney but was fine about me using it. DRO. Attn was bad so I put away my stuff. He wanted to see what I made when it was already too late. Said next time he'll pay attn so he won't miss out.
Watched me play w/castle silently. Didn't interrupt but commented on what I should do with figures once in a while. I asked him what he was playing with (Barbie foods & refrig set). He asked me if I wanted tea so I took that as an invitation to play and DRO'd it. Played nicely until the end when he had to put toys away -- he put some stuff in his mouth and started spitting them out into the bag. Made him do it again and again until he did it halfway decently. Told him that in school a teacher would be angry about this & he would spread germs that way. This got his attn and he talked about other kids getting germs. DRO'd perspective-taking & better putting away.
Coloring book and Legos. He built a toy chest. Lots of DRO and I colored in a picture of Snow White. He did a good job and kept up nice conversation. At end I needed to use overcorrection and No equivs when putting stuff away and then he started putting Lego pieces on my arm. I used No equiv and he hit my arm (said he only pinched it) and got a t.o.
Puzzle station and drawing and coloring. Had him take puzzle station. Worked on Beauty & the Beast. He found it challenging and frustrating at the same time b/c it wasn't as easy as the bigger puzzles. Our conversation was very good. Focused on what we liked about what we were doing. He talked about Beauty & the Beast movie. Commented on my drawing of "Belle". DRO. Asked for help when he couldn't get some pcs together. Lots of DRO. Put puzzle away nicely. More DRO.
I'm such a masochist. Set up glue station. He started picking so I followed procedure from glue drill. Talked about what was more important, making a vehicle for the king, which we discussed earlier, or picking. He agreed that the vehicle was more important. After he was able to glue two sticks together, I let him have break. Engaging him in conversation was difficult, but no equiv, no equiv, prompt worked. Really liked what I made.
Game station and Barbie in pool. I had Snackin' Safari. He had Barbie. Good conversation b/c he really wanted game he asked to play (but I thought it was too soon). I acted like a kid and said not until I'm done. Meanwhile, he cont'd with Barbie. After a few minutes I gave him Safari game and said I was done (I wanted to see if he'd call me over to play). He did after he was done. DRO'd.
He colored with Snow White book. I read Mickey Mouse's Surprise Birthday Party. He was immediately interested in this. Regardless, he colored two pictures--DRO'd--so he got to play with Mickey book. Needed no equivs a couple of times b/c of latent responding -- when I was coloring I asked him to read quietly b/c I was having trouble concentrating. He did! DRO'd for being courteous.
Legos station and one "free" drawing station. He picked the drawing station and I did Legos. He started by saying we would switch but I redirected him. At end when I announced clean up, he did with no problem. DRO. I made an airplane and he drew a tricycle with no prob. Convers was good. Need no equivs at beg to answ but then answered well. DRO'd.
[At this point, at the end of Parallel Play notes, there are directions to look at the NEW cover sheet (below). Though another child may never have to follow up with something like this because their play skills aren't as idiosyncratic, many children will have had to do the above for a much longer time. We're sure the following came at a time when our son needed it and all kids being different.... Don't even know if this is a drill that our consultant would have done with another kid, etc. though the skill does seem to be an important prerequisite for "appropriate" cooperative play. Our "therapists' notes" follow the cover drill sheet below.]
BACKGROUND: He is missing a necessary pre-requisite for Parallel Play -- the ability to narrate.
1. PLAY WITH A TOY THAT YOU KNOW HE FINDS INTERESTING & HAVE HIM OBSERVE & COMMENT (NO PLAY STATION!)
2. PROMPT HIM COMMENT ON YOUR PLAY WITH THE FOLLOWING SDs:
"Come sit here and watch me play"
"Your job is to tell everything I'm doing"
"Your job is to talk about what I'm doing"
"What am I doing?" (Prompt to get him to comment
on your play)
"What else am I doing?"
Variations of the "What am I doing?" SDs should be delivered over and over.
** DRO BIG TIME IF HE COMMENTS UNPROMPTED **
3. HE IS NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH YOUR TOY:
Redirect: "Don't touch, just talk about what I'm doing"
"Uh, uh -- just watch"
"Are you supposed to touch?"
"No touching, just watch and talk about what I'm doing."
4. WHEN NOT ASKING HIM "What am I doing?", YOU SHOULD BE NARRATING YOUR ACTIONS.
e.g., "Now I'm going to..."
5. AFTER A LONG TIME, GIVE HIM A TURN AT THE TOY (this should be used as a reinforcer for him doing a good job watching and commenting)
6. WHILE HE'S PLAYING WITH IT, YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO NARRATE WHAT HE'S DOING (serves as modeling for what you're requiring of him when you're playing).
** IF HE NARRATES ON HIS OWN WHILE HE'S PLAYING WITH THE TOY GIVE A HUGE ** DRO...THIS IS WHAT WE'RE ULTIMATELY SHOOTING FOR.
7. DO NOT DO ANY SWITCHING ATTENTION IN THIS DRILL... THIS IS ABOUT SETTING UP PRE-REQUISITES FOR PARALLEL PLAY (the switching attention during play is to combat zoniness in unstructured play & the two should NOT be confused)!
Therapists' Notes & Parents' Notes (P.N.):
P.N. - Read new cover page. This drill is COMPLETELY different. Notes please.
Did this the new way (or close to it). Brother was in the room. I used mail station as a toy. He needed lots of prompts for the narration and a lot of reminders not to touch items. Brother was pretty good but [name] kept bothering him so the situation kept escalating into big fights between the two. Tried to redirect in any constructive way possible -- mostly "be nice to brother" type of stuff.
I used Little Tykes Kitchen & washer/dryer. Fed dog, made lunch, washed dishes, clothes, went to bed, etc. and narrated the entire time. He was able to answer and pay attn most of the time (DRO) but when he didn't I used n/e ["no" equivalents] and this worked well. Going good.
I used castle. Told him the rules up-front about not touching and telling me what I'm doing. Excellent observation. Didn't touch at all. Lots of DRO. He needed a lot of scripting to tell me what I was doing. Towards the end he started to comment more spontaneously so I tried to narrate any play as minimally as possible so that he could take over. When it was his turn I narrated a lot to model. He did some weird behaviors but whatever I narrated I tried to push the scene towards some other constructive play. DRO'd good behaviors and narrations when he did them.
He had Colorforms out. I used Ms. Cookie's Kitchen for this drill. He was very good; nice observations and narration, needed prompts occasionally for narration reminder. Lots of DRO at the end. Didn't touch Colorforms. DRO. When it was his turn, I narrated but he also did plenty of it. He used Miss Weather Colorforms. Only prob was he wanted to combine all weathers together. Didn't let him do this and he was ok with it. Lots of DRO for flexibility at the end. Put away Colorforms when I told him to. Nice job. DRO for putting away like other kids would. Good listening.
Barbie Swimming Pool. He tried to touch it. N/Es stopped this. He was able to narrate what I did w/o prompts, except 1x. DRO. I also narrated as I went along. Very nice job. Good eye contact and attn. DRO.
Played with furniture and dog doll and boy doll. He needed prompt at beg to narrate but didn't try to touch. After that, narration and attn were great. Trouble putting stuff away so brother helped. He did it perfectly after I DRO'd brother. DRO for nice and quiet putting away.
P.N. - This shouldn't be restricted to doll houses/Barbie. Please use wheel toys (cars & trains) too. These wheel toys could go to the doll house, etc. Please be sure you vary. Thanks!
Floor mat with trains. He didn't touch while Jim and I played with trains. Needed more prompting and questioning than he did the other day. A couple of N/Es for not answ the 1st time. Bookended putting things away like the kids at school. This worked. Lots of DRO.
Used schoolhouse b/c he was playing w/this SO inappropriately earlier. He tried to tell me what to do. Redirected w/"ask me" and n/e. He was ignoring my ?s so I got him back with constant n/e and calling his name. Used n/e until he looked and said what. Got a bit better so I let him go.
Used trains/mat. Beautiful job. He was narrating really well. Didn't touch a thing. Nice eye contact and comments. I hardly had to prompt with "what am I doing?" Most of the time I just looked at him and he would respond to my play. Lots of DRO.
Castle with Matchbox car. He was really into the play and laughed at appropriate points. Needed some additional prompting to discuss what I was doing, but he often picked up on it when I was narrating my own play. Lots of DRO.
Barbie in Beauty Parlor. He was able to narrate my play. DRO. Included some stuff with social story about bossing people (kids) around.
Trains - Needed some prompting to comment and narrate my play. DRO for not touching while I play. Incorporated new Social Stories about following instructions, rules, being with other kids, etc. His own play was very good. My comments helped him to organize his play. He expanded on narration nicely. DRO'd.
Narration on my play needed some prompts. It's sort of hard to narrate b/c really most of the narration is on conversation between two characters. There's only so much moving around you can do so he has to listen to characters talk and then needs prompts to describe actions. He's fine when he's narrating his own play (I guess this is the goal). If he does weird stuff that's when I'm jumping in to redirect his play (i.e. away from fighting). Redirected his animal stuff by asking him to prepare crayons, paper, etc...for next drill. This was pretty good. He got everything ready.
Well I guess he's desensitized to the animals b/c when it was his turn to narrate he did it for a short while and then said I'm tired of this...let's put this away and play with something else (!) Nice job. Lots of DRO for this. His narrating on my play was pretty good. I encouraged this. He asked to play with doctor bag instead -- nice job.
Good job -- he calmed down and watched me play nicely. Commented occasionally but needed constant reminders to do so. I played with castle. Did something different. King had soldiers line up to do exercises instead of fighting all the time. He made nice observations. With his turn he had the figures fighting even though I tried hard to narrate a more peaceful scene -- however, the fighting did seem less intense than usual. He kept changing my narrations to fit his purpose and goal (i.e. an all-out bloody war). Oh well.... DRO'd for stopping and putting toys away when he was done. (His play theme was killing and then having the King magically bring the figures back to life w/his magic sword). I asked if this can really happen and he said "no...it's only pretend." (!)
Used animals. He literally rolled on the floor and started playing with other toys. I let it play out and tried to de-brief, but he was very zoney and barely paid attn. Seemed really out of it.
[Playdate] and [name] watched me play. I prompted them to narrate. [Playdate] narrated and [name] observed him very nicely. He then started doing the same. Nice job when it was their turn. He had a difficult time getting his King to be more flexible (e.g., he was stuck in stairs) I prompted [playdate] to have him make his King help the soldiers b/c they were under attack. This had a nice effect. [Playdate] was persistent until he reeled [name] back in from being "stuck" on things. DRO'd both for playing together nicely and [name] for being flexible.
Much better in terms of play. He was quieter and accepted a lot of my leads, even though he was doing his favorite thing....fighting!
P.N. - Please join him (AGAIN) to re-direct bad play.
He watched me play with castle. Needed some leading statements and questions to begin narrative on my play but his attn was great & he was very involved.
Nice job. He listened well while I narrated and then I let him take over. He needed prompts along the way but he did well. His play was good too. Behaved much better. Wasn't as wild and he accepted my recommendations (redirections on play).
Despite all the n/c behaviors today, he managed to do very well in this drill. He was calm, focused, didn't touch when he narrated my play. Accepted my narrations, etc. I kept at this for a pretty long time b/c he was on a roll. I think the content of narration helped him sustain interest. Praised him for amazing job, especially that he was calm throughout and didn't fight.
P.N. - Please try to get him to play with one character at a time.
Had Aladdin on in the next room so he was having hard time focusing on my play. Needed a lot of ?s at beg to narrate my play but became engrossed in it as time went on. DRO'd his careful paying attn. He narrated some of his own play w/my modeling. DRO. He had hard time only playing with one character at a time. In narrating his play, I tried to direct it to single character play w/ only moderate success.
He needed only a little prompting to narrate my play and did excellent job narrating his own with "my buddy" doll. Lots of praise.
He narrated my play well. I provided him w/lots of hints as to where the story was headed. Used doll house and pretended a family was moving in. His play (own narration) was not as good as when he narrated mine. I tried to direct it. He focused a lot of the time on the window of the doll house. Had trouble moving onto another scene. He threw a few of the pieces while cleaning up so I made him do it over. Did it w/o any complaint or rigidities. Lots of DRO for this.
P.N. - We just got rid of "Conversation Dolls/Puppets" drill so be sure to set up rooms (and narrate) as piece of this drill.
Took doll house. Set it up and asked him to watch & tell me what I'm doing. He had no objections with the arrangement. He was pretty silent -- needed constant prompting to say something. At his turn a lot of negative emotion stuff came up i.e., doll knocked over a lamp and broke it. He wouldn't admit that girl should feel sad and that parents might be upset. "Don't tell" came up too. I told him the girl should be honest and tell parents that she broke the lamp. This took a lot of energy. Tried to get him to look. De-briefing turned into a very long argument and n/c for at least five minutes. I remained neutral & just kept reminding him that I had to talk to him about something (eye contact - responding to name). He kept rearing away from topic. Wanted doll house. Set up all sorts of conditions and argued that he would stand still or sit to listen. He finally came around after I told him we are wasting too much time and he might not be able to go out.
Did this drill outside. I set up an admittedly lame "house" with tray, salt and pepper shakers at pizza joint, drew faces on my fingers and narrated my play. He was fascinated but had a hard time narrating my play without help.
After we built Mouse Trap game, I used the mice to play and narrate. He had some trouble narrating. Kept trying to touch the pieces. Had to remind him that he needed to just watch me.
Used School House. He did pretty well. A few reminders were needed to comment on my play. His own play was good. Accepted my narration and did his own really well. A few faces occurred but he wasn't aware of them. Tried to get him to talk so he wouldn't grimace.
He was so non-compliant at first. Then he answered beautifully, although not unprompted. DRO for remembering to just watch.
I played w/animals, using piece he uses as "cave" as a "mountain". He was flexible about this. DRO. He still needs questions to narrate. Then we used house. He had a hard time not participating, but with redirection he was much better.
P.N. - Try to start fading back on verbal prompts. Use facial prompts and make it easy story-wise for him to narrate.
Great job even though he needed lots of questions to make him talk. He resisted touching characters. Paid really nice attn and eye contact was good. I pretended lots of people were going to the movies (flannel board) and they all broke "movie rules". During show someone was talking...one person brought their dog to the movie, etc. He enjoyed this a lot. Got to listen to Cinderella tape when he was finished.
Wasn't able to narrate w/o prompts, but he was always able to tell me what was going on without a problem. Included Social Stories.
I faded back on prompts SO much. Just made faces and pointed and he responded well with correct narrations. LOTS of DRO.
He did great. I didn't prompt at all but just cont'd with what I was doing until he answered (correctly -- 1st time). I was able to do this b/c I had his full attn and eye contact Lots of DRO.
Tried to fade back and it seemed to work. He did well but he also wanted to be part of the action. Had to remind him that he's only watching and narrating...and then it would be his turn. He did nicely with his turn. Nothing wild. Lots of praise and self-pride statements.
He did good job. I reminded him to watch only. I used the frog and he was rewarded by having frog use his hand as a lily pad. He narrated on his own. Although one time in particular it took awhile, he still paid attn so I gave him time to answer.
