Rayyan's therapist resumed her sessions with Rayyan yesterday after a two-week break. Rayyan was at the door when he heard the sound of the lift and he checked out the person coming out of the lift. When he saw his therapist, he ran towards me and started whining and crying. He knew it was time for him to be 'strapped' down and do the tasks given. As I predicted, he cried 75% of the time.
Even though he is enthusiastic when I am the one doing the therapy with him, he doesn't like to do it with others. But he must get used to it, I can't be the one teaching him all the time, he will meet all sorts of teachers and therapists so he must get used to working with people outside his comfort zone.
And yes, consistency is very important, crucial in fact. Since I have been the only one doing therapy with him, he doesn't want anyone else. There is no consistency here and this resulted in tantrums when the therapist came.
And it is also very important to follow-up on the skills taught or else, he would lose it. I remember last month when I was down with official duties for about a week, I didn't have time to follow-up on what the therapist did. I did not emphasise on eye contact. He was at my sis' place most of the time where the maid was taking care of him and there was no emphasis there for eye contact also. I actually asked the maid to work on his pointing and she got excited every time he pointed at something and forgot about eye contact!
Then when I sit in with him for therapy the following week, his pointing improved but his eye contact was off!!! And to think that we had worked so hard for eye contact earlier on. So we had to start all over again and all the money I spent on the therapy sessions earlier literally went down the drain!!
Now that I have been working on his skills and spending time with him for the past two weeks, he has shown improvement. Better eye contact, pointing is very good and less jumping and stimming... But I have to start work soon and he will be on his own again... I can teach the maid but she lacks the skills and techniques. Furthermore, she has other chores to complete.
I am so afraid that all the things that we have worked so hard for will go down the drain again. Arggghhh!! I have been discussing this with hubby and we are trying to work something out. I really hope we find a solution soon. Consistency must be there. Follow-up must be there. Period.
On a more positive note, since I have been consistently letting him eat on his own since last week, he is somewhat enjoying it and his eating skills have improved too. Here is Rayyan eating dinner on his own. He is doing some spelling too while eating :)
