Santino was seen for session 4 of 4 with this Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) in the "East" Classroom. He appeared pleasant in demeanor and seemed to transition well between sessions as he exchanged photos successfully on his daily, visual schedule with both verbal and physical prompts by this SLP...
Goals for the session included the following: 1. to engage in forming a relationship with Santino that includes regulation and shared attention and interest 2. to enter into two-way , purposeful interactions with gestures and intentional communication 3. to determine highly motivating/favorable, cause and effect activities so that Santino may develop a feeling of control and predict/anticipate what will happen next 4. to imitate predictable action sequences and communication patterns through cause and effect activities 5. to develop single-word requesting behavior via eye gaze, picture exchange and/or verbalization...
As the session commenced, Santino was introduced to the therapy ball and "Hello Song". A sudden shift in demeanor, to what seemed to be "over-arousal", was met with side to side, linear rocking and continued singing for a few minutes. Subsequently, Santino appeared to be regulated and followed a one-step, verbal direction to sit on the stool located at the small table. Assistance was provided for comfort and support. Attempts to engage Santino in each of 2, 20- minute, cause and effect activities were met with visual and tactile inspection of each component. Santino requested via eye gaze and reaching. Attempts to elicit a "yes" gestural response for desired items (i.e."Do you want...?") were unsuccessful. Santino engaged in the patterned action sequences successfully, but did not imitate the communication patterns. For approximately 15-20 minutes between the "sitting" tasks, Santino retired to the rug in the "circle-time" area where he lay on the floor and rubbed his eyes. Attempts to enter into two-way interaction/engagement did not appear as successful as noted in the previous sessions...
The session ended in the typical manner with side to side rocking, in-time with the "Good-Bye" song, followed by removal of the photo successfully from his daily, visual schedule with both verbal and physical prompts from this SLP...
Continue as planned for the next session with a focus on single-word requesting. Santino is a joy to work with!