New Therapist

We had an appointment today with Elizabeth’s new Speech Therapist, Kate. As last week was more of a consultation, today was going to be the first one-on-one session and the test to see how well Elizabeth responded to Kate.

When we went into the therapy room Kate had already set up a PECS board (Picture Exchange and Communication System) with a card for bubbles and a card for a wooden toy with the corresponding items off to the side. Elizabeth settled herself down into one of the large, adult chairs, ignoring the brightly painted children’s chairs. I quietly closed the door, as Elizabeth is usually claustrophobic in small rooms, but she didn’t notice as her eyes were on Kate who settled on the floor in front of her.

Straight off Kate showed Elizabeth the board with the two cards and said in a bright, sing-song voice ‘’Bubbles?’’ She waited for a couple of seconds before dipping the stick into the mixture with exaggerated care and saying “Go” whilst making the corresponding sign before blowing the bubbles. She would then repeat the word “Bubbles” before popping the bubbles “Pop, pop, pop.” The whole scene was very animated and Elizabeth found it absolutely delightful. The wait between “Bubbles?’’ lengthened to see if Elizabeth would initiate the interaction by signing “more’’ and then handing Kate the card for “bubbles” (I had been doing hand-over-hand to show Elizabeth what she needed to do to have more bubbles).

Once Elizabeth started getting bored Kate moved to animal sounds. Showing Elizabeth all sorts of animals and making the sounds for them to see whether Elizabeth would imitate her. She did not but she watched Kate with great interest. It was at this stage Elizabeth realized the door was closed. To quickly divert her Kate pulled out the bubbles again and after three goes Elizabeth started picking up the card to initiate more bubbles. On this happy note the session was ended.

The appointment lasted for forty-five minutes and almost the whole time Elizabeth had her attention on Kate. Kate was actually quite impressed by this as she said most autistic children would usually spend the time pulling her office apart. When Elizabeth was around twelve months of age she loved pulling my books down from the bookcases. Each time I would firmly say “no” and redirect her to her toys (I don’t believe in hitting children). When she realised that she never got reprimanded when she made a mess of her toys she started leaving my books alone. This soon translated to all mummies valuable possessions. Now when she goes to playgroup or a friend’s home she goes off and plays with the toys (well, her version of play) but never pulls objects off shelves or gets into anything she shouldn’t. Of course this doesn’t stop her from looking, I often find her on her tippee toes checking out the contents of a bookcase with the look of mischief on her face.

After such a successful session we have now plan to see Kate on a weekly basis. It is so wonderful to find someone Elizabeth has such a great rapport with. After yesterday’s success at the Playgroup and today’s session, the crying, miserable child Elizabeth was on Monday at the Special School seems a lifetime away.