He was zoney at first and my playing w/doll house wasn't enough to get him involved, so I made him the "reporter" (see Let's Play). He had trouble with this concept and was trying to instruct rather than report, but once he got the idea, he did a great job and didn't need any prompting. Nice work.
Nice job. I used school bus w/characters. Pretended to go on a class trip to a baseball game. He narrated really well. During his turn he did excellent job narrating his own play. eye contact was very good. Did it intermittently.
Great job narrating. Prompt was to wait and look at him expectantly when he did hesitate but he mostly gave quick answers.
* His narration is OK; No need to narrate anymore.
* We have been re-directing him before the stim occurs.... NOT ANYMORE!
1. USE ABOUT 6 ANIMALS AND PLAY WITH HIM.
2. DO NOT ALLOW THESE ANIMALS TO DEVELOP INTO A HERD.
3. LET THE STIM BEGIN AND PROGRESS A DROP MORE THAN YOU HAVE BEEN.
- Shut the drill down briefly, debrief and resume drill
4. STAY IN CHARACTER AND GENTLY REQUIRE THIS OF HIM.
5. IDIOSYNCRATIC PLAY - Gently require as above.
6. DO NOT LET HIM BE DISTRACTED BY CONCRETE OBJECTS AND EVENTS AROUND HIM
e.g., "The only thing you should think about is what you're doing"
7. LEAVE THE TOYS AROUND WHEN YOU'RE DONE TO GIVE HIM A CHANCE TO GET INTO SOLITARY PLAY
With [playdate]. Played "Beauty & the Beast" w/figures. Great job. He looked at me a couple of times as he was starting to do something strange. DRO'd this with reference to controlling himself & using grown-ups to help him do this. Followed [playdate] beautifully. He tried to go o/o character and told [playdate]'s character that the glasses were for [playdate's actual name] and she said "There's NO [her name] here!" I used this to talk about the meaning of "pretend". Throughout remainder of session he needed lots of intervention during solitary play. DRO'd appropo play intermittently. Stopped play that had grunting & strange banging together of animals. He handled the debriefing well & I was able to get out of the way quickly & let his resume. Only needed stop & de-brief once for herding.
We played with "Toy Story" figurines (3) and animals (3). "TS" figs stayed in character & animals as well. Woody ([name]) intro'd Buzz to all the characters reminding him all the while that animals couldn't talk. This allowed him to stay in character beautifully. When he played on his own he needed intervention. "Woody" intervened & reminded him to be nice to them & to play nicely w/them.
6 animals. Narration great. Needed T.O. Closed activity a couple of times due to strange mouth stuff (e.g., hoofs in mouths of other animals, etc.). Followed my narration & lead well. I often hung back & followed his lead & he was able to maintain action well. Needed prompt to not involve himself in play. During Solitary play he needed lots of intervention for strange holding, flying, noises, biting, but on the bright side, he was able to get a few minutes of appropriate play in first.
Put out 6 animals. He used about 4. Nice job staying in character. Easily redirected when he wanted to use "Simba". Told him to try some new animals. DRO'd flexibility. On his own I let whatever seemed like a stim -- i.e., frog on the horse tail -- play out. He stopped himself & moved on to another constructive conversation i.e., - frog: I have to get to the lake....I'm dry. At the end I praised him for great play. Didn't notice any weird things. Narration was great.
6 animals - He didn't stim at all when we played together. He had some trouble staying in character at times but did so w/gentle reminders. When he played on his own he needed some intervention but I saw an improvement.
Woody, Buzz & 4 animals -- Coop Play - Still some strange play, even when with me. Some putting things in animals mouth in stimmy way. Also strange hand stuff with Woody doll. Closed down drill & debriefed. Also did this for out of character. Independent Play is still peppered with stimmy stuff. He keeps putting objects on himself. Has hard time keeping himself out of play. DRO when he stopped himself from doing something strange. Using looking at grownup to help control himself. Looking at sides of toys & squinting at them. Shut down & debriefed.
P.N. - Watch for putting things in animals' mouths. Shut down drill & debrief for this.
Ind Play - Squinting & looking at sides of toys like w/[ther]. Shut down & debriefed. No putting things in animals' mouths but moving dolls strangely & calling it dancing. I joined him & if he cont'd I shut down & debriefed. Coop - we played with two Woody dolls (one was Woody's brother who he named "Jode"), Rex and three animals. He did great job. Played appropriately the whole time. DRO'd his staying in character throughout.
Question - Does this drill always have to involve animals? I used little figurines today. He was fine, staying in appropo character. Teacher and a boy & girl. We took turns. We did a school throughout entire narration -- really nice -- no weird behaviors w/his play. DRO & praise.
P.N. - We need to have animals 90% of the time since he stims on animals more than on people dolls & because there always seem to be 6-8 animals out at school and he always gravitates towards them. We need to desensitize him to this. Watch for EYEING objects please. It's up! Thanks.
6 animals. He used 1-2 at a time. Stayed in char beautifully with no strange looking. DRO. Needed activity shut down & debriefing for stimming with animals on his toes. Directed play away from his body. Nice job. Indep play is going for much longer before he needs intervention. Nice.
P.N. -- Great...Please note (as above) whether the independent play is lasting longer.
Lots of moving -- had six animals out. Had to shut down activity & debrief a few times b/c he was stuck on making the giraffe fly. Shutting down & restarting worked ok. He didn't really do any solitary play today.
6 animals out -- Had to intervene a couple times when he did Solitary Play b/c tiger was turning into human climbing on bed & pillows as well as making weird noises. Intervention & debriefing worked to get him back in animal role. Had some grimaces throughout play -- while he made noises. Tried to reference this to mean tone & mean-looking face.
He needed lots of redirection during Solitary Play b/c of weird noises & smashing animals together. Doesn't last long b/c he does this. During Coop Play he didn't do this but wasn't staying in character. Didn't respond to gentle redirection. DRO for not squinting/eye stuff w/animals.
P.N. - Please start listing approx. how long he engages in "good" solitary play before a meltdown. We need to begin DROing "playing nice" for longer periods of time -- this has to be shaped similar to the way we used to time "being good for a long time" and shaping -- Notes please.
Set up 6-7 animals on table. Started out playing w/him. He had choice of which 2 animals he could be. Chose a big & little rhino. had trouble handling them 1 at a time. Kept holding both together in one hand, always moving. Had to stop a couple of times & start again b/c he would keep them on the table. Worked a bit. He was good at monitoring my face for reactions to his play! DRO'd that. Solitary Play - Interrupted about 3x -- less than one min b/c he babbled & switched the characters of animals. After third time he was able to sustain decent play for about 1 1/2 minutes. Had a bit of a nasty tone when I interrupted. Used his No-No-Point finger to make excuses about what he was playing. Labeled this nasty.
P.N. - All read previous page re: solitary play & shaping. We're at 1 1/2 minutes.
SOLITARY PLAY RULES --
1) Only 1 toy allowed in each hand
2) No toy touching
3) No stuffing toys into each other [many of our animals were large furry puppets]
4) No Babbling/Word Salad
Played with dinosaur game pieces. Needed prompting for holding 1 toy in ea hand, banging when playing w/me. Stayed in char well. Played w/Toy Story chars throughout session independently. Used "personal space" as a way to get him to keep chars away from ea other & not click/bang, etc. DRO'd space betwn chars. No babbling/word salad - DRO. Able to play for approx 1 1/2 min w/o intervention.
P.N. - As a DRO be sure to tell him he was able to play a little longer w/o your help.
Played with Toy Story chars, then animals & trains. He was able to play for 2 min w/o intervention. I DRO'd this & referred to the face that he was able to play longer & control himself. Still needed personal space reminders.
Played w/animals. While I was w/him nice attending & appropo animal play -- a couple of glances reminded him to play nicely. Great job. Solitary Play - lasted about two minutes (not fully) before he "babbled" a bit. He caught himself & looked at me. DRO'd his gaining control right away & playing longer than last time. Pretty good.
We played w/two Toy Story char & 6 animals. He did wonderful job. Never have seen him better. W/Solitary Play he played nearly three minutes w/one toy in ea hand w/no clicking/touching, etc., after he initially did w/toy story char. I labeled it "destructive play" (like the Joy Berry book "Being Destructive"). This seemed to hit home. It was incredible. Tons of praise for playing so beautifully. Related it to school. Said sometimes he plays destructively in school but he won't do it anymore (yeah right... we can only hope). Lots of DRO for letting me help him be good.
Played with 6 dinosaurs. He was using storyline of "land before time". Discussed how he can take ideas from movies and change them and think about other things that may have happened. We did one "act" together where dinosaur that didn't share decided to share instead. DRO play that wasn't destructive Only made about 2 min solitary b/c of clicking animals together. Debriefed. One instance of looking at side of obj. Closed down & debriefed. DRO appropo play.
He was clicking & tapping after about 3 min of playing. Labeled destructive & he stopped. DRO. When he continued at various times during session I closed down & debriefed.
Played ok for about 2 1/2 minutes then said something incoherent. I labeled it a babble after he refused to tell me what he'd just said. He was upset ... said I was "in the water". Told him you should have said that while you played & when I asked you. Debriefed & started again. Did better job. About 2 good minutes. Kept looking at me. Labeled this as good self-monitoring (adults helping him).
Really nice today - I played w/him for a good 5 min. Stayed in character, followed my lead and then directed his own play a lot. Did well b/c he involved my animals. Solitary Play was also good -- about 2 minutes before he put characters together (it wasn't that bad). Nice looking up for conformation of good vs. not good play.
Played nicely on his own for nearly 3 min. (DRO) before toys touched, then I joined him. He had some probs looking at me & not touching doll strangely. N/C stopped this & reminders to act like he does in school. DRO when he played well.
Fine job. Used puppets today. He had some nice narrations w/butterfly and frog. DRO'd absence of "babbling" w/o me telling him. He had some mouth clicking. Challenged him to remember not to do it; he remembered two times -- DRO for not forgetting. Sitting was great too!
Played 6 figures (3 animals). His play is getting much better. Solitary Play continued for over 3 minutes w/o needing intervention. I DRO'd before he needed intervention. Really nice. He caught himself & looked at me when he babbled. Praised his catching himself & said I bet next time he'll be able to catch himself before he says strange things.
Used 3 trains & 6 animals. At first didn't want to give him trains but he asked nicely (and longingly) for them so I let him use them. Still had to handle only two items. Coop Play was very good. Excellent conversation & sitting ...DRO. On his own (needed some persuasion for Solitary Play) he did ok for about 2 1/2 min before he began crashing trains -- not too much. I allowed this to continue to see what would happen. He saw me looking & stopped. DRO'd him for self-monitoring. Had to interrupt play when he kept singing [_____] lyrics very strangely and made faces and said "Do you expect to find me...." He knew why I took toys away.
6 animals out together - this was great. Excellent conversation. Worked off my lead & direction. Played at the table. Very flexible. Really creative & animal appropriate behavior on his own. Pretty nice job. Used a quiet voice betwn animals & had nice theme running throughout his story - e.g., dark forest (scared). DRO'd nice sitting & self-monitoring. Played solitarily for about 4 minutes. Great job! Discussed school & being grown up.
Played w/Toy Story chars & dinosaurs. At beg of session there was a lot of clicking together. I targeted this heavily & his Solitary Play kept improving. Up to almost 5 minutes indep. DRO. Coop play is much better; much less stimming. Really able to follow another's lead & stay in char.
Excellent Coop play. However Solitary Play was hard b/c he didn't want to do it. He was "stuck" on playing w/me. Kept asking "please play w/me..." etc. Was doing very nice so I cont'd as long as I could. Later in the session he picked up some puppets (dogs, lion, etc.) & played on his own. No babbling. Very nice quiet play for over 4 minutes. Lots of DRO> I observed from a distance and tried to only encourage self-monitoring by looking for eye-contact if he felt he was going towards an inappropriate behavior.
[Brother] joined us at the beg. [Name] was totally in control. Tons of DRO for no touching & playing nicely. Ref'd to school. Great Coop Play even with [brother] drifting in & out of play. Lots of praise. Indep Play was shaky at first. Needed interv. for space & clicking approx every 2 min. Debriefed. Able to eventually get up to 5 min with intermittent reinf. Nice job. No noises or faces for the most part. He was really in amazing control.
Coop Play needed a little debriefing b/c he kept getting into human characters & assigning the animals these characteristics. needed about 2-3 interruptions before he remained in animal character. Lots of trouble getting him to to Indep Play! Wouldn't do it...asked to play w/me. Tried to make this a positive experience by saying thanks for asking but I can't. He took it the wrong way, got bossy & upset, wouldn't do indep play at all. Talked about listening to grownups.
Coop Play only - He was been very creative w/play, even though animals aren't always being just animals. Megan/Jim are going to ask [consultant] to move this drill along so that he can assign other characteristics to animals after all (we ARE making them talk!) His play seems to be very age appropriate & normal; we may be discouraging him b/c we keep telling him to stay in character (not much to do w/being just a pig, cow, calf, etc....)
P.N. - Let's loosen up a little & let the animals stray o/o character (as long as it's not psychotic!). Let his creativity w/play flow more. Just don't allow him to bring HIMSELF in as a character.
Played with trucks. Worked on appropriate truck play, construction, etc., instead of his personification of the trucks where they fight. (I know we're supposed to loosen up but it looked sorta weird. I just wanted to give him an alternative script). Talked about how other kids in school play, modeling. Play was much better. No noises or faces for the most part. Some saliva swishing but he quickly stopped. 7 minutes without an intervention!
P.N. - Loosen up with animals BUT trucks, planes (all vehicles), etc., should NOT ACT as people. All read [ther notes/date above]. This is correct way.
Used animals. I tried to be pretty flexible about which animals he wanted to be. Very hard time listening to me first time. Was stuck on wolves in the forest (even though we had no wolf out); tried to quickly incorporate his wolf fantasy into the play and move on. Didn't work too well. Stopped activity a few times to debrief about switching attn. & not getting stuck -- improved slightly. With Solitary Play he cont'd the same theme. Had animals on top of ea other too much and started to get carried away. Stopped activity and debriefed on what he did wrong. He became a bit argumentative -- had mad face, etc. Took away the animals as aversive.
He was great w/Coop Play until he started his wolf theme as w/ [above ther]. He made Buzz Lightyear a wolf. Debriefed but he continued so I took animals away. Took them out again later & he didn't bring up the wolf thing. Lots of DRO for not getting stuck.
Took out various animals. [Brother] joined us too. He was rabbit. Did pretty good job asking ?s Used him as model. He liked what [brother] was saying. Went along w/him for while but of course the forever famous good wolf Balto reared his ugly head in! Tried to keep the focus on [brother]'s conversation. When he kept on with wolf theme, stopped activity, debriefed & went back. Did it once more despite my firmness. Remaining neutral I stopped the drill.
Small trucks - needed debriefing about them talking, then DRO'd using them as vehicles WITH DRIVERS OPERATING THEM. Intermittently DRO'd theme of truck clearing snow. Played for 15 min. w/o any intervention. Discussed with lots of praise. Animals - played for 7/8 minutes independently -- no wolf discussion/theme.
