Over the course of "connecting " on line, there had been difficulties logging on together as sessions have commenced.I'm attempting to troubleshoot and rectify where the issues may be.
This morning, everything appeared correct and the session was anticipated to commence with ease. Unfortunately, as I was anticipating Chris joining me in session, mom indicated that they were having difficulty. Mom and I spoke via phone, as I navigated and re-sent our morning "connection link" which appeared to send to Chris' email successfully. Mom was not at home during this window of time and she suggested that perhaps it might be best to just plan for next week.

Once again, Mom and Ingrid supported Santino with "quiet time" activities just prior to our on line session commencement, supporting Santino and overall sensory modulation for readiness. Santino once again remained seated in front of the computer for a solid 30 minutes as activities were presented. He was responsive to familiar verbal cue strategies with increased frequency as familiar motivational toys were presented in front of the camera. Verbalizations were predominantly noun label and/or attribute +noun. Santino displayed increased periods of "visual referencing" to the screen throughout the duration of our shared time. His affect remained happy, and periods of unmitigated echolalia remained strong once more. Opportunities to shape instances of recitation of 'song lyric/dialogue scripting were noted and successful periods of creating more intentional use of the echolalic verbiage was noted 4 times within the session. Phone conversation with mom once again followed shared screen time, allowing for wonderful discussion.

Christopher excitedly "initiated " the session today with wanting to share a " Sonic Story." He shares that he had an idea for our "thinking and talking" that we do. He rapidly began to share the plush characters used as "props" and dialogue between them. Supports were provided to expand on natural dialogue versus "tv" dialogue. This afforded the opportunity to create and expand the activity into narrative generation with supported story grammar components.
Scaffolding prompts to assist with temporal order of ideas was facilitative. Additional supports to expand cohesive ties were provided as well, and to support redirection as tangential narrative was frequently noted. Rapid shifts into "prop" movement and tumble necessitated supports for redirection and frequent repetition of cues, questions and comments. Christopher excitedly participated this session.

Mom and Ingrid supported Santino with "quiet time" activities just prior to our on line session time, supporting Santino and sensory modulation for readiness. Santino remained seated in front of the computer for a solid 30 minutes once our session commenced. He was responsive to familiar verbal cue strategies on occasion as familiar motivating toys were displayed in front of the camera. Continuing to support and reinforce the awareness of verbal "effect " whereby he is able to regulate action through verbalization remains paramount. Strong periods of unmitigated delayed echolalia were noted throughout the session. Phone conversation with mom following screen time allowed for expanded discussion regarding Santino's daily activities, increased imitation and echolalia, and plans for moving forward. Positive session today.

Christopher was excited to "connect " today on line. We spoke a bit about his "classes" and the other teachers that he connects with on line. He rapidly shifted conversation to his favorite sonic characters. Utilizing his greatest interests as we often do, we embellished upon similarities and differences within "pairs of characters." Previously prepared "mis match" stimuli pictures which did not afford opportunity to easily identify similarities facilitated creative ways to provide "better matches" within the "Pairs" presentation activity. Chris excitedly engaged and sustained strong attention for the duration of the session. Support to enhance reciprocity within conversation and sustain collaborative thinking within expanded speaker listener exchanges was provided.

Santino participated in an initial theraplatform session. This was his first experience engaging within a face to face connection via the computer. He was a bit unsettled at the novelty of the connection as the session commenced. He spent a bit of time pacing, while increasing his "glance" at the computer as the time progressed. The connection today afforded a wonderful opportunity to introduce Santino to this "face time" dynamic, as well as providing a wonderful opportunity to share expressive language strategies with both mom, and Santino's brother Zachary. Specific strategies to support and increase more spontaneous language use while supporting a decrease in echolalic/imitative verbalizations were provided. Supports included providing models for the perspective of what Santino would "say" within an interaction, being mindful of pronoun use. In addition, supporting increased use of carrier phrases to facilitate increased sentence structure specific to requesting desired items (I want +attribute+ object) and requesting assistance (help me + action + phrase),while decreasing frequency of use of question forms was shared.

