New Progress

Monday 7 Jan was Dylan's first day back at AAS & he was excited in seeing his teacher Ethan and the toys as well as work activities there. This semester he's attending morning class and generally most kids are older than the afternoon toddlers (avg age maybe 5-6 years vs the 3 year olds), and there are also more transitions between the 2 blocks & activities are cut into shorter blocks of time. Last year, he'll complete 1 1/2 hours in Block B (individual 1-on-1 time), then move on to Block A where he'll have snack time, pretend play/ activity (in the same room), followed by music & movement. Good thing he seems ok with the more frequent transitions, though he makes frequent stopovers for the toys, esp the bead structure. Also, for circle time, he still tends to stand up after only a short while, though he does sometimes attend, watching the teacher's action for the songs/ looking at the book & taking the foam number out to stick at another part.

After his first day in school, as I was on my last day of leave, I brought Dylan for a session of Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ) in the afternoon. Mel had asked me when we are next bringing Dylan for JSJ as both of us really find the daily home practice (which we were taught at the first session) really helping increase his regulation (also ability to fall asleep more easily) & awareness.

At the OT session on Monday, Sheralyn the OT also noted that Dylan seems more regulated and aware. In fact at one point when Sheralyn let him climb into the "stormcloud" (stretchy cloth hung up high), and let him bouce, counting "1, 2, 3", I heard him count "1, 2, 3" as well. But when Ethan & I went to see if he would continue counting, he went silent.

At home when playing & I was counting the pieces of puzzles we keep, to be sure we have all, I was counting to "16", and he said "senteen, ayteen". I was very pleased as he hasn't done this for a long time. In 2006, when he was taught by Ms Sherall in Genesis, he really enjoyed counting to 20.

Yesterday was Dylan's second day back attending AAS - Aunty Mel brought him there & back by MRT train & bus & whilst he was active, he was not unruly and can wait & generally agreeable to walk with aunty. For the 10 min walk from school to the MRT station, he does run out of steam & wish to be carried, but with some favourite olive crackers, he can go on. With me, other than using crackers as bait, I also make carrying him into a game, eg. when he really wants to be carried, I may say I will carry him after 50 steps & he would be OK with it. And as I carry him, I may say I'll carry him for 20/ 50 steps based on how tired he seems. Again when the no. of steps are over, he doesn't cling on tight as he used to but is agreeable to get on his feet to walk on. This is quite a pleasure!

Last night was a really nice walk. I initially started with a fast-paced walk down the stairs just to get out of vicinity of our unit, eg. I may walk quickly 8 steps, suddenly stop, then walk the last 2 steps very slowly. He'll overshoot & quickly discover it and makes a repair. Nice! Then I tried out not holding his hands at all when walking stairs. Initially he kept trying to hold my hand & when it's really out of reach, he holds on to my clothing. But at some point, he released his grasp but still monitors me. But before long, he gets excited & walks very quickly, regardless of me lagging behind eg. I may have walked only 2 steps & he's already done with 10 & wanting to continue. But as I stopped & sat down & made an audible sigh, I was really pleasantly surprised when after several seconds, he came back up the stairs to me & I was over the moon! New progress! I quickly wowed & kissed & said "great"!

It wasn't consistent though, when the run off happened again, I waited but soon he had descended several flights of stairs & as it was close to a lift-landing floor, I was worried he'll run into the lift on his own, so decided to go after him. When I got him, I held his hand and said I didn't like it that he ran off so far away.

Downstairs, he was really monitoring me very well walking too, till we came closer to his favourite mushroom stools at the void deck of a neighbouring block when he just ran up the stairs to the stools & climbed on one of the stools. I stood a distance away & intentionally looked sulky. While he didn't come running toward me, I thought I saw him look in my direction, and stopped for a while. I then walked over to lead him away, telling him that I didn't like that he ran off from mommy. He was OK and went with me. It was generally a pleasure this outing.

There was a point when we crossed the road, & one of his sandals loosened and fell off in the middle of the road & before we reached the other side, he tried kicking off the other sandal and I had to stop him but he had succeeded when we got across. I then noted the sandal in the middle of the road. Quite clearly, he goes based on sensory perception - that the sandals should both be on or both off, & he doesn't know the appropriate action to take. Anyway, we waited quite a while before there was no traffic & crossed the road with him barefooted, picked up the other shoe & put both on at the other side. Another inappropriate behaviour was at the playground when he saw a piece of chewed up red gum/ chewy sweet & was very quick to reach out for it wanting to take and stuff into his mouth. I managed to stop him plucking off the floor but not in time to stop him stuffing his sticky sweet fingers into his mouth. Once during our recent holiday in Vietnam, I was also horrified by him pulling a piece of chewed up gum from the ashtray of the trashbin and stuffing into his mouth & at that point I had my hands full with Juergen's laptop & some groceries. Anyway, I really look forward to him understanding the meaning of "dirty, don't touch!". Please advise if there are good strategies!