He played appropriately for only about 2 min at a time [this ther was around the least & wasn't in good spirits throughout these months. He usually gave her the most trouble]. Lots of noises noises & rolling on floor. I intervened. Play together was fantastic. Lots of DRO. No wolf stuff.
Did this for quite a while using dinosaurs & then water animals. Aggression was a theme. He did some Solitary Play for about 3 min and then started having "sharks" eat every other animal. This lasted about 2 min before I intervened. Discussed how once the shark eats the animal (alligator), that's it. Shark should move on to do something else, etc. Started Solitary Play again & looked up to me when he was eating alligator. He put alligator down & moved on to other play. Huge praise for self-control. Told him looking at me helped him to remember, etc. Nice play lasted for approx. 10 min w/continuous referencing to me.
He still has some trouble thinking up story lines. Able to do 3 min with his own material. I started him on a new story line & he was able to do 4 1/2 min indep. Coop Play is great, although he needed some prompting/close down play to remember to keep figures still & not cover their faces w/his hands.
P.N. - It's OK to give him a new story line and BACK OFF as above.
Nice Coop Play -- got stuck w/wanting Woody to fly even when I changed story line & direction stopped & discussed. Did much better when we went back. Praise & DRO. Behavior was great. Solitary Play - very nice for about 4 min before he had Woody flying a bit too wildly on a plane. He looked at me & got into control. Tried to divert his behavior by asking him what Woody is about to do, etc., then he cont'd (a little bit more calmly) to play for another 3 min.
His Coop Play was great. He didn't stim & was flexible w/story & play themes. Solitary Play wasn't as good -- needed to be shut down/debriefed. Problem with clicking toys together. After I joined him & backed off he had about 3 great min of Solitary Play.
Great job w/Coop Play - very flexible & had some great themes. Worked on this for about 15 min before he did Solitary. No weird behaviors. Great play continued great themes and calm, appropo play for about 7 min. Lots of praise. DRO'd for playing appropriately.
Had had trouble w/space between figures during Solitary. Only able to do 4 min w/intermittent DRO. Also stimmed during Coop. Some touching/clicking - stopped & debriefed. DRO'd appropriate participation.
Sorry did this (I wasn't assigned to but I thought I saw a [initial] next to it). Anyway, he was able to sustain Solitary Play for about 5 min w/o clicking toys. DRO for good play before that. Coop was wonderful. Lots of DRO for this.
Great job. Played w/bugs & animals. Very good Solitary. Didn't mush animals together, click, etc. Nice use of words & good themes w/animals. Coop Play was just as good. Very flexible w/my leads. DRO.
P.N. - Don't forget to include how long he was good for.
Played w/dinos & animals. Kept appropriate space betwn animals. DRO. Needed to be stopped for word salad. About 4-5 minutes independently. Coop Play is good. Only problem is holding animals. Too much touching & not holding still. Stopped & debriefed.
Used animals. Very nice Coop Play. Needed a little reminder to hold still. Didn't want to do Solitary Play. Made up a rule about the sign on T.V. (No Toys) to not playing with animals. Tried to explain that this was different b/c we were practicing good play. Lasted 2 min before he got stuck on forests & wolves. Stopped & debriefed. Played another min before he clicked animals & cont'd w/the same theme.
He played well on his own for 5 min. He didn't know I was watching him. Had to intervene when he clicked toys together. Coop Play was great until he held 2 animals in one hand. Stopped & debriefed.
First had him do Solitary. He got carried away banging gorilla on table. [Brother] was around & did the same. Debriefed him about inappropriate modeling. "See what he did b/c you were a poor example?" I then played only w/[brother] and he had to watch. He had difficulty doing this; wouldn't listen the first time. Got upset (seemed jealous of [brother]!). Grabbed animals, started to cry, etc. Labeled his emotions. He denied & didn't want anyone to say what he was feeling. Calmed down a little later & acknowledged feelings! Coop Play a little better. Later on stuck on which animals I should use, etc. Had to remind him to be more flexible. Sitting needed reminder as well as looking.
He had hard time with Solitary Play - "word salad" again. Only 3 min before I had to intervene. DRO'd appropo play intermittently. Coop play was great. We played for 10 min & I stopped & ended on a good note. DRO. Told him it was so much fun to play w/him. Ref to school.
Coop Play - Nice job. Worked on the floor, used props - e.g., blue cloth for ocean, bucket turned over for mountain. Did mini scenes involving turn-taking. Used much more action, less emphasis on language. Had trouble making animals interact (The ones he held) kept wanting to talk to my animals. I modeled a lot for him and then told him animals in ocean can't hear the land animals (there he was forced to have a convers w/his own animals). Good job. Needs practice. About 7 min. Solitary play only 2 1/2 min on his own. Started to babble & make spitting/chucking noises. All weird. Shut down & debriefed. Compared it to school.
Coop Play was good. No prob w/turn-taking. Nice creativity. Worked heavily on holding animals still. At beg I was shutting down Coop Play & debriefing every 30 sec or so, then heavy DRO for holding it still. Indep Play - not bad. I gave him some lead-ins & had him pick some props (not airplane). Lasted about 4 1/2 min. No strange sounds.
P.N. Cooperative Play: Fade out sooner; more give & take in your "scenes". Solitary Play: - Use imaginative props (community locations...bowl as pond, blocks, etc.) to increase d_____ [???] - Keep verbal interactions to a minimum - More actions - use props to elicit action. - Shoot for 3-5 min consistently & shape toward 7-10 min. - Can add story lines to increase d ______
For both he must use his "real" voice.
Turn-taking good in Coop Play scenes. Set up situations w/props for Solitary (e.g., airport, hospital w/blocks, hospital beds, carpet as runways). He played nicely for 3 min, then went to see if his lunch was ready. Needed one reminder to use his "real voice". Set up storylines in ea. e.g., plane crash, take people to the hospital. During Coop Play needed only one shutdown & debrief to keep animals still.
I used pond we drew as a prop. Worked nicely. He was much less fidgety w/animals. A few prompts to use his own voice. Coop Play was pretty good. Used lots of action. Solitary Play was much better too! Less movement w/animals today. Lasted 2-3 minutes before he "babbled" something -- debriefed -- went back to it and shaped for longer play using more coherent actions & language.
Coop Play - first. Nice play, lasted about 6 min & then left him to do Solitary Play. He didn't want to at first. I just told him he needs to do it on his own for a while. He began - did a nice job - gave me constant glances as if to see if he was doing his play well. If he was working well I nodded w/approval or a smile. He cont'd nicely for a solid 5 min. and then he broke down a bit with babbling....went on a bit too long. Interrupted him & debriefed about overall play. Used multiple props -- mat for desert and the pond we drew last time.
Wanted to use drawn pond -- seemed a bit stuck. I took out Dino checkers and made them tar pits and mixed animals w/ Disney & Ses St figurines. He had a hard time. Played well cooperatively for about 5 min. Solitary Play about 2 1/2 - 3 and then lots of foot stuff. Shut down & debriefed.
Coop Play - 5 min. Very nice. We used figurines from doll house he hasn't seen for long time and animals. Big treat for him. Solitary Play - 6 min. Very nice job. No babbling. Was upset when I finally said we have to move on -- it was getting late. Told him we may do it again another time.
Coop Play - Stuck on Tyran Rex. Shut down & debriefed. Went back to playing & DRO'd getting in control & focusing on what my chars. were saying. Still needed intervention to hold chars. still. About 8 min. Coop Play. Solitary Play - needed lots of prompts for REAL voice. Redirection from chars. eating ea. other. Only about 3 min. solitary.
Coop - 10 min. Needed shutdown 3x in beginning b/c he kept moving them too much (flying, jumping, etc.). Debriefed & began again. Used props (basket paper mache & box for environment setup - i.e., sand cave, etc.) Did some "wandering" w/convers and needed help in staying on subject. Solitary Play - 3-5 min. Some refusal at first - wanted me to play. He decided to "sink" all the animals in the sand and then use dinosaurs. I thought he was creative so let him go on. Needed a few prompts to only have one animal in ea hand. Play was non-aggressive (DRO). Conversation script wasn't clear. Themes kept jumping around from brother-sister animals being afraid to "let's have a mean saber-toothed lion or a shark," etc....
P.N. - To Review Your notes should reflect these elements: COOPERATIVE - Characters go places & do things - Minimal dialogue - Give & take w/actions (almost turn-taking/conversational) SOLITARY - More Material/Props - Story Lines as Props Your notes should reflect these elements
Coop - 12 min. Used props all over the place. Much better today at going places & doing things. Props definitely helped as well as setting him up with a situation or "scene" - i.e., volcano about to explode, baby dinosaur is stuck at foot of mtn. He worked well with this. Solitary - 7 min. Again, props helped. I faded myself out of coop play and he cont'd w/themes already in progress. Needed verbal prompts not to have more than one animal in ea hand & they had to stay grounded (too much waving in air). Also needed prompt to leave animals in appropriate character -- he made a shark fly. Debriefed about it, cont'd nicely afterwards.
Coop Play - Used chair as volcano plus Lego house. Prompted turn-taking w/actions [arrow drawn by us between the word "volcano" here and the one that's in last entry w/another therapist just to alert them that they may not have read last entry well and in any case the same thing shouldn't be done two sessions in a row w/our son who tended to perseverate]. Solitary - Used these materials & rug for beach. Gave story lines. He needed prompts continuously and shut down/debrief for toy banging & noises. 2 to 2 1/2 min w/no prompts.
Coop - 10 min. Needed many prompts to "go places and do actions." Very hard for him NOT to start some sort of convers. I tried to keep it strictly ACTION packed using verbal prompts: "Come on, let's go to the meadow...," etc. Used props all over. Solitary - Just getting him to do it took 5 min - lots of debriefing about listening to adults. Tried to make it appealing to him. He "messed" up props (i.e., a barn we made for farm animals). Worked patiently w/him & got him to build his own version. I fed him story lines and got him interested. Played about 3-4 min before intervening about using "real voice." DRO'd when he played nicely.
Solitary - Started this first on his own. He actually told me "You can play with me if you want, but if you don't want to, it's ok." !!! (Cute, sweet and manipulative.) Huge praise and DRO for not insisting on having me play w/him (usually the case). He set up his own prompts - ocean, land, etc. Played for a solid 15 min. I had no reason to interrupt him. Used animals (jungle) & a couple of dinosaurs. Play was good, focused & no babbling. Did nice actions. At end of 15 min he started to fade, not using his own voice. One prompt helped him gain control - started to get a bit aggressive when I came in for Coop Play - Really nice. 17 min. Fed him some play themes and he took right to it. Great behaviors. DRO & praise. Used props he had made up from Solitary Play.
Solitary Play - 10 min at height. At beg 3 min & then needed intervention for babbling. Narratives are getting much better. Coop Play - Lots of stimmy touching & body movement. Made it through about 8 min at best. Turn taking with narrative is fine.
P.N. - [pointing to "turn taking w/narrative" above] This is exactly what we AREN'T looking for. Please reread #2 (Appropo Play) on [date] notes. The give & take is supposed to be w/ ACTION and NOT "narrative". We need to keep verbal interactions to a minimum w/more actions. The School Psychologist noted that his playing is "immature" in the way he narrates his stories. The Brigance book also notes that cooperative play should be "conversational" in that children age 5.0 play off ea other, almost like musicians improvising. They're keenly aware of ea other's actions & play off them w/o necessarily saying much -- he needs this desperately.
Sorry - action turn-taking was good too.
Coop Play - 8 min. Needed prompts about handling animals w/ various actions - i.e., walking had to be on floor/ground and not in the air. Also he was making his props (i.e., doghouse) TOO magical - i.e., flying house. Debriefed about this. Houses can't fly, etc. (DRO'd in the beginning about animal flexibility - wanted to use dino checkers. Told him we're using farm animals today.) Solitary Play - Sort of the same problem in handling animals. Actions were too exaggerated. Lasted 6 min but w/interruptions about behaviors - i.e., flying horse, etc.
Solitary Play was completely narrated by him and they ended up in a big pile b/c they were "fighting the alligator". Redirected. Used paper towel w/print on it as animals' food & house blanket for other props. He was very aware of my being in the room & kept looking towards me for approval. He picked up things (e.g., pen) to use as props himself and played this way for 12 min w/the one interruption for piling the animals. Coop Play - used actions. When he tried to narrate I did things he had to pay attn. to & do an action on his own (e.g., shark was after his best friend). Tried to get him to "play off" my actions.
Solitary Play - Lots of talking betwn animals - Needed prompting at beg to steer him away from destructive play & towards more action (but positive action) 12 min after prompted to come up w/positive actions. Debriefed about more action. Coop Play - 20 min - Dinosaurs put on a show for the mammals. Lots of movement - like a circus - lots of praise for following my characters & creating his own acts.
Coop - 22 min. Used animals I wanted (as punishment he couldn't choose what he wanted b/c of the way he behaved in school today). Play was good - followed lead & created his own story line. A few prompts needed not to touch other animals i.e., what wasn't out. Solitary - 9 min. Needed prompts not to lay all over floor. Needed some ideas to work w/ i.e., farmer working w/ animals. Used props nicely & creatively. DRO & praise. Body was very calm.
Needed lots of work on non-aggressive/destructive play. He was resistant to accepting nonviolent themes. DRO'd cooperative (figurines) and friendly actions. Coop Play was constantly being stopped for aggressive beh - shaped positive interactions - 8 min max. Solitary play w/theme given. Serving dinner at birthday party lasted 9 min.
Coop Play - 7 min. He needed work on aggressive play. When he was leading actions I let him & [brother] play for last few vignettes.
Coop - 7 min. Hard time taking storyline suggestions. Very stuck on triceratops & T Rex having to fight, etc. Took away T Rex & gave him themes having to do w/mammals finding a lost friend (stuck in cave). Wouldn't accept changing topic. Worked on lots of actions but he was full of conversation. Hard to get out of it. Solitary - 5 min. Same "aggressive" problem with dinos & couldn't really accept storyline. Wanted to change it into something aggressive - closed it down & debriefed. Also hard time suggesting props or taking my suggestions.
Coop - trains & blocks - 15 min. Great turn-taking. DRO'd for elaborating on what I said & also adding him own creative thoughts. Only needed glance to stop himself from holding trains too closely. Solitary - 12 min. w/trains - Added to story line given to him & elaborated appropriately. Nice job. Intermittent DRO.
Coop - 9 min. He was fine w/storyline suggestions & led some action on his own. Solitary - 7 min. had to be shut down for aggressive play - throwing toy. Debriefed. Made use of props ON HIS OWN. e.g., globe as volcano. Lots of praise.
P.N. - Solitary Play can now be a part of Independent Work Drill. Huge DRO if this is not his first choice.
Coop Play - 19 min. Very good. Nice use of props. Focused listening to storyline I set up. One reminder needed for voice, otherwise fine; relaxed & calm body. DRO. Ref'd listening to me & focusing to school and friends. Solitary Play - 2 reminders to use his own voice & 3 to sit up while playing. Keeps lying down & it leads to stimmy behavior w/ feet when he's touching something. Used two dinos & three dogs. Play was incoherent. He was silent at times. Tried to prompt him by saying "go on", etc. Once he settled on a "storyline" -- dinos bothering dogs -- he got stuck on it. A bit aggressive and lots of weird, silly noises. I transitioned him to another drill not part of work choice.