Christopher participated in an initial on line session via use of theraplatform. The session was successful, as initial conversation focused on "new" items in his room, items that had never visited school. Supports to sustain " collaborative thinking" were provided via use of familiar verbal cues. Focus on categorical inclusion, exclusion, similarities and differences was supported through use of materials that Chris was excited to share. More structured activities presented via "on screen" were supported with guidance to encourage movement and cross patterning. As session closure neared, Chris was guided to share his intentions, "read his body signals,' and trust that it was "alright " to share that he was needing a "break" as strong attentional support was needed at that time. This afforded an opportunity to re-introduce the concepts of self awareness, as well as perspective taking.

Spoke once again with mom, to assist with transition to theraplatform as a new email contact was shared to serve as the connection link on the platform. As the session was to commence, Santino was sleeping soundly. This 2:00 time slot will continue as the weekly "meeting time" as per mom's request.

Santino was seen for session 15 of 17 in Term 3 with this SLP and appeared teary-eyed over possible confusion with regard to his schedule. Upon reference and review of his daily, visual schedule, Santino seemed to recover quickly and verbalized "Miss Sharon", "Lunchbox", "Miss Ingrid", "Ride Car", and "Mom" to complete "First, Next, Then, Last" carrier-phrase sequences. Water and food choices were presented but rejected...Goals for the session remained consistent and 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...Consideration has been given to expand upon stated goals to include additional areas of focus such as: to respond to and participate in My Turn/Your Turn-Activities, to respond to Yes/No-Questions, to respond to WH-Questions, and to communicate Agent + Action and Action + Object constructs via verbalization and/or photo/picture exchange...Santino sat at the table in the blue chair upon verbal direction. In an attempt to extend regulation, a novel activity, "Magnetic Matching Picture Game", was presented and modeled. Santino appeared engaged as he selected, "A Day on the Farm" ("I want Farm") from an array of 4 imaginative scenes that included the following: Backyard Playtime, Heading Off to School, and A Busy Day in Town. Santino selected colorful magnets that match the suggested picture and placed them on a larger background card to recreate the scene. Santino responded verbally to concrete, Yes/No-Questions pertaining to the activity. If a response was not noted after appropriate wait-time, reference to communication pictures and/or initial phonemic cue continued to elicit responses accurately...Santino appeared fatigued after completing the scene, but assisted with clean-up upon verbal direction. Given choices, all attempts to focus and extend engagement were rejected (with verbalization of "NO!" combined with reference to communication picture) as he relocated and snuggled into the soft blue chair. When asked, "Do you want to sleep?", Santino responded, "Yes!" and rested for a few minutes prior to dismissal. Santino stood as the "Good-Bye" Song was presented and the daily, visual schedule was referenced and reviewed in preparation for dismissal. Santino verbalized, "Good-bye Miss Sharon". Verbalization of "Ride Car" and "Mommy" was noted upon picture reference within the carrier-phrases, "Ingrid will take you for a... then home to see...". When sessions resume, continue as planned with focus on use of phonemic cues and carrier-phrases in combination with communication book/photos across sessions/instructors and settings to promote increased spontaneous verbalization...I will certainly miss Santino and look forward to seeing him soon!!!

Santino arrived late to school due to the bridge as per mom. He was a bit unsettled as he entered the building, however, transitioned easily, pushed the numbers on the keypad and made his way to his room. He reached for pictures of desired items and once settled into the session, Santino engaged as he typically does. Activities of choice today required assistance to manipulate, allowing for the expanded opportunity to request assistance via increased sentence form, supported by picture sequence on the strip, initial assist to point to pictured sequence and phonemic cues x16 opportunities. Sentence form consisted of "help me + action + object + locative". Modification of noun/object was embedded on 8 trials. Additional activities targeting opportunities to spontaneously request items balanced with opportunities to respond to personal choice yes/no question forms were supported with phonemic cues across 2 tasks of 6 cycles. Strong session today.