Santino was seen for session 6 of 6 with this Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) commencing in the "middle" classroom then transitioning to a smaller, individual room on the "North" side of the campus. Santino 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 Miss Christina...His backpack and "cow" pillow were gathered and brought along to the individual classroom...
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 via eye-gaze, picture exchange and/or verbalization...
Upon entrance to the smaller room, Santino appeared to be in search of something. This was assumed to be a highly favorable activity from his session with Miss Lynne the day prior (which this SLP observed). Santino seemed eager to locate the item, but was redirected to the table where 2 cause and effect activities were presented. Santino seemed interested in "Who Lives in This House?". He participated in the action sequence 10 of 10 attempts and requested items via gesture and eye gaze 10 of 10 attempts. Verbalizations to complete the communication pattern were noted 2 of 10 attempts...Santino appeared interested in the window of the door to the room. Attempts to redirect and engage in an action sequence involving the "Balloon Pumper" were successful 3 of 5 attempts. Still, "hyper-focus" on the window was observed. Attempts to redirect Santino with the "Mickey Mouse Pattern Tile Set" were met with rejection. As the session came to a close, Santino engaged once again when singing and side-to-side rocking in time with the "Goodbye Song" began. He exchanged photos successfully on his daily, visual schedule with both verbal and physical prompts from this SLP...Continue as planned with a focus on determining highly desirable cause and effect activities and on exploring options to determine the optimal space for Santino's sessions.