Solitary Play 1st - He chose this 2nd (after music) DRO! I put props on the side of the animals. He needed a prompt to use them, but once he started he was able to go for 5 in w/appropo play. Lots of DRO. Coop Play - He had trouble using animals to move props (dinosaur bones) - Got caught up in making the bones talk and lost focus. Shut down, refocused & discussed. Coop - 6 min. Big prob cleaning up 'cause he wanted to play more. Used nasty tone. Apology and debriefing with ref to school. Megan also debriefed. Lots of work on listening to teacher 1st time & being respectful.
Coop - 12 min. Nice & calm, very good taking leads today & using props. A couple of prompts were needed for real voice, otherwise nice work. Less verbal interaction, more action-oriented play. DRO. Solitary - Indep Work - used Barbie dols. He dressed them up nicely & changed clothing -- a little strange when brushing hair and huge prob cleaning up. Had to debrief him at the end. It took him longer to clean up than to play. 10 min cleaning time. Worked on laziness in circle time.
Indep Work - 1st choice Solitary - Needed prompt (shut down & debriefed) b/c he was putting his head on the floor to look at objects on the side. Debriefed w/ref to school. Also needed prompts to used relaxed voice. Needed prompting & storyline to use trains as trains & not introduce himself as a wolf into the storyline. 3 min. Coop - His actions occasionally strayed very far away from my lead, but for the most part it was good. Still needs to be directed to use props & concentrate on actions. 8 min. Clean up was problematic again, but he got in control (DRO). DRO'd listening quickly (though not 1st time) and heavily DRO'd 1st response to shape fast listening & compliance during clean-up.
Indep Work - 1st choice Solitary - 3 min. Needed to shut down & debrief b/c of noises and clicking toys together, strange voice, singing, talked about appropo place. Coop - 7 min. He wouldn't play off my actions & kept wandering away. Debriefed & talked about leaving activity. Cleanup was great today - 1st time listening. DRO'd.
Solitary - 8 min; Coop - 9 min. Coop - Went off-topic a lot -- he tried making up lots of excuses-- to use other animals & rationalize the behavior of his animals (wow). I set up theme in a castle w/animals going there to perform. He had trouble staying with theme & playing off it. Needed lots of prompts to do actions, especially follow them through to the end. Tends to want to skip steps - i.e., animals had to walk to back of the line when they finished doing a trick. He would throw or fly them back. Solitary - sort of the same problem except actions & verbal stuff seem to be equally the same in frequency. Tried to have him do more actions using verbal prompts - i.e., Are they all swimming across the river?
Coop lasted 5 min then he went off on his own thing, smashing toys. Debriefed. Solitary Play - After 2 1/2 min began subtle clicking but stopped himself - DRO, and then played for 3 min nicely. [this is problem --at that time-- therapist]
Solitary Play - Used 6 animals and two trains w/train set. Gave him a script/theme to play along with. Scene was bad weather - rain, snow, windy, etc. and train is traveling from one city to another and the bridge is shaky and may collapse at any minute and train may derail, etc. His behaviors were good when he was calm. No singing. DRO. Needed a few reminders to also include the animals in his play. DRO'd when he did. Play was solid 10 min & he carried a nice theme throughout. Coop - 12 min. Very relaxed & calm - huge DRO. Also no singing - DRO. Followed theme nicely. A few reminders needed not to skip action movement and was able to follow this through. DRO.
Coop - 9 min I tried to model a very quiet tone. He needed lots of prompts to keep loud voice down. He was good about sticking to theme after first few prompts. Prop use was ok but needed 1 reminder to use what he set up - i.e., mountain. Solitary - Flexible w/using fewer animals - he chose like 10 when I told him he could only have 6 or 7. Listened right away. DRO. Got a little too fancy w/play - i.e., animals were watching TV. Told him that isn't what animals do. He was reluctant to take prompts. Also needed reminder about voice. 7 min.
Solitary Play - not part of Indep Wk. Set up 3 props on his own. DRO. Used 6-7 animals. Voice was normal. A few reminders about following a theme were needed -- tried to prompt him by providing a script. Lasted about 6 minutes.
Indep Work 2nd choice - DRO not choosing 1st. Used vehicles and Buzz L. 2 min on his own w/o a script - When I gave him a starting script he was able to do 5 min. DRO quiet voice. Coop - Needed prompt about voice (strange sounds), otherwise followed & shifted actions well after reminder to focus on action. 6 min.
Not part of Indep Work. Coop - 7 min - He was resistant to using small animals but then listened & was very flexible. Got to use his big animals as reward. Stressed that he got them b/c he listened to a grownup. DRO'd quiet tone, no weird voices. Solitary - 1 min w/o intervention. Then began fighting w/T Rex and stegosaurus as usual. Gave him script and played 4 min.
Solitary - 1st choice indep wk. Small figures & doll house & big object from manipulatives. Told him he has to use both places & he could decide what the object was. Still not a lot of action difficulty sequencing events and going from one place to the other but seemed to do better when directed to use the objects & asked what will they do next (or some leading questions) -4 min. DRO.
No indep work drill. Doll house & dolls. Sort of reinf for him for being so good. He asked for it. Played nicely...lots of praise. Hard to transition him to Coop Play (8 min) and then did well. Went back to Solitary, cont'd to do great job and listened when I interrupted him to eat dinner. Big DRO.
Nice & calm - very good e.c. & attn. Did Coop first - 9 min. Paid attn. to script & followed leads nicely. Came up with some creative props & ideas for storyline. Solitary - 7 min. A few prompts to play on his own. He kept looking to me for conversation at first. Did really well w/actions. No weird/loud noises. DRO'd calm appropriate play. Good clean up.
Coop - used dollhouse. 12 min. Lots of prompts needed initially b/c he tends to want to start out narrating his play right off the bat. Prompted him to "act" everything out. This seemed to be quite effective. It resulted in his doing more actions w/figures & storyline developed spontaneously as we worked off each other. Some prompts needed to hold figures still once he gets to a destination or completes an action. Solitary - not part of indep work - 9 min. He rolled right into some nice play (acting) w/dollhouse. Good actions - DRO. Some prompts to hold figures still (as in Coop). Overall he was calm - no weird behaviors & accepted subtle suggestions nicely when he seemed "stuck". DRO for good cleanup.
Before he started, I reminded him that he has to act things out. Prompted him to set up scenes 1st. Set up grassy area & water & trees for animals. Played for 1 min., just verbally. I redirected him to scenes & reminded him about action. 6 min. Coop - Animals & dollhouse. DRO'd action. He had some nice, creative ideas involving props & actions (rhino taking a mud bath in the tub). Shifted action well. Big problem cleaning up. Got T.O. Refused to take it and said "I mean it" and threatened to get worse. Talked about it being his responsibility. Megan had to come in and help with T.O. and we worked on remorse/apologizing.
Solitary - 6 min (not Indep Wk). He played w/animals & dollhse creatively & calmly for 1st 2 min. Then he needed a prompt to quiet his voice down and 2 xs not to click animals together. DRO for appropriate play. Coop (Indep Wk - 2nd choice) Needed prompt for singing & prompt for transitioning. Got nasty & said he wanted to take a break and he meant it & I better listen to him! I got stern & he gave me an apology. Then did it again. I got another apology and then he moved on - 5 min. Coop play w/[playdate] - he needed to be prompted through entire thing. Noises & singing interfered for 2 min. Disappointing. Debriefed.
He played with animals (Solitary) - 4 min. Needed prompt not to play rough. Initially did nice job acting out. DRO for this and quiet tone and being gentle after prompt. He didn't answer me at first but I got firm & corrected. Played for 3 more min. Didn't get Cooperative Play.
Solitary and Coop - not part of Indep. Wk. Coop - 8 min. Tried to set up and play. He didn't need prompt to come over to play but I had him "ask me" for practice and ref'd this to school situation. He had a hard time following my "acting" at first b/c he kept "telling" & narrating what the animals should be doing. He didn't bring up any "Lion King" and dinosaur themes. DRO'd. Solitary - 6 min. Better job acting out a "helping" theme. I set up for him. Heavy DRO and I prompted out specific behaviors and acting he did with animals. Hopefully it made impression for next time.
P.N. - For COOPERATIVE PLAY, have some of the animals out that would be in "Lion King" or some of the dinosaurs which would be in "Land Before Time". YOU start playing with these animals BUT using a DIFFERENT theme than "Lion King" or "Land Before Time"
-- Please try hard to begin YOUR play w/the animals/ dinosaurs WHILE he's involved with some other activity. This will make it more analogous to school where kids will be playing something and he will (hopefully) learn how to notice and join them.
--Lots of notes on the above.
Solitary (Indep Work - 1st choice). Gave him kitchen set & dolls. He went to play w/dolls when all the pieces were scattered all over the place. I prompted him to set up first & then play w/dolls (thought maybe this would help organize him). He was very calm & spoke in a calm voice. DRO'd a lot - 6 min until he started making strange sounds w/the dolls & holding them in stimmy way. Coop - I set up dinos, lion, blocks, alligator. He walked over, grabbed a dino & began on his own storyline. Redirected & reminded him that it's my game & asked what he needs to do. He correctly asked "Can I play w/you?" DRO. He joined my story after a redirection and prompt "What's happening?" - DRO Once he was involved in my story (animals working together to build a bridge to reach the alligator), he was able to generate his own actions. DRO nice job. Clean up was a little more rigid. Needed redirection. Didn't listen 1st time. Worked on apology. Needed prompt to apologize and for e.c.
Coop - Put out big LEGOs, some dinos and animals. At beg I started playing. He walked over & just grabbed animal. Vague prompt worked for him to ask me if he could play & another prompt to ask me what was going on. We worked together to use blocks to build a ride for animals. He did nice job picking up action & alternating action. Followed along well. - 12 min. Solitary - Used LEGOs as props. More action than usual. DRO 7 min. DRO'd action & quiet tone. Great job!
Coop - I used Tyco blocks, dinos, lion & lioness w/Gak. He needed prompt to ask if he could play (he just joined in at first and said "let's pretend this guy...etc."). I stopped him & prompted him to ask me what I was playing. We had a dinosaur trapped in quicksand (Gak) w/hungry lions about to eat him. The other dinosaurs had to climb a mtn to save him. We built stairs & then he brought dragon into the game who flew over & saved dinosaurs. He played really well. DRO for ideas. Solitary - Played nicely building w/LEGOs & using dinosaurs. He pretended the LEGOs were a "magic machine"! The dinos climbed it, fell down, helped ea other in lots of action w/o getting loud & he kept his body calm. - 9 min. LOTS of DRO! Clean up caused him to talk back. T.O. Talked about apologizing 1st. Then cleaned up w/o a problem. ----He tried to make dinos have ride like w/[other ther] (see entry dated [date]). Told him I didn't want to and he was very flexible.
Coop - 10 min. I set up figures & used animals to play. He came over quickly. Needed prompt to ask to play (he grabbed an animal & just began on his own). Discussed "asking" as related to other kids. Sometimes they may say "yes" and sometimes "no". Needed prompts to use lower tone & his own voice. DRO'd when he listened "now".
Solitary - 7 min. Cont'd with what was already set up. Needed help w/carrying a theme across his play. Used actions but he exaggerated too much - i.e., elephant has heavy walk and he banged it up and down (s) for effects. DRO'd the action but tried to have him tone it down a bit.
Coop - 9 min. Hard time starting out b/c he was stuck on wanting to use certain animals & certain props. I suggested we use new props. Pretended to make a volcano w/sheepskin mat & red paper around it. He got stuck on wanting to use sheepskin only as cold place where polar bear lives. Once this got resolved, he did better but still needed prompts to use more actions & act out the scene. Animals are trying to get safety before volcano eruption. Solitary - 5 min. Cont'd on Coop Play theme. I set up situation for him. The land has been burned b/c of lava & animals had to find new land to live. He did ok except for loud voice & very exaggerated animal behaviors - i.e., elephant jumps across mtns.
Coop - 12 min. Helped to set up props. Nice job; DRO. Took my suggestion to use new props. Came up with some original ideas - i.e., smock was water b/c it was blue. Worked on actions and needed lots of prompts to keep it on the floor and not in the air. VOICE was off the wall. Lots of reminders to keep his own voice & to ACT and not TELL the story. Improved slightly towards end. Solitary - 9 min. (Part of Indep. Wk. - 1st choice) Asked him to tell me what the "scene" was before he began. Couldn't really articulate what he intended to do. Helped him set up a situation (animals looking for sweeter grass). He tried to follow through but needed reminders to stick to story. Body was fidgety & not using his own voice. I modeled gentle tone & tried to DRO him whenever he used good voice. He put animals away ritualistically, banging on toy chest and then putting them into a box. Made him do it again right way and he didn't like it but did it anyhow. DRO'd listening to adults.
Coop - Tyco blocks & animals. Built store where animals went shopping. Great participation. Still needs prompt to ask to play. Good following my actions w/his own shifts - 15 min. DRO'd staying w/what we were doing & not getting carried away. Solitary - Indep Wk choice #1. Only 2 min at a time before it involved clicking together, rhyming or noises. Stopped & debriefed.
Coop - at [playdate]'s. We used lots of stuffed animals. I tried to have her lead the play. She did pretty good job. Nice play. I followed her as a model for him. He followed leads at first but had a very loud tone. Sort of struggling to be "heard" b/c she kept directing her attn. to me. He wanted her attn.! I tried to make it so that they would be interacting. She naturally used her environment as props. He followed DRO. Needed some help to keep body clam, otherwise he did pretty well.
Solitary - dollhse. Play was poor. Lots of made-up words. Req'd constant stopping 1-2 min. Also clicking animals together. Coop - Shaped play using real words & proper movement. 5 min. We also watch [brother] play w/the dollhse and we together DRO'd his playing quietly and appropriately.
Coop - 12 min. Used dollhse. This was first drill we did today (he'd just woken up). He was calm, relaxed, and used a great gentle tone. Heavy DRO. No prob following lead and using toys appropriately. He "acted" out parts. Didn't "tell" the story - huge DRO at the end & intermittent DRO while playing. Solitary - Nice continuation from above. Really good playing. No weird noises, although he did overdo driving noises. DRO for not asking me to join back in (he usually does). Theme cont'd w/ school where he reconstructed his own life in the play -- i.e., boy was great in school, parents very proud, etc. Needed a couple of prompts to sit up. DRO'd gentle tone. Cleaned up right away when I asked (DRO - "now").
Solitary (Indep Wk 1st choice) - Before he started, reminded him about having a storyline, using betwn 6 and 8 animals and ACTING the story out. Really nice tone - gentle & didn't sing or growl. Heavy DRO. Followed a nice storyline about animals looking for water. Set up on his own. DRO'd. 1 prompt to not overdo diving in water. Play behaviors were mostly calm w/occasional "rough" fighting, which he didn't OVERDO b/c he was monitoring himself by looking at me once in a while. DRO - 11 minutes!!!! Nice job. Coop - 12 min. Not as smooth as solitary. Some trouble following leads - got stuck on having animals to only one action. Stopped & debriefed. Did lots of modeling which helped him to focus. Needed reminder to keep tone gentle. Much better towards the end - DRO. Had to be told 3x to "clean up". He was too stuck on trying to tell me what to do next (i.e., directing therapy). Used NOW as prompt for his cleanup and debriefed about listening to adults.
