First TEACCH session

A long time ago I requested our family be placed on the list for individualized teaching sessions at TEACCH. The months passed by and we filled our schedules with plenty of other things, so I completely forgot about it. A few weeks ago I was surprised and happy when we received the call saying there was an opening for us.

"These sessions are available to parents of children with autism ages 3-5 (and under 3 who are not able to be served by In-Home Early Intervention program). They provide an opportunity for parents to learn ways of teaching their child at home and to help deal with behavior problems, self-help and other skills including communication and social skills. Sessions are time-limited and scheduled once a week, typically for 4-6 sessions."

Today was Henry's first session. As I watched behind the two-way mirror and a specialist explained to me what was happening, Henry was evaluated throughout a series of tasks both easy and challenging. His specialist, based on knowledge I had already given her as well as how Henry performed today, ascertained his strengths and weaknesses in order to develop a plan of structured teaching and learning we can implement for him at home.

The specialist with me was pleased and impressed to see Henry's academic strengths and language skills, as well as his flexibility - a core area of weakness for folks with ASD. He also made great eye contact unless he was becoming overwhelmed or disengaged with an activity, which is completely expected. He had coordinated hand movement (using both hands to complete a task, such as opening a zipper pouch). He followed picture directions and sequences. He could scan lots of visual information and choose the right thing without being overstimulated. And on and on. Mindy repeated often how pleased she was to see this or that; I couldn't help but beam with pride!

We saw the areas for improvement that I expected:

1. Abstract questions (What makes you angry?) are more difficult than concrete questions (Are you angry?). 

2. Writing is difficult and undesirable but made tolerable when connected to trains. We'll learn how to incentivize him to practice. (A picture of Percy next to lines to fill in Percy's name.) 

3. Explaining why someone is upset/happy/confused/etc. in context (not just how their face appears) is difficult. 

4. Asking others questions about themselves isn't an innate skill. ("Yes, I like the beach, Molly. Do you like the beach?") We'll work on using all his language to practice social skills.

I am overjoyed at how far Henry has come in the last 16 months of speech and occupational therapy. We have been implementing some TEACCH concepts too, like picture schedules, left-to-right "work," and countdowns to transitions, but these individualized sessions will give Keith and I even more opportunities to help Henry excel.