We worked on identifying the letter P today, using a sensory tactile bean bag educational toy to engage Santino's attention. I had Santino squeeze the bag, which is filled with small white beads and various objects that begin with the letter 'P'. I clearly named the object that rose to the surface of the window of the bag when he squeezed it, and reinforced Santino for repeating the word, or for approximating it verbally. The objects in the toy included such items as a pumpkin, pizza, pretzel, pineapple, pear, pig, purse, and the letter 'p' itself. Santino enjoyed squeezing the bag and examining the different objects. He verbally repeated 2 of the items, but prompts were necessary to elicit the desired verbal responses. He repeated the words pineapple and pizza following prompts. I matched some of the items in the bag with real objects from the toy bin to reinforce and consolidate gains. We ended the session by playing some of Santino's favorite rhymes and songs, acting out the Hokey Pokey and clapping and skipping along with the Baby Shark song.

Jack enjoyed listening to the story, 'How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?'. We talked about good behavior and inappropriate behavior in the book. With leading questions, Jack was able to verbalize appropriate school behavior. Jack did well counting fish and, with help, wrote the number he counted. We will practice writing numbers. We practiced counting beyond ten by saying the next number each time we tapped a balloon back and forth. The abacus was used to convey the concept of adding. We practiced blending consonant, short a, consonant words. Sometimes, Jack needs to be directed to look at the last letter again, but once he does, Jack is able to blend the sound by himself. He enjoyed an activity in which he read 5 CVC words, chose the word that matched the picture, glued the letters of the word and then traced the writing of the word. Jack took a short break to play on the playground in the middle of the hour.

After reciprocating my greeting with a hugging embrace, Santino was amenable to sitting at the table in the classroom and working on academic activities. We worked on touching and tracing letters, using our fingers to feel the rough surface of the letter and following the directional arrows that demonstrated how to write it. The letters were rough to the touch, made out of a sandpaper type of material, so it involved and engaged Santino’s tactile sense, in addition to his visual sense, which helps reinforce and consolidate his learning. Santino allowed me to guide his fingers and trace the letters. He then traced a few letters independent of prompts as I verbally identified the letters and named some words that started with it. We then traced letters using a magnetized wand, which lifted little metal balls, forming the shape of letters, in a grid upon touch. One side of the wand lifted the balls to form the letter, while the other made them disappear. This activity kept Santino well engaged and motivated. We finished up with a matching activity requiring that Santino assemble puzzles and match items (e.g., boots/umbrella; bed/pillow; basketball/hoop). Santino carefully looked at the puzzle pieces before putting them together; he appeared to understand what was expected of him and found matching pairs. Although Santino required initial prompts to perform this task, he made a good effort to continue on his own when the prompts were gradually faded. I gave Santino verbal praise and high fives for performing well on today’s tasks and activities, especially when he sustained attention to the task at hand with minimal prompts.

Jack enjoyed the book, 'Real Giraffes Can't Dance'. We talked about what we thought would happen next and how the characters felt. He did well matching numbers 0-9 to the picture with the correct number of objects. Jack enjoyed a color by number activity. We worked on blending sounds to make consonant , short a, consonant words. Jack did very well with the initial two sounds. We will continue to work on blending all three sounds together. We used an abacus to work on basic addition, moving different amounts of two different colored beads and then counting how many there were altogether. Jack played outside briefly in the middle of the hour.

After using the visual communication board to show Santino the sequence of activities planned for the day, I had him sit alongside me at the table. I proceeded to show him and various coins verbally identify them. I also explained how they were different sizes, values, and how the copper penny was the only color that was brown, or copper. Santino required prompts and refocusing techniques to keep him engaged, so I proceeded to sort them into pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and place them in separate compartments. I stood behind him to accomplish this as hand-over-hand instruction helped him focus on the task at hand. We then moved onto some water play, placing different objects in a pan of water, which Santino enjoys and stays engaged. We noted how the plastic eggs stayed afloat in the water, but the heavier blocks sunk to the bottom. Santino then took a plastic dinosaur, balanced the egg on its tail and watched as it bobbed in the water. We reviewed the concepts of open and close, up and down, light and heavy during this activity.