Solitary - Needed prompts at beg to develop a storyline. W/O prompts he was just sitting & feeling lion's teeth. Needed prompts not to lie on floor when playing. DRO'd quiet tone. Needed reminder to use structures he built w/animals. DRO'd quiet. Got 1 T.O. for singing. Cooperative - GREAT! Asked to play and what I would like to do independently. DRO'd. 15 min. Great shifting activity & following leads & creating his own activity. Needed prompt to clean up quickly. Listened first time. DRO.
P.N. - SHOOT FOR 12-15 MINUTES COOPERATIVE PLAY
Coop - [brother] in room. I started to play w/[brother] and [name] barged in. Stopped. Debriefed and reminded him about asking. Practiced this 2x. DRO for working on it and being flexible. Some trouble following my suggestions - I just kept moving on to see what he would do. When he didn't want "panda" to go up in the tree, his voice got louder b/c he was trying to CHANGE my actions. Stopped & debriefed about this. He got much more flexible later on. Nice personal space, esp with [brother] around -- made sure to hit this. [Brother] was good too! DRO'd him. 9 min.
Solitary - 15 min Really nice work. Gave him trains to play w/ and reminded him about "acting" out a story. Used props in their context - i.e., table chair, toy chest. Nice job. No singing or growling noises (probably b/c it wasn't animals). Body was calm and relaxed. DRO. Ref'd nice play to school & playdates.
Solitary only (ran out of time). 3rd area choice. 7 min & then had to go to bed (had him use name card). Needed prompt to "act" story out.
Coop - 15 min. Did good job shifting themes & following my shifts. DRO for maintaining good pers space. Needed reminder to use real voice. Solitary - 1st Area choice - He used themes from our Coop Play (is this ok?) P.N. - yes. Went to "Disneyland". Set up characters and had dolls visit. DRO for relaxed body & gentle tone.
Solitary - 7 min. Did "time to stop" He was reluctant to stop but gave in. DRO'd flexibility. A little prompt needed for growls, but once he started to play did great playing & following a storyline. DRO. Nice acting.
Coop - 17 min. Great job towards end. For the beg had to stop couple of times b/c of aggressive behavior w/characters (used little Disney chars). Once he started playing nicely he followed my leads which I switched constantly too! DRO - body was relaxed & e.c. was good.
P.N.
COOPERATIVE PLAY - Shape 12-15 minutes
- Keep shifting and getting him to shift with you (this is the ESSENCE of cooperative play)
- Keep starting with things he's familiar with and shifting away from his usual themes.
- Big DRO if he injects his own themes.
- Keep working on his asking to "play with you".
SOLITARY PLAY - Shape 7-10 minutes
Only Solitary today (ran out of time). 6 min w/animals. Needed prompt to use props. Trouble stopping when I asked him to. Got T.O. for talking back. Kept trying to explain. I told him he needs to sit quietly and not talk. I kept reminding him to sit quietly & escalated (T.O.) to me going to door of rm. He stopped talking, cried & apologized. DRO and debrief re: understanding his feelings.
Solitary - 6 animals. Debriefed about having a story & using props. Needed a couple of prompts to stop silly noises/talk. Asked him in serious voice - worked nicely. Had difficulty following the theme he set up on his own in the beg (animals searching for secret pond). Used time to stop once. I saw that he wasn't picking up other prompts to change story a bit. Lasted 8 min. Coop - 15 min. Nice job. I started a theme using Wizard of Oz/Snow White ideas.
Solitary - 9 min. Set up his own props, i.e., used chairs as volcano & bureau as safe mountain. Nice actions w/animals Need prompts about some noises -- easily redirected. Used a consistent theme throughout. DRO. Coop - about 10 min. Had some trouble paying attn. Needs lots of prompts and help with listening to Jessica and me. Did some wild behavior with characters. Listened when I told him to stop. Biggest problem was he didn't pay attn. to Jessica [playdate]. I tried prompting her a bit to talk to him. I guess she was shy a bit since this was the first time they met. Prompts were needed for personal space.
Solitary - 8 min. He did a nice job, esp w/gentle tone & quiet body. Lot of good action - DRO.
Coop - 23 min! I started this out on my own. Gave him a hard time b/c he was forgetting to ASK to join me. I wanted to see how long it would take him to figure it out. I had to prompt him after 5 min. Gave him amble opportunities to ask but he mistook my not wanting to play w/him as selfish. i.e., would tell him "hey, that was MY space!" or "this is a farm -- no dinosaurs allowed", etc. He seemed irritated and threatened to tell "mommy" that I was being selfish. Once I prompted him to ask . He was OK. Stopped a couple of times to debrief about "flexibility" (ref'd to children in school) of story & following other kids' suggestions. He tried to change story to his way. I pretended to treat him like other kids would (you can't play w/ me if you're not doing it "right", etc.) I didn't want to sound as if I were whining so once it didn't work I stopped the play. His actions when he didn't try to change story were great! He had a relaxed body (DRO) and voice & tone were at his best.
Solitary - used 8 animals. Set up props & animals on his own. DRO. I asked ?s about storyline to get him going. Needed prompt to act & use actions instead of telling the story. Theme was vague; wasn't really developing the story & kept requiring prompts to continue. lasted 7 min. Coop - 14 min. Lots of trouble doing actions. Kept trying to narrate. Stopped & debriefed. Got two T.O.s -- one for arguing about how the "wolf" should behave and one for interrupting me after I tried to talk about his feelings after T.O. #1. Told him to be flexible when other characters are saying the actions of other animals. Told him to listen to this b/c that's his cue to act i.e., here comes the farmer. He has to make the farmer come. This is a big prob for him b/c he always tries to do opposite the suggestion and thus not following the leads of other kids. Practiced doing just this. He did a great job. I pointed this out to him. BIG DRO. Used "time to stop" when he started getting into it. He was flexible. DRO.
Solitary - 6 min and then made up silly word/shut down & debriefed. Needed prompt to use new props I gave him to create a place. Still needs encouragement to concentrate on going places & doing things, but he'd getting much better at varying his stories. Coop - 10 min. Needed prompt to ask to play. Great job shifting actions. Somewhat hesitant to use the propellor (that he had used earlier as "food") as a tree, but he went along anyhow -- DRO!!
Solitary - Barbie post office - 14 min. He spent lots of time setting up pieces. Needed prompt to use the dolls to act stuff out, but did a great job when he started. DRO. Clean up was somewhat problematic. He kept getting caught up in playing with objects and not putting them away. Talked back. T.O. (went quietly). Debriefed w/validation of feelings & he returned to cleaning up well. DRO.
Solitary - 7 min. Then too loud. Talked about using "inside" voice. Needed to be guided to create theme, otherwise he stayed on same toys in same area.
Solitary - 8 min (1st choice indep play) - Again needed "inside" voice reminder and cross-talked. Debriefed. Did "time to stop" -- Needed T.O. (see "AREA DRILL"). DRO for quiet body & quiet inside voice after reminder. Needed to be prompted for apology after invaded my space. Started putting doll on my head. Cleaned up when I told him to. Lots of DRO.
Coop - 10 min b/c short on time. He needed guidance for story- lines & got stuck on playing w/Barbie's hair and "chasing" theme.
Solitary - 8 min dollhse. Had to set up. Needed 2 prompts to keep rooms separated. He was trying to act silly & join living rm & bathrm together. Set up took him 5 min. He was careful to organize pieces. DRO. Told him to use inside voice 2x and when he got really into play, told him "time to stop". I joined him Coop - joined him right after solitary play. Actions were pretty good todya. DRO -- some subtle voice reminders were needed. Otherwise he carried out theme well for 12 min. DRO -- body was relaxed.
Solitary - needed help in beginning b/c he was holding two or more animals in one hand. Had to stop & debrief about using only one in ea hand. Tried to make excuses that he wants animals to get away at the same time. Labelled it "excuse". Modelled appropriate play & told him he can't play if he doesn't do it right way. This worked & he got back in line & played for 8 min after this first intervention. DRO -- used actions & had a coherent story going. Heavy DRO.
Solitary - 11 min. Still needs help formulating props & keeping ction moving. Without reminders about action, play becomes monologue which moves into sounds/singing. He had hard time w/clean-up. Talked back & got T.O. Debriefed -- valid feelings. Needed reminders not to talk. Also problem going to T.O. .... picked up hands but controlled imself. Discussed. DRO'd "inside" voice. Coop - 14 min. Played w/animals. Animal races. Still needs prompts to keep action moving. Wants to interject his own monologues.
Built park for animals to play in. Coop - 12 min. Nice job shifting ACTIONS. DRO'd use of props & movement. Didn't get stuck in conversation. Very nice.
He did amazing appropriate play (1st choice). 15 min. w/shifting actions, inside voice, NO singing, a relaxed body. Tons of DRO. He kept going back to it during breaks as well (he was playing w/the BIG doll house). Gave redirection if stuck on monologue. Coop - 12 min. due to lack of time. Cont. w/doll house. At 1st he was reluctant to follow my leads, but then he did fine & initiated as well.
Solitary - 8 min. Set up props for play. Made a forest -- used 8 animals. Storyline was good. I kept probing him for details. Voice was great. DRO'd "inside" voice. Prompted him to perform more ACTIVITY instead of dialogue. Also needed reminder to handle 1 to 2 animals at a time instead of a bunch in his hands. Coop - 13 min. The best play I've seen in a long time! Really on w/actions & very gentle, totally playing off my lines. Heavy DRO. Didn't give me any qualms about ending play. Used "time to stop". DRO.
Coop - 10 min. This was the first drill we did. He was in constant motion, not focused, needed lots of prompts to pay attn. & listen first time to story & play off of actions. Had to stop him constantly. Solitary Play - 7 min. Much improved after debriefing about coop & constantly prompting in the beg. Listened 1st time & used actions. Body was calmer too. Used "time to stop".
Solitary - 9 min. Started out prompting for a descriptive storyline. Needed help keeping one animal in ea hand. Keeps wanting to horde 2 or more. DRO when he held one in each. Actions were low in comparison to conversational play. Prompted more action. Improved towards end. Coop - 13 min. Had to stop a lot b/c he wasn't accepting my storyline direction. He was rigid about it, constantly trying to change what I set up to do. Actions were good. DRO. Watch out for RIGIDITIES. He's using the animals as excuse to keep big lion & little lion or big tiger & little tiger together, as father & son, husband & wife, etc. For some reason he can't have 1 animal do something w/o consulting w/the other. I'm sure the skill will be useful sometime in his future, however it's not helping now. I debriefed about it & discussed potential play w/other kids.
Solitary 7 min. (2nd choice) - His body was really relaxed (DRO). Put out doll hse. He needed prompt when he got stuck on the clock. Did well moving the people around the house & going places, changing furniture. Lots of talking through it, but creating different scenarios. Coop 14 min. I joined him in the house. He refused a bit at 1st (in charge), but I stayed in character & insisted. He gave in. Needed one reminder.
Solitary - 1st area choice - 7 min. He needed prompts to create action. Needed reminder for inside voice. DRO when he moved figures around & created story. Coop - 13 min. Needed prompts periodically to act out stuff & not narrate. Also got pretty violent/aggressive against my figure. I shut down play & when we continued he played well. DRO.
Coop. 15 min. - Used dollhse. Animals seemed too rewarding today (especially b/c of school incident). Setting up was good. DRO. Body was calm. Needed prompts to stay w/story. Dinner- time ordering & trying new foods. Acting was good. DRO. [Brother] joined us for a few min. Used him as a model. [Bro] was calm & listened to me. Nice play. DRO. He got a little silly when [bro] played w/me. Told him to cut it out. It worked nicely.
Solitary - 7 min. I gave him storyline to follow & finish up play. He went on a tangent doing wild things with cat meowing all over. Stopped & debriefed, then started again following storyline. Right when he got into it, told him "time to stop" - Cleaned up nicely without clicking toys. DRO.
Coop - 14 min. Built forest together. Used 5 animals. He had hard time initially not orchestrating the entire activity. He was resistant to my characters' actions. Discussed this & he dramatically improved. Solitary - 5 min. & then strayed into violent play w/noises. Debriefed.
Solitary - Barbies & Kitchen set. He quietly set up kitchen & began playing w/utensils & not dolls. After about 1-2 min of this he moved to the dolls (DRO) 9 min. & then got stuck on silly piling up of dolls. Stopped play. Coop - 9 min. Needed prompting to stay in character. He had a hard time staying as the doll & keeping the action moving w/the doll when props were involved. Shaped focus on the doll as the actor. No violent play.
Solitary - 16 min! Pieces from alphabet hanging on wall. Excellent job. Needed no direction. Made up great action- oriented story lines. (Lots of DRO!) Coop - Used animals - play got violent. Redirected scenes. Kept going back to violent play. Told him I didn't want to play w/him anymore & time to stop. Chose different area. 6 min. [above ther was gone w/in one month--emotionally burnt out -- she'd been was us for over two yrs and might have been our most creative therapist for the first two & definitely spent the most time with our son at this point]
Coop - Great job. 17 min. The funniest play ever. We had animals out along with props. Storyline had to do w/a hungry wolf in the forest that needed food badly but was afraid to get it. It was dinner time and my stomach let out a soft growl (sounded like a hungry wolf). His face turned pale as he asked "what was THAT?" I went along w/his line of thought & said "It's a wolf in my tummy". Had him going for a few seconds before he said I was kidding (he was laughing nervously!) His play was great. Followed my lead after a couple of prompts. DRO. Nice gentle tone and wasn't violent. DRO. Solitary - 7 min. Nice actions & dialogue. DRO. Stopped on his own saying he was done playing w/animals. This was the first time I've seen him stop on his own & clean up. Heavy DRO.
Solitary - 9 min. Nice job. He was quiet when playing. Keeping a low voice trying not to wake [brother] up. DRO. Play was good, didn't do violent things and took suggestions/prompts from me right away. DRO. Coop - 15 min. Nice job. Some prompts were needed to follow storyline & perform actions. Listened right away -- DRO. Used soft, gentle voice & cleaned up nicely. DRO.
Coop Play - 10 min. Really worked hard on moving away from narration to action. Practiced acting out what he was thinking using the animals instead of saying it or introducing it. Lots of praise for nice job. Solitary - 5 min. Needed prompts to hold figures down & not in front of eyes. Play deteriorated into violent theme (growling/biting) & needed redirection.
Coop 12 min (1st choice in Areas drill) -- Worked on holding animals by the MIDDLE of their body & not their mouths. Used flannel board props (2 stores) & built them out with Lincoln Logs. No violent play. He seemed to have an easier time with storyline using stores. Worked on looking at animals & other person & not staring off in another direction. Continued to work on movement w/o introduction. Solitary - 9 min. Did nice job w/animals & toy store (some Toy Story stuff but varied). DRO'd holding animals in CENTER of bodies & keeping them on floor. Great clean up. DRO.
P.N. - Keep working hard on holding animals by the MIDDLE of their body & not their mouths.
