He had 2 very good days at school this past week. The teacher sent a couple of nice notes. On Thursday, he didn't even need any prompting to do his work. He has been doing very well at Tae Kwon Do as well. He is ready for next week's yellow belt exam.
On Friday, we went to visit our friends and Jonathan played with the kids Nintendo Wii and then other games and they all got along very well.
Jonathan's receptive language and attention has gotten better in the past week. For instance, today we were in the car and Jonathan was playing with the GPS, when Vanessa asked "Mommy, when we get home, can I play with the number one?". She meant the Nintendo Wii remote control number 1, which is the one that controls the games. She was not talking to Jonathan, and Jonathan was mining his own business. But Jonathan immediately responded (before I did): "yes Vanessa, you can have number one" as he continued to play with his GPS. His is doing this a lot. He is paying attention to our conversations now also, which means that we need to start watching more closely what we say.
He made a few comments today that made Javier and I stop and think that his language has improved in the past week. I can't really write any examples, but both expressive and receptive language have improved this week. It seemed easier to speak to him this week.
He also seems more social. We went to his pediatrician's office to get his allergy shot, when he noticed someone walk into the office and write his name down and looked at me and asked me if I knew him. When I said no, he went to him and asked him what his name was. It was weird and not appropriate, but I look at it as a sign of more curiosity.
I am still concerned about some of his behaviors. He has been walking on his tip-toes more than ever. He is also humming more than ever before. And he is walking without really paying much attention, more than ever before. However, he is rocking less.
Javier and I met with a director of a new school last week. It is a private school. Their mission is exactly what I would want for Jonathan, but we cannot afford it. However, it was good to go and hear about some of the challenges that Jonathan might be facing in the near future (3rd grade in particular). And besides the social relationships and the bullying he will need to deal with, it is the entire "pragmatic language" problem that he and all the children with autism have that might make his educational years more challenging. We are not really addressing that in his current IEP and I don't know how the public school system will deal with that. I am going to bring it up in the next IEP meeting which will take place in June.
Here are some pictures I took from this past week.
Teaching his grandfather how to play with the Nintendo Wii
Jonathan and Vanessa play all the time. Here they built their own train track and brought the trains up from the basement. They did a lot of pretend play where Vanessa needed help, and he came to the rescue, etc.
Jonathan loves air hockey and had a blast playing with C. and N. last friday.
Notice how Jonathan is paying attention to the body language of these two boys. Also, how he is so excited when he makes a point (making him competitive) but does not mind when the other kid makes a point.
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