The session commenced with a strong social reference upon social greet. Visual schedule was shared, he subsequently reached out, touched my picture with his finger and reached for my hand as it was extended to initiate the transition. Familiar "walking " transition song was sung. Santino placed his backpack on the cow pillow following a single presentation of the directive. He rapidly reached for the closed bag of materials once more, and he was quickly redirected to the picture strip placed across his small white binder containing 5 pictured choices. He quickly scanned and removed the picture of the desired item and reached to place it in my hand. Continued use of affirmation and validation of his request was presented and pictures were re-ordered at the close of each repetition of the task and /or new task presentation . Verbal imitation was noted on 12/16 opportunities presented during the picture exchange for the desired activity to include the noun label (bear train/shape game). Social refereeing was noted on 8 of the 12 instances of verbal imitation.
New tasks presented this session resulted in brief periods of increased use of delayed echolalia
( singing the ABC song, scripts from something he'd seen). Joining him in his song and providing T-Touch allowed for increased social referencing during moments of modeling and demonstration of the newer materials, eliciting strong interest. Communicative temptations within tasks were again presented in cycles 6 and 8 with immediate echolalia noted to encode color +object word combinations on 4//6, 3/6,3/6 and 4/6 opportunities. The verbal imitations continue to be heard predominantly upon receipt of the desired item, however, 2/14 were noted in anticipation of the item. This success is significant as it supports the need to shape the focus from reactive based verbalization to proactive initiation of verbalization to request. Classical music, (baroque) was played in the background for the duration of the session.
Session closure was indicated by a familiar clean up song. Santino refrained from reaching for pictured items in order to exchange. Attention was directed to the schedule, with verbal support that "we " were done. He was directed to remove my picture and independently placed it in the pocket. Focus was then placed on "Time for Dorothy," and he immediately turned to the window anticipating her arrival, as "Dorothy, where are you?" was modeled. He subsequently imitated that model 3 times. Strong session.