Really had to work on the above. He needed constant prompting/ reminders. He engaged in violent play w/o frequent redirection. Still narrating all movements. Modeled doing action w/o words explaining action. 11 min solitary [this again is ther who left soon after; she's the one below too -- at this point we had three]
Coop - 12 min. He needed prompts to hold animals in middle but much less than yesterday. DRO More action too. Developed into violent after 10 min. Redirected w/no problem. DRO. Solitary (1st area) - 8 min. He used lots of narration & needed prompts to hold animals, but great job creating stories. Needed redirection from violent themes 2x. Interrupted. Used place card [something they had in school].
Solitary - (indep wk 1st choice) 10 m. DRO'd use of animals by the middle right away. Did nice job throughout play w/this. Told him to talk as little as possible, that I only wanted to see actions (made it seem like a challenge to him). Did pretty well initially but needed prompts throughout. DRO'd when he did it on his own. Used some nice props (e.g., sponge for a towel--came up w/this on his own. DRO'd). No violence. Tried to discourage animals living up in the air (didn't want to draw attn to this). Coop - 16 m. Cool job. I modeled only actions using lots of facial expressions. He was very focused & naturally knew how to respond to my characters/animals. Heavy DRO. He also did much more actions & used narration occasionally. DRO. Play was calm, e.c. was great. DRO.
Coop - 11 min (1st choice Indep Wk) - Continued w/[above ther]'s focus on minimizing talking & working on actions -- DRO'd holding animal in middle. Needed 1 or 2 prompts to not hold mouth. Some rigidity. DRO'd flexibility. Solitary - 6 min - Needed prompt to have animals look at ea other. DRO'd holding in middle. Needed prompt to use his own voice. Worked on having animals face ea other & talk to ea other rather than being up in the air.
P.N. - Animals must face each other when initiating. See [ther]'s notes above.
Coop - 9 min. (Area Choice 1) He suggested we play "three little pigs". Cont'd w/[ther]'s and [ther]'s above targets. We weren't allowed to talk, only act. He did well. Needed a couple reminders to make animals face each other & to hold them by the middle of their bodies. Needed modeling to make them stay on the floor when running.
Solitary - 5 min. A little resistant to starting play on his own. Needed lots of reminders to talk less (he did lots of narrating initially). He held back on really developing a storyline b/c he wanted me to join him. Also was trying to direct me to be the pig or lion, etc. (could come across as bossy or pushy to another kid). I refused to be what he assigned. Coop - 10 min. Used a lot of modeling of actions & emotions to get him in the swing of it. I didn't respond to him when he talked too much. This seemed as a cue for him to ACT behaviors of the animals. DRO'd whenever I could.
Solitary - 6 min (1st area choice). Needed prompt to sit up when playing (laying head on ground) and hold one animals at a time. Again, lots of talking. I redirected by asking him what movie the animals could all be in & he can act out a scene like in the movie. DRO'd action & movement. Still needed prompts to have animals talk to ea other (looking). DRO'd holding in the middle. Coop - 10 min. Continued w/variation from Drama drill. Nice job. DRO'd holding animal in middle. Still some probs having animal facing ea other & keeping them on floor. DRO'd this whenever I saw it. Beautiful, quick clean up.
Solitary - 3 min. max of play w/o prompting. Lots of probs w/clicking animals together & noises & tactile stim on animals. Had to stop numerous times. Coop - 10 min. Played variation of Shepherd & the Wolf. DRO'd holding animal in middle, keeping it on floor, looking/ facing animal it was talking to. DRO'd good clean up.
Solitary - 7 min (1st area). He was very imaginative w/my suggestions today. Talked a lot and wouldn't stop. Lots of noises & movement. Had to give him a T.O. for not listening 1st time & not answering me when I called his name. Didn't do Cooperative b/c he was demanding it in too a rude & bossy way.
Solitary - 5 min. Needed some prompts to use his own voice. His rule - must always use dinos and wolf. Didn't use these things. Nice clean up. Coop - good. 14 min. HE was able to interject his own appropo play following my lead - flexible & on target. Nice. DRO'd using his own voice & holding animals in middle & facing ea. other & walking them on floor.
Coop - 20 min!!!! Really focused on animal & people interaction & staying away from predator/prey themes. Worked really well & followed my lead based on my "actions" & people behavior (i.e., man in car driving through safari said he hoped giraffe would come closer so he could take a photo -- then he brought the giraffe over). Big DRO for listening to my "message"s. Nice exchanging of roles. First he handed me animals, then I did. Very flexible. DRO.
Coop - 11 min. Theme was farm. He played animal parts. I was farmer. Worked on doing farm things (i.e., feeding animals, milking cows, shaving wool off lamb, etc.). He did nice job of following lead & staying within farm theme. Held animals in middle. DRO. Solitary - 5 min. Started out w/him briefly using "three little pigs" story theme. Did ok initially but I forgot that this was too much of a predator/prey theme, which he happily wanted to do, esp since wolf was involved. I used time to stop before he got too excited.
P.N. - Keep targeting:
Co-operative Play - SHOOT FOR 15 MINUTES
- Create an environment & have activities in that milieu e.g., state fair, barn, zoo, safari, dollhse w/animals as pets, etc. - Always have people in the activity - If he strays remind him where he is ("you're on a farm!") - Do not convert to solitary play (yet)
Solitary Play - KEEP SHOOTING FOR 5 to 7 MINUTES
- Read a story (or part of a story) where animals are central - Act out your story CO-OPERATIVELY w/his animal & fade back, allowing him to play on his own. - If he strays, re-join him.
KEEP AWAY FROM PREDATOR/PREY THEMES.
Coop - 11 min. Museum w/dinos & people. Needed a couple of reminders about where he was, but came up w/ some nice story lines. Needed prompts for correct holding of people & animals. E.C. between dolls is getting much better. DRO! Solitary - "Horton Hatches The Egg" - I faded after story had been set up. He quickly changed story to violent theme. Prompted him back on track. Needed prompts to use real voice. Needed occasional prompts to stay on track. DRO'd holding people & animals correctly. Making noises after I told him to stop. Treated like "I must talk" -- put up my finger & stress inoculation (when he was trying to explain). He put his hand up & kept talking. T.O. - valid & apology.
Coop - 10 min. Circus - Barbie & Ken performers in circus. He's still having difficulty when focus isn't completely on animals. Keeps shifting to animals & needs to be shifted back. Eye contact better & less prompting needed to hold animals. Still working on keeping people/animals on floor. Solitary - 5 min. The Little Elf. Needed prompt to stay w/story, then DRO'd this. Getting better at using people & animals. Needed prompt to hold properly. DRO nice e.c.
Coop - 11 min. - Theme was a "country picnic" where people can go horseback riding. Had to stop play a couple of times b/c he got carried away w/lady bug role -- too much flying, etc. Wouldn't listen to prompts from my characters -- debriefed him on acting & listening to characters for cues. Held animals nicely. DRO Voice needed some reminders to keep it gentle. Solitary - Read Polar Bear book - Baby bear gets lost & travels all over before he makes it home again. Started out helping him get props & lead him to story--then faded. Had to use a few verbal prompts when he played alone to keep him flowing w/the story. Overall he did OK. Held animals well. Good actions but a bit dependent on having/looking to me for guidance.
Coop - 16 min. Theme was a forest & woodcutters were heading in to chop up some trees. Forest animals were watching what went on. He had a prob initially w/my playing the animals parts b/c he wanted to be the wolf (what else?) Got him to be flexible about it. DRO. I also took the focus off of wolf role. Used other animals more. He was good at picking up on my cues & getting out this character. Had to stop one x b/c he got aggressive & silly purposely. Once we cont'd again, he did nice job w/participation & listening. Held toys nicely. DRO.
Coop - 11 min. Variation of house w/dolls & 1 animal (house pet). He was holding dolls much better. DRO & DRO e.c. & staying on topic. Still some trouble when focus isn't on animal. Tried to make other content exciting & DRO focus on dolls. Solitary - 5 min. Magic School Bus Hops Home - Great attn. Helped him structure himself in the beg with leading ?s -- Who is the teacher? Where are they? etc. Did a very nice job acting out 1st scene of the story.
Solitary - 6 1/2 m. Bambi. Used 1st 5 pp. of bk. DRO'd following story & holding animals. Needed prompt not to make noises.
Coop - 12 min. w/[brother]. Played petting zoo -- His doll was the tour guide - Animals just stood there & people were focus of action. Really nice job. He had harder time going along w/[brother]'s actions. DRO'd trading off with [brother -- at this time his brother was had just turned 3].
Coop - 12 min. Played "farming" using people & animals. He pretended to be the animals. I was farmer. Great job listening to farmer & acting out w/the animals (e.g., OK sheep, you can go into the field to eat). He was picking up on cues really well. DRO. Eye contact & body were great. Held animals nicely. DRO. Solitary - 8 min. Started w/him 1st two minutes acting out "Zack's Alligator" (we read book first), then I faded myself out. He followed storyline for a couple of min before requiring a few prompts to stick to story (generally). Held animals nicely. DRO. Also used a nice tone.
Solitary - He asked to play "Jungle Book" - Told him I didn't know the story but he could at it out & put on show for me. He did a great job setting up the scene & using animals/person to do the dialogue. 8 minutes of acting and 4 minutes of set up! Needed two prompts for holding animals. Beautiful job. Coop - 10 min w/[brother]. Played house. He had hard time staying w/the story b/c he got caught up in props.
Coop - 12 min. Animals/Dolls/Trains. Dolls were going on a trip & animals guided them to trains. I really exaggerated my doll's movements to get him to look at her when his dolls was talking to her. Nice job holding doll & animal. Good flow of activity. DRO. Solitary - Dinner at Panda Palace (book). Needed prompts to not have animals walk on his body. Space bubble. 5 min set up & 10 min play, but with prompting needed for holding animals. DRO'd acting out & using dialogue.
Coop - 12-15 min. w/[brother] and I. Used train tracks, people & animals. Pretended people were headed on a trip. Train falls off the tracks. People get hurt, etc. Animals try to help them. Needed prompt to hold animals & train nicely. Seemed a bit zoney sometimes. Wasn't listening to convers or acting part of play. Shaped up towards end. Was a little distracted by [brother]. Tried to model soft voice for him (he was loud).
Coop - 16 min. - Really nice job. We used the dollhouse & domestic pets. Little kid wanted to buy pet puppy. Great job w/acting & dialogue. Held animals & characters appropriately; occasionally required prompts to keep characters on floor & not in air. Good job picking up on cues & guiding me w/his own original ideas. Heavy DRO for this. Solitary - 7 min. Happy B'day Mickey book. Started out with him setting up a Mickey character, pretend cake, etc. He found B'day hats to use as props. DRO. Needed some reminders to stick to a storyline a little better (i.e., Minnie threw the party -- it was a surprise). I faded out quickly & he cont'd on his own. Started to get a little silly. That's when I called "time to stop". He had no prob w/it (sorry, I forgot animals have to be primary characters in Solitary play).
Coop - 17 min. Hunters going to forest to hunt deer. We alternated who played people & who played animals. Nice job picking up on cues. Held animals/people nicely. DRO. Wanted to do woodpecker a bit too much. Stopped when I asked him to. DRO. Solitary - Animals were primary. Situation was jungle w/a railroad passing on the side. Started out with him & then faded out after 2 min. Needed prompts to use more language rather than animal noises. Also had to remind him to act play out more. Needed one reminder to stop singing. 6 min. Clean up turned into a prob--he refused to do it on his own. Whined & rudely said he's not going to do it. Kept talking. Got T.O. for it. He was pretty mad. Yelled & said he was mad at me in particular for giving him a T.O. Cleaned up after T.O. w/o any qualms.
P.N. - NO PREDATOR / PREY THEMES!!!!
P.N. - Appropriate "Cooperative Play" is 20 min. w/2 or 3 children in small group situations for a 5 year old.
Solitary - Hiccups for Elephant (book). Needed prompt for holding animals in ctr. 3 min set up. Had some trouble remembering story line. I needed to feed him some of the dialogue & this helped him to keep the action moving. He didn't use narration. DRO! 8 min. Played zoo w/[brother] - 10 min. Had to work on space bubble. Prob. staying off [brother]. Good use of dialogue & movement. Followed story line well.
Coop - w/[brother]. Barbie pool. He had a hard time focusing on the dolls. Was stuck on the props. He was the daddy & it was his job to watch the other dolls. This helped somewhat, but he was still only able to do about 5 min. Kept moving away from storyline to play w/props or splash water. Solitary - Three Little Pigs. Needed prompting for holding figures. Great use of movement. No narration! Yay! 9 min. Lots of DRO.
Coop - 23 min! I stretched this out to the max. Stopped a couple of times to remind him to sit up straight (keeps lying down to floor level to be w/characters -- is this ok? Seems like most kids do this). I let him lay down a couple of times but once he seemed to "drift", I interrupted. Acting & conversation was really good. Theme was a b-day party. He was picking up on some great cues (verbal & physical). I tried to make the play a group thing, i.e., 5 kids, playing, planning, etc. He was very engaging & came up with original ideas and comments. Had a quiet body, held figures nicely (we also used pets in house). DRO'd eye contact & paying attn. Solitary - 6 min. Circus. Too many animal noises. Needed prompts to stop overdoing it. Didn't let it continue for long. Used "time to stop".
P.N. - Cooperative: We're drifting away from creating a theme environment where animals are involved. Please reread [date] sheets on this.
Solitary - Peter & the Wolf. 1st two pages. 7 min. Needed prompts for holding animals & having them look at ea other. No narration. Needed prompts to not get stuck on making animal sounds. DRO'd using words & actions. Coop - 12 min. Animal talent show w/[brother]. Different animals showed judges their talent. He did nice job. Good at waiting his turn & paying attn. Good job holding animals. We had to stop b/c [brother] couldn't wait his turn & his animal forgot where he was. Discussed.
Coop - 13 min. Animals (horse & dog) had to go see the vet. Farmer took them to animal hospital, he played the doctor. Dog was sick & horse had a broken ankle. [Brother] was with us -- tried to use him as a model, esp. personal space. [Big brother] was pretty flexible with [little bro], picked up on cues & conversation and gave some intelligent diagnoses & remedies for the animals. Nice job holding animals when he checked them. Treated them like a horse & a dog (i.e., he didn't converse with them). DRO.
P.N. - Role Play dog in class -- Monday a dog named Ruff will be there. If possible, get him to look forward to meeting Ruff
Coop - 20 min w/brother role-played classroom situation. Brought Ruff to school. Went into dog behavior & possible meaning behind it (e.g., licking, barking, etc.). He was good at coming up w/ideas. When asked if he's excited about meeting the dog on Mon., and if he'd touch him or allow him to lick, he said "no...I'm afraid".
P.N. - [ther name] - see notes re: "Ruff" the dog (previous page). Talk to him about the real even of his coming to school & then role play tomorrow's dog visit. "Sparky" is coming to school on Tuesday.
Did role play as part of PRETEND (see notes there). Coop - Animal Olympics. Worked on moving animals around course. DRO'd great holding & moving of animals. Dialogue is in and is great. 14 min. Needed prompt for eye contact. Solitary - 10 Apples On Top (book). Needed prompt to hold animal w/o touching it's teeth. Otherwise nice job. 8 min.