We used Santino's visual communication board to plan out the day's activities. First, we started out by checking the dryness of the soil of the houseplants in the classroom. I then helped Santino water those that needed watering, via physical prompts and modeling techniques. We then went outside to check the growth of the seeds that we had planted in a flowerpot a few weeks ago. The plant has started growing buds so we checked to see if there was any smell and examined the florets under a little magnifying glass. We went indoors, washed our hands and continued our sensorimotor awareness by engaging in some activities in the classroom. Santino particularly enjoyed feeling and sensing the different weighted and sized objects I placed in plastic eggs. He shook them, opened and closed them, with and without their contents, enjoyed the sound they made and the proprioceptive feeling of the egg with the objects rattling inside. This was paired with a verbal narrative to reinforce the concepts learned (e.g. open, shut; up, down; in, out; heavy, light, etc. ). This activity benefits cognitive growth as it integrates sensorimotor processing with cognitive and emotional processing, and as Santino is so sensory perceptive, he remained interested and engaged in this activity for a good amount of time. He also enjoyed discovering what was inside each egg. We finished the session by reading a book about size comparison to reinforce and consolidate concepts acquired from the sensorimotor activities experienced throughout the session.

Jack enjoyed the book, 'Alphabet Mystery' in which the letters of the alphabet are looking for the missing x. I read the text and Jack read the letter, highlighted in yellow, that was speaking in the story. We talked about how the characters felt and made predictions of what was going to happen. We played a game in which Jack rolled the dice, counted the dots and then wrote the number of dots. He did very well matching the letter to the initial sound of the pictures. Given a picture and two written words, Jack was asked to pick the correct word based on the initial sound. When focused, he did well choosing the correct word. We went outside for a brief recess in the middle of the hour.

Santino was in an especially responsive and interactive mood today. I helped him engage in a motor skills activity in the classroom. Using chunky sidewalk chalk, I made a connect-the-dots picture of Santino's first name and numbered the dots. I helped Santino by affording him hand-over-hand assistance, and we started connecting the dots as I said the numbers aloud. Santino giggled as we did this. I gave him a high five as reinforcement after completing each letter. When we were done with this activity, we used magnetic alphabet letters to arrange the alphabet and sing the alphabet song. I gave Santino fruit loops cereal that had been put in a bowl and he fed himself several pieces independently. He then laid down on the floor and brought my hand to his face. He was very responsive to tactile stimuli and brought my hand to his face, arms, and back, clearly enjoying the stimulation and making soft, happy vocalizations. At one point, he brought my face towards his, sustained eye contact for several seconds and smiled. This interpersonal interaction was reinforced by my smile and a hug. Santino took my hand again, looked closely at my fingers, and rested them on his face - all the while smiling. After this, we played with pieces of colored yarn and sorted them into various piles based on color. I sang the clean up song and encouraged Santino to help me put the yarn pieces back into the bin, guided by physical and verbal prompts. It was a productive session.

Santino followed my verbal directives and physical prompts and worked on activities while he was seated at the table. I had arranged an alphabet board and a puzzle matching activity before him and allowed Santino to choose the one he wanted to work on first. He chose the alphabet board and proceeded to recite the letters of the alphabet as he arranged the letters in sequential alphabetical order. Santino required reminders to remain seated for the matching activity, but was responsive to prompts. I then allowed him an opportunity to move about the room and seek out items to explore and examine. Following this, I read to him as he drank a bottle I filled with fruit juice; he had brought me the bottle to indicate he wished a drink. Santino removed his shoes and socks and vocalized contentedly as he drank from his bottle lying down and I read him a story.

Santino was in excellent spirits and enjoyed watching as I strummed the guitar and sang a fun interactive rhyming song. He was vocalizing in a singsong voice, laughing and shrieking happily. I selected the rhyming song, "Down By the Bay," which is engaging because it is an echo song which helps students recognize pitch and focuses on rhyming, a skill which can be fun to listen to and hear. I allowed Santino to echo me, the singer, and to create his own tunes. He seemed to greatly enjoy this activity. After this, I worked with Santino assembling some puzzles and assisted him in a matching and sorting activity. Santino was responsive to prompts, but required refocusing to sustain attention to the task at hand. I also had him accompany me outdoors to water the plants. Santino enjoyed touching and examining the plant that we have grown from seeds a few weeks ago. We both had watering cans and I helped Santino water some of the other plants in the garden. We then went indoors, washed our hands, and I read Santino 2 short stories as he drank his fruit juice from his bottle. A student came in to greet Santino and the two engaged in a sweet interaction echoing one another. Santino plucked the strings of the guitar, as the other student sang, modulating his voice and pitch. Santino remained engaged and content, laughing and happily vocalizing in a melodic voice until it was time for his next teacher to arrive.