School Update!

I had just left the store when my phone rang.  I thought maybe my Dad was calling to see where we were because he stops by occasionally on his way home from work and it was about that time, but when I saw my phone said Dylan's teacher, I was prepared to head to Payson and pick him up.  When I answered, she said that it wasn't anything bad and he was doing fine but she wanted to talk to me about something to work with Dylan at home!

She said they have been working on answering yes and no questions with a simple head nod and the past two days he has been doing it mostly on his own!  She said they have been asking him things and then touching the back of his head and guiding him with the appropriate response but he is starting to do it on his own, unprompted.  She said he ran over to a sensory table and she was going to get him and take him back to where he was supposed to be, but then she decided to use this experience as a "test" so to speak.  She asked him certain questions(yes or no) about the sensory table and he responded by shaking his head(almost the whole body she says), so she let him play at it for getting the correct responses.  She asked that we work on it at home also and see how he does.  She wonders if it will take him some time because he may associate it with school and that is where he is supposed to do it, so if we work with him at home he can use it in his everyday life!  Small but BIG!!

She also said that they feel like he is starting to make more connections and when they are working with him, he is looking at them as if saying, "What do you want me to do."  Which means he is listening and understanding better!  He was saying "Bus" before we left for Panama and she said since our "trip"(that to her is just a week off of school because as far as I know, she doesn't know what our "Trip" was) he hasn't been saying it.  Probably because we don't work on the word "bus" at home but it just shows how quickly he loses words if they are not ran through that little brain of his daily.  He is starting to try and say it again, she said.  She also mentioned that he is starting to try and say more words and some times they can make out and tell what he is saying.

Here is the kicker!!!  She is very glad that he is a "candy addict"(which if you know Dylan you know that is 80% of what he will actually eat, ha ha.)  The reason she is glad that he is a "Candy Addict" is because that is what they use for the rewards, to praise him when he does what they want him to do.  She said that most kids love recess time and despise group time(where they work one on one with the child), but not Dylan.  He LOVES group time and despises recess time!  Why, you may ask, because that is where he gets his treats!  She said when they line up for recess the majority of the time he will break away and head for the "group" area.  When they make him go to recess, he cries ha ha!