Coop - 19 min. Great job. Tourists went to see animals in jungle. Nice people & animal interaction. Modeled lots of holding people & turning them towards ea other when they talked. Picked up nicely on physical & verbal cues -- DRO. Cleaned up/put away toys very nicely. DRO. Solitary - Peter & the Wolf. Spent about 10 min w/him before he cont'd in solitary play - he was getting a little too stuck on the details of the story, i.e. exact wording & insignificant sequence of story. Tried to get him to be a little more flexible before he cont'd on his own. Played about 4-6 min in solitary - told him to wrap it up b/c we were running late. DRO'd not getting too carried away w/the wolf.
Coop - 17 min. Nice job. He set up train tracks--amazing. Really great joining tracks, etc. Pretended to play a traveling circus. Had to load animals in trains. Commute to new circus site & then unload. Had train accident on the way and one animal got hurt. He did great job picking up on cues and knew what to do; i.e., call the doctor, take care of the animal, etc. DRO'd his not getting carried away w/animals or trains. Nice acting. Solitary - I don't know if this counts, but I let him continue w/ above theme but added more animals to his play. He was more interested in the trains. Needed prompts to pick up animals. Did OK w/play, except that it wasn't predominantly animals - 8 min.
Solitary - 10 min. Jungle animals met forest animals. He was calm about everything. Got to use wolf after I debriefed him about being stuck on howling, etc. Nice job handling animals & acting ea part. Prompted him a couple of times to hold them better. DRO'd quiet tone. Coop - 15 min. Very stuck at first on wanting to use them in Pretend & yesterday. He was flexible about it. Played animal fair. Children go on rides & visit/feed the animals. Got a little carried away w/animal noises. Stopped when I said cut it out. Used global DRO.
Solitary - Peter Pan - 3-4 min. at most w/o wandering off task & tactile stim on dolls. Coop - 9 min. Same probs as above, but shaped duration.
Played shipwreck.
Solitary - Horton Hatches the Egg. DRO'd holding animals in middle & having them face ea other. Nice job with dialogue.
Coop - 13 min. DRO'd holding animals & e.c. Much better w/ following leads & staying in the action.
Solitary - The Adventures of Taxi Dog. Setting up was good but he got too carried away with acting the dog part. Too much "licking", barking, etc. Needed prompts not to overdo it. Had a hard time taking prompts today. Told him to stop b/c he was overdoing it. Lasted 7 min.
Coop - 13 min. Started out rough b/c he wasn't answering 1st time. Upset b/c he didn't have his choice of what to play (b/c he didn't answer). I chose trip to safari -- once I started to act out, he became interested & joined in. Nice job listening at first but wasn't flexible. Kept wanting to change rules, dialogue, etc.
Referenced to similar situation that occurred in school. Needed prompts to hold people & animals closer to floor. Cleaned up nicely & quickly but needed prompt.
Coop - Played desert. 14 min. Nice job. DRO'd holding animals, staying in char & dialog.
Solitary - Goldilocks & the Three Bears. DRO'd staying in char & correct holding of animals. Nice job w/action & dialogue. 8 min.
P.N. - See notes in General about his going off on tangents from his own life. Remind him not to bring in things from his own life but to make things up & use the things YOU make up as well. Notes please. [me-listers: sometime soon I'll go through our "General" notes section -- one entry was written by ea therapist for every session we had EVER--and type out all the Parent Notes, something that might be very useful to many. I believe lots of global (i.e., across drills) strategies were delineated there. There's more than a loose-leaf full]
Only Coop today w/[playdate]. Spent 15 min. & 25 min. playing w/jungle theme (people visiting animals there). First 15 min consisted mostly of the two deciding or trying to decide on what to "play" --- [Son's name] tried to direct EVERYTHING! (i.e., "let's play dinosaurs", etc.) I let them play as naturally as possible but once I saw him directing, I prompted [playdate] to reel him in to his ([playdate]'s) play. He had a hard time accepting this and needed some prompts to listen to [playdate] 1st time. Did a nice job holding animals very well. [Playdate] DRO'd him naturally about his play. 2nd part - He went off on his own for a good 12 min. Didn't pay attn. to [playdate] in terms of Coop play. Needed prompts to listen & do things a different way (i.e., other person's way). Asked him to be flexible. This seemed to work a bit. [Playdate] managed to get him to play w/him last 10-12 min. He fluctuated between calm play and predator play. [Playdate] suggested animals with opened mouths are yawning, not growling (pretty cool suggestion!). One thing that really stood out was that he paid attn. to [playdate] when he was explaining why animals yawn or why people want to pet animals. Golden Rule came up when [playdate] said if you treat the animals nicely, i.e. - pet instead of bite, then they will treat you nicely. DRO and praise.
Farm animals & people. I stood back first & watched. [Playdate] was good at asking/including him in everything he did. -- i.e., building farm w/blocks. He had difficulty joining [playdate] in tasks that were tedious or that required time & patience (blocks). He sort of went on his own. Got stuck on Daffy Duck being a farm animal wanting to "transform" himself. His acting was exaggerated. [Playdate] prompted him to not play "crazy". He listened to this and praised him for acting more calmly. As far as storyline goes, he wasn't really following any. Neither was [playdate]. They mostly performed actions of farm animals & farmers (i.e., taking care of some animals). Lasted 15 min. Both cleaned up nicely!
P.N. - Need notes regarding his going off on tangents from his own life or narrating Coop play.
Solitary - Three Little Pigs - 8 min. Needed prompting for holding animals & e.c. Nice following of story line. Got carried away w/ noise when wolf ate pig. Needed control prompt. DRO'd self-control. Coop - Played jungle animals - visit their friends in the zoo. 16 min. Lots of work on holding animals & looking. He had hard time keeping fingers away from their mouths. Moved to action & quick movement to shape him away from adding extra off-the-topic dialogue (e.g., "he's my brother") that took away from the action. Worked on staying w/ the main idea.
P.N. - [Ther. below], please read [above ther initials/above entry date] carefully.
Solitary - Corduroy - 7 min. Needed lots of prompting to begin. Had hard time following storyline which wasn't really too difficult. He kept wanting me to stay & play w/him. I provided initial assistance i.e., helping him out with props & setting up. He wouldn't take it any further. When he tried he didn't stay focused on main idea of story. Coop - 13 min. - w/[brother] who was great role model. He did lots of nice natural play w/me, responded to my ?s, etc. Pretended we were in desert taking pictures of lizards & kangaroos. He didn't hold animals correctly despite prompts & even a warning. Kept wanting to make play aggressive w/predators. Had to stop him a few times. Acting was uncontrolled & exaggerated. I had him stop & watch last 4 min so that he would learn. Tried to keep actions quick & dialogue at a minimum like [above ther/above entry date].
Coop - 25 min. Had to stop & start a lot b/c we used train tracks w/people & animals. He had hard time using them. Wouldn't take prompts or listen to story line (people traveling and watching animals eating in fields). Very stuck on the tracks & trains. Wouldn't hold people or animals correctly. [Brother] was there -- Megan used him as model. He was upset when it was time to stop...wanted to leave train tracks out, etc. Actions were down as well as conversation. Think he needs to play w/train tracks an entire day until he's bored w/them. He's too stuck.
P.N. - No...he needs to listen to grown-ups now [there was an earlier time in therapy when we would have left them out to desensitize, but I think we felt that this was too late in the game to do this].
Solitary - 8 min. Shy Little Horse (in yellow compilation book). Much better holding animals & people. Still some frenzied moving w/animals, but only momentarily & he gets himself back on track. Nice job. Good use of action -- didn't intro unimportant details. Coop - 14 min. Barbie & Ken let their pets go back to the jungle. Great job holding animals & person. E.C. w/dolls still not great -- DRO'd when I got it. Followed along nicely & interjected his own parts appropriately.
Coop - 26 min. Really nice. George & Mary go the pet store to buy pet -- used dogs & a lizard as pets. Great job holding animals & paying attn. Listened carefully & watched actions. He didn't go off the topic & he kept to nice quick actions. E.C. very good. Silly behavior stopped right away w/one prompt. DRO & heavy praise for self-control.
Coop - 12 min. [Ther. friend], Megan, [brother] and I. Megan directed everything. "Trip to the Zoo" was the theme. He wasn't paying attn. to the whole plan, characters, animals, etc. (i.e., not entering the play). Stopped & debriefed. He joined in but wanted to direct himself, kept changing ideas, etc. She debriefed him whenever issues like this came up. Focused on what he could have done better, etc. (i.e., constantly debriefed). It seems like a lot of the play ended up being about how to play instead of actually playing; it's slowly building up quality.
P.N. - I want you to keep up what I was doing.
Work hard on his following other people's ideas
Direct Cooperative Play 100% (same strategies as Pretend/ Fantasy w/props). DRO if he injects something appropriate.
- Work on QUALITY over duration (shape)
If he tries to reel you into Solitary & turn it into Cooperative now, let him.... He needs more work now in Coop.
- Have [brother] join him a lot (work on instigating/egging on and sharing ideas)
Coop - 15 min. Very on with Coop today. Pretended to shop for a pet. I directed 100% and he came up w/a couple of great ideas. Heavy praise & I used his ideas (i.e., house and cats). For house, he pretended to fold paper like a fan to make stairs as a prop(!) Sharing ideas was very good. Accepted everything I said. Nice "picturing" things and used animals very appropriately -- occasionally had to be told to hold an animal or person better. E.C. between characters was great. Solitary - 8 min. After Coop where we bought cats, I let him take them home & continue on his own (how to take care of them, feed them, litter box, etc. -- man in the store gave a lesson about Pet Care). Didn't ask to be joined! Played nicely except for holding animals/characters. Needed reminder. DRO'd globally - i.e., great job.
Coop - 10 min. Animal show & tell. Animals brought in their owners to class. Did this w/[brother]. I directed 100% & used [brother] as a model of following me. He did a very nice job. DRO'd sharing ideas & picturing a good ending to the story. Nice turn- taking after prompt. Ignored [brother]'s request -- worked on this & praised him when he listened. Used global DRO for holding animals, good e.c., and getting [brother]'s message. No probs accepting my direction & he used my example nicely when it was his turn. DRO great job. Solitary - I told a story about a zebra & a frog (sorta like a fable) and acted it out w/animals as I told it. Then I let him do it. He was highly motivated & did a great job. 6 min. Global praise.
Coop - 12 min. Really nice - No probs accepting my ideas & very nice observation. Went along w/whatever I orchestrated. Took turns using different animals. Global praise. Excellent job holding animals too! Solitary - 8 min. Let him continue on his own (we pretended to go to a horse show). He played a few minutes before invited me back. Needed help holding horses & people. Modeled doing things one at a time.
Coop - Megan, [Brother], him and I - 17 min. together. Nice job. [Brother] was great! Spoke in low voice. I modeled a lot for him on how to speak softly. [Name] was also soft-spoken but needed reminders once in a while. Nice job handling animals and people. [Brother] was great at coming up w/lines. We pretended to be in the woods with many animals. People were visiting forest and cutting down trees. At first he was rigid and only wanted to be a wolf. I let [brother] interact a lot but I always directed, commented and DRO'd [brother] for "great" ideas. He finally was more flexible and allowed [brother] to be the wolf. [Bro] did wonderful job modeling a "nice" wolf. [Name] seemed impressed. He went along w/acting & dialogue. I faded myself out & let them continue together for 10 min more. Great! Perfect voice and he used people well. Some interesting themes came up with his play (e.g., at one point he had girl lying down and when [bro] went to talk to her he said "she's dead") [Brother] was great - probed [Name] often. "Why is she dead?" He said the "lizard killed her". He WASN'T doing a predator theme here. This seemed very different. His affect was calm & pensive. Thought it was interesting.
Coop - 14 min. [Brother] joined us. We played circus. Used lots of props. [Bro] was trying to instigate & egg him on but he resisted. DRO. He was a nice model. Voice was a little loud; modeled & prompted him to use "inside" voice. DRO when he did. Held animals nicely & followed my ideas even though he didn't want to at first. I let him throw out some ideas & used one or two to model sharing of ideas. Good job. Sitting still was ok & he used nice actions. At the end he exaggerated a little too much (i.e., stamped w/elephant too long). "Cut it out" worked.
Solitary - 6 min. I told story of tiger & horse & man and acted it out. Then he had turn to act it out. Then he watched [bro] do the same thing. He held the animals and doll very nicely w/much better e.c. Needed prompt not to smash animals together (closed down & he started again). This worked well.
Coop - 21 min. Dinosaurs & people. People visited museum. Great job holding animals, people & watching what I was doing. E.C. between dolls was fantastic. Didn't stray off subject. Listened nicely to story & stuck w/it. At the end he asked if he could change the story a bit and I let him & encouraged his ideas b/c they were good. He didn't get silly. Put away toys nicely but needed reminder. Global DRO & praise.
Solitary - 8 min. He started on his own -- wanted to pretend people were in the forest w/animals. A little lazy and wasn't listening to prompts to act. Kept narrating & did some persev banging & growling of animals I joined him & modeled some calmer play before we stopped.
Coop - About 12 min. He was very sensitive (started to cry) when I didn't play w/jungle animals. Told him it was a good idea but I had already told him we were playing w/farm animals & class trip visit. He was stubborn about joining me but once he did, it was ok. Nice handling dolls, paying attn., and acting. He was a little silly and wanted to interject some silly ideas in the play, but I directed away from that sort of stuff, esp predator theme.
P.N. - Take others' ideas.
Coop - People riding animals on a trail. He had hard time focusing on the person & not having the animals talk. Some smashing together of person & animal. Shut down & restarted drill. Used global praise when things were going well. When he was involved in the story (action), he came up with some good ideas (built on mine as well--others' ideas), but after 3 or 4 min he would drift again & I would have to stop & restart. Solitary - Took turns w/me & [bro] acting out a story w/animals. Still needed prompting to keep storyline & not stray off into violent themes. Held animals very well. Global praise. 4 min.
Coop - 22 min. Megan played with us for first 6 min. Preservation Society was looking for a looking for a lose wolf. He had trouble accepting our ideas in the beg. Needed prompts & reminders to follow along w/the story. Some were needed to hold dolls on the floor. During some parts he took the lead and acted really well w/animals & dolls. DRO. Became more flexible w/accepting ideas and not straying off topic.
Coop - 18 min. Tiger escapes circus to go back home to jungle. He did well w/holding animals/people. First 4 min really nice job, followed my ideas and directions. Towards the end he wanted some of his ideas in. I was flexible, let him have some of his ideas in the play. He has a hard time taking the role of someone who is the "loser" or "villain", etc. in play. Seems to project himself onto the character. I went over this w/him, told him that it's not a reflection of himself, etc. Referenced this w/school & playing with friends. Spoke about flexibility of different roles. Storyline was good until the end when he again wanted to do things his way.
Coop - 12 min w/[brother]. Played animal trainer. Alternated being trainer & animals. He had some probs following [bro]'s directions (they weren't very good directions though). He had his animal jumping up and down (out of context) when [bro] tried to direct his doing something else. Shut down activity. Resumed & used global praise when [name] was involved. Overall nice job. Involved in play, held animals/people well. E.C. between characters has improved immensely. Global praise.
Coop - 21 min. Really good job. Worked w/[bro] too. Played "jungle animals make friends w/tourists". He was very cooperative -- followed ideas & held animals/people very well. [Bro] did great job too. [Name] included him well in his play. Global DRO. Cleaned up nicely with [bro]. Great model.
Solitary - 7 min. In the living rm. A little stuck on firetruck & having boy climb up and down ladder. Cut it out worked but I had to say it 2x before he stopped. Held toys nicely. Needed reminder to use lower ("morning") voice. Coop - 15 min. Picked up with him after solitary play. Tried to work on his playing the character who had a "flaw" or "weakness" or did something "wrong". He had a hard time accepting this and got sensitive about being the "loser". Tried to explain that HE'S not the loser, that no one is b/c it's just pretend/play, etc. Gave him ideas of what to say in situations where he's not the "hero", etc. I think he's getting it.
Coop - 11 min. Played w/zoo animals & people. Was good at picking up cues I was giving. Held animals nicely but got a little carried away w/noises & not following my ideas. Needed to stop a couple of times to remind him how to play & share ideas.
Coop - 16 min. w/[brother] used animals & people. He was a little loud. Modeling voice and tone helped. Nice job following ideas and holding animals. Good model for [bro]. Didn't egg him on -- Global DRO and praise. Nice e.c. between animals & betwn people. Didn't make weird noises. Good clean-up.
Coop - 14 min -- with Megan & [bro]. Sea animals. He did great job. Held animals appropriately w/good e.c. Followed our leads & elaborated appropriately. No noises & no destructive play. Tons of global praise.
Coop - 23 min. Jungle animals & dinosaurs. Excellent calm body and really nice job following ideas and directions. Held animals well, responded to cues & had great voice throughout play. Global DRO & pointed out the specifics (of his play) that was great at the end. Needed one prompt to clean up.
Coop - w/broth kids. 12 min. Animals Circus. Good. He held animals nicely, DRO & praise for being a good model for brother. A few reminders needed for softer voice. I modeled for him.
Coop - 32 min. Very nice. Played with both of them. People went on trip to New Zealand to go snorkeling in the ocean. Pretended to have very friendly fish, turtles, etc. Great job holding animals & following directions. Voice volume was good. Worked on talking slower. Used lots of props imaginatively -- DRO. He was a good model for [brother]. Lots of praise.
Coop - 15 min. We had to stop b/c he had trouble focusing on play. Kept straying to play w/props & not following leads. Played w/3 characters & ocean animals. He kept moving away from his char to be ocean animals & strayed away from action. Discussed this and he got it.
Pretended to play in forest -- used forest animals. Went over the "things" forest animals do -- i.e., eat, play, sleep, eat, etc. He held them nicely -- lots of DRO. Nice job w/wolf and not getting carried away w/predator theme. Followed my ideas & brother's too. Good flexibility. Used "people" characters very appropriately. DRO.
Coop - we played using more people this time. Very nice job. Held them really well; excellent job picking up on cues & acting appropriately. Pretended two sisters were on train. One got hurt, etc. Carried play on for a solid 22 min. No weirdness at all. He was very engaged & had some bright ideas that he shared. Lots of praise. Solitary - 7 min. After coop, I let him continue on his own. No probs. Voice was great. He stuck with coop theme and had a nice closure for his story. Cleaned up nicely. DRO & praise.
Played with dinosaurs w/me and brother. He had hard time today. Needed prompts for voice & to stay w/activity. Got stuck on Lego props (window & door) and left the game we were playing. 12 min. Discussed leaving activity and then started again for a short positive interaction to complete.
Coop with me and brother. 12 min. He needed prompts to keep focus on the action and not get distracted by the props (school bus). He also had hard time with space. Dolls were on top of ea other. Once he got into the play, this was less of a prob. I tried to fade myself later & have him and [bro] play together, but this wasn't a great idea (except for a chance to discuss compromising) and it didn't really go anywhere Solitary - 6 min. He played with Magic School bus characters. Needed prompts to set up. Also had chars on top of ea other. Action was minimal -- almost all dialogue.
P.N. - No.....that WAS a good idea. You should fade & observe as often as possible to take his temperature.
Coop - w/[brother] and I used jungle animals & people. [Bro] was in and out of the play. He handled this distraction nicely. Didn't have much of an opportunity to observe the two of them playing together b/c [bro] kept leaving. He was well-behaved, held all toys well, global DRO. Didn't get carried away with any behaviors. Some trouble paying attn. to me when I played -- i.e., here and there he wouldn't answer my people on first try. Cleaned up nicely. Praised.
Played variation of Land Before Time. He had hard time following [bro]'s action. He had his own scripts & tried to make [bro] follow, disregarding [bro]'s ideas. Prompted him & redirected him to follow [bro]'s ideas & not to be so stuck to his own script. He followed nicely when I was leading. Needed 1 prompt for space between animals. Held animals nicely. Later we played with Barbies. He followed nicely when I was playing but when I faded he didn't go along with [bro] -- he went off on his own tangent. Much better e.c. & space w/human figures than with animals.
Coop - 17 min. Just the 2 of us -- nice job. Listened to ideas, held animals & people very well, came up w/some really cute acts, very spontaneous & connected to theme of play which was people buying pets, UPS delivery and neighbor takes care of them when they are away. Space between animals didn't seem to be a problem. e.c. was fine during play and voice was great.
16 min. Played w/figures & cars. Characters went to school & then went over to ea other's houses & played basketball. He did a really nice job. I faded & he played w/[brother] for 5 min. Great. Lots of praise.
23 min. Played w/[brother]. Animals & people. Jungle theme and Queen of the Jungle w/powers to cure sick animals & people. Very nice job following my ideas & directions. [Bro] was great too. He held people & animals well. Didn't have oppor to let them play alone b/c [brother] was sick. Overall wonderful play.
18 min. Coop - 1st set up scene. My doll lived on a farm, his in the country. Picked out animals that fit. He got stuck on making cows moo & kept mooing even when they weren't in the action. Discussed this w/Jim at end. Needed some prompting & refocusing to stay on person & not go off track and get stuck on animals.
Played Ms. Frizzle's class visits Jurassic era w/dinos. 23 min. Really great job. No problems touching objects, held people & animals nicely but needed a couple of prompts to hold only one in ea hand. Acting was great, good personal space & e.c. betwn characters & between us these transitions were very smooth. Lots of praise. Voice was fine.
Played animal games with [bro] and me. 16 min. Nice job. He even followed [bro]'s suggestions -- Global praise. Held animals nicely w/good e.c. He came up w/great idea for animals to go on slide. Translated this into movement & he got us involved nicely. Great job.
Played w/animals & people. [Bro] also joined in. I did a same/ different theme (helping [bro]). Used "brown" dolls and different types & colors of animals who wanted to play w/ea other and were rewarded for it. Both kids did good jobs. He held people & animals well -- DRO & praise. Didn't touch small objects and had good e.c.
18 min coop & 5 min solitary. Played Peter & The Wolf. He began with narration but responded to prompting to act it out. Some difficulty w/e.c. between characters, otherwise held figures well. Animal noises were used a few too many times and a bit too loud, but shaped them down & he didn't get carried away. DRO.
Coop - 25 min. Just the two of us. Nice play. Used animals (water) and people. Good job following directions, e.c., and play theme. Behaviors were very good. No weird play w/objects and held toys very well.
Coop - 23 min. Used lizard. Started to talk about tail & how lizard uses it to catch and eat it's prey. I took the focus off the "predator" theme right away by adding people & other animals. He wasn't stuck on this too long (1-2 min) then he quickly started following my directions and got into the theme. Nice job holding animals -- just a little lazy w/people (not making e.c.) and holding them lazily. Needed prompt to pay attn to this.
Solitary - 8 min. - Played with playmobil people & dog & props (small ones) w/me and [bro]. He often got carried away and had figures fly during which time he made some noises. Shaped these down w/prompting at ea occurrence & DRO of quiet appropriate verbalization. Held animals & characters well. No prob w/small objects or props. Coop - 10 min. Good job -- joining independently and very appropriately.
Coop - Only the two of us. Dinosaurs & Toy Story animals. Initially some difficulty focusing. Interested in what animals' names would be & props. Worked on keeping focus & staying w/the action. Needed lots of prompting to not touch ears and mouth of dog. Hard time at end cleaning up without playing. Became oppositional & didn't listen 1st time. Needed T.O. warning to respond to redirection. Putting items away quickly helped to cut down on playing.
Coop - The two of us. Farm animals & farmers. Some trouble holding animals & people -- i.e., facing ea other when conversing. Went off topic a few times. Pointed this out to him right away. He got back on track every time but happened a few times. Towards end he was much better, nice focus, action & following leads. DRO & praise. Good clean-up.
With [brother] and me. Nice calm body and holding was great. DRO. [Bro] was a bit of a challenge (interrupting & acting silly). He was fine interacting with him & teaching him to play better. Nice job w/e.c. between animals. Let them play together while I watched. He was very good -- nice job interacting with [brother]. Came up w/some nice actions & dialogue. DRO'd him for being good model for [bro]. Voice was quiet too.
17 min. With Megan, [brother] and me. Dogs & people. He did nice job w/holding animal. Good e.c. & personal space. [Brother] behaved well. Able to stay w/the action & focusing on the important aspects of play w/o straying. Nice job. Prob stopping play to clean 70. Solitary - 10 min. Needed 1 prompt for space between animals. Needed help developing storyline today.
20 min. Nice job. Dogs and farm animals. Nice following leads and staying on topic. Good actions & helped to clean up.
25 min. Animals & people. Great job. Very nice holding toys & participating in story line. Voice was great, nice sitting, e.c. and cleanup. Space needed a few reminders but prompts worked fine. Nice job.
Coop - 19 min. We set up our own zoo -- he needed some help getting organized and I prompted him to watch what I was doing and get ideas from that. Once the zoos were set up, we ea took 1 character & took the other one on a tour. He participated really well. Went off on tangent once talking about relationship betwn tiger and lion but naturally came back w/glance prompt. Some trouble w/making noises when driving car but stopped w/prompt (seemed natural, but just in case). Really nice job. No trouble w/ some very small objects today. Yay!
25 min. Total 20 Coop; 5 solitary. Excellent job -- forest & jungle animals were friends and people came to meet them. Great holding characters, staying on topic, and e.c. between all characters. Voice was perfect. Needed one prompt to not overdo gorilla sounds. Helped to clean up very nicely. Praise & DRO. Solitary - very nice, cont'd on own from Coop theme.
Solitary - 8 min. Nice. Used airplane, people & animals. Couldn't really hear his conversation, but his actions were great. Stopped (just in case) when he had airplane "shaking" in his hands all over the place. He was flexible. Coop - 13 min. w/[bro] - Thanksgiving dinner w/animals ([bro]'s idea!) and airplane crashing into jungle. He was flexible w/idea sharing. Needed a few reminders to hold only one toy in hand at a time and not two or three. Voice was fine and didn't get loud even though [bro] did. He was respectful and orchestrated some great turn-taking.
Used farm animals -- Animal thanksgiving party w/both of them. He was a little bit rigid w/wanting to make a cat chase the mouse in the barn all the time. Needed a prompt to stop. Otherwise fine, very good following ideas, holding animals and playing w/brother. [Bro] was great! Sang some Txsgiving songs. Both cleaned up nicely. Didn't need prompts.
10 min. Nice & brief -- people went to the animal fair. DRO & praise for ACCEPTING MY IDEA. He was very flexible. Didn't get carried away w/actions. Nice job holding animals & playing gently. Global DRO, esp for being a great model for [brother].
Coop - 12 min & 13 min. Played two themes w/[bro]. 1st one was [bro]'s idea. There was a fire & the animals had to work together to put it out, but [bro] the alligator didn't want them to get to the water. [Name] needed some prompting for e.c. of animals, otherwise really good. Reinforced at end that using [bro]'s idea was fun. Second game played animal Thanksgiving. Really great participation. Flexible use of props. Needed prompt to clean up quietly and stop playing during clean up.
Coop - Played cow hide & seek w/brother. 16 min. Great job. Solitary - Played w/brother. Nice job getting other person's message. Played Xmas - Variation of Txsgiving game played the other day - 8 min.
12 min - animals & people decorate Xmas tree. Nice job. [Bro] was a little impatient and did lots of interrupting. Used [name] as positive model for [bro]. Nice job. No weird touching objects. DRO. Good job following ideas and being flexible. Tried to fade myself a bit to let them play. He did pretty well with this but [bro] tried to provoke him (i.e., took toys and ran o/o room, etc.). [Name] listened to my redirection very nicely. Global DRO & praise.
20 min. Played RESCUE w/Star Wars ship. Story was that we had to rescue animals & people before Darth Vader attacked. He cooperated very nicely. Though it seemed quite normal, got a little carried away w/blasting ship noises, but stopped on his own. No problem holding toys appropriately.
Coop 25 min. - Played with Barbie dolls. He got a little carried away, focusing on props over dolls, dropping his doll & focusing on play food. Stopped action & redirected him. Some strange sound effects & actions. Bread was flying. Stopped action. He was able to be redirected easily. E.C. betwn dolls was somewhat improved when he was holding doll.
25 min - Played w/animals & people. Storyline was a wizard wanted to give T. Rex some potion to turn him evil. Told him to make it that the wizard mistakenly gave T. Rex a GOOD potion. He agreed. Did nice job, followed storyline. Needed some reminders to keep his toys grounded (not in air). [Bro] interrupted a LOT. Tried to shape his behavior by reinforcing everything good he did but it was still difficult. [Name] was very patient w/him. Lots of praise.
Solitary - Used Back to Future car & two dolls to act out some part of movie. Held dolls well. I joined later & strayed somewhat from the storyline. He initially had difficulties and tried subtly to bring me back to the story, but then went along. Great job following my lead & staying focused.
Coop - 12 min. Both kids were a bit tired. This play seemed quieter than usual. Used dolls & animals, held both nicely. Needed some prompting to interact w/ea other. Nice job staying focused on story and using good voice.
Coop - 25 min. Played with both kids. He had lots of good ideas. Had him narrow down so we can focus on one. Needed a few reminders not to pursue any extra ideas. Played with people, animals and spaceship. Woody accidentally discovers aliens in ship while looking for bunnies in the forest (!) Voices were loud w/ both kids needing reminders. [Bro] wandered out of the room 3X when things didn't go his way. DRO'd him when he was flexible. [Name] was extremely patient. DRO. No problems with small objects. Great help cleaning up.
25 min. Both kids -- Used people & animals. Theme was we were going to a baseball game. He stayed focused and on topic. [Bro] needed a few prompts to stay with us. Nice job holding animals correctly. DRO.
Coop - 15 min. Animals & people. His ideas were great. Buddy doll was a giant and other people on planet were afraid at first. Very Gulliver's Travels. Cleaned up nicely. Good job.
Coop - 26 min. Great. Pretended Han Solo was an explorer/ photographer who filmed wolves and then befriended them. Nice job handling characters and animals, stayed on topic and had some great ideas. Lots of praise. Cleaned up nicely. DRO.
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