(HBOT 146) - Language Improvements

Jonathan and Mommy inside the HBOT chamber. I give this chamber a very large credit towards Jonathan's recovery. 140+ hours.

During dinner tonight, Jonathan said "mommy, does Maine have a beach?" and I asked him why he was asking me that question and he said "because Maine does not have another state to its right. What about Florida and California?" and that blew my mind. He is definitely making some major brain connections, probably beyond my understanding.

Today, both Javier and I noticed that his language has improved. His intonation is much better. He does not sound so robotic anymore. And the verb tenses are more accurate. Is it the HBOT or the Listening Therapy or both? Who knows. Whatever it is, it is working.

Yesterday, we spent the day out at friends house, and he played beautifully with all the kids. Better than ever because he normally gets so bossy that the other kids push him to the side. But yesterday he just played along really well, never showed a moment of boresome or tiredness. And used language very efficiently to communicate. Yesterday I would say is the most "neuro-typical" I have seen him be. A great feeling.

The things that still make his voice sound a bit flat or strange is that he would say for instance "I do not know" instead of "I don't know", or "I cannot do that" instead of "I can't do that". But he is speaking with more confidence, so these are not as noticeable.

Today, he had swimming lessons and we were pretty shocked at how well he is doing in just 3-45 minute sessions he has had. The teacher does not know he has autism and talks to Jonathan like he would to any of the other kids and Jonathan responds and follows the instructions. As a matter of fact, they are having more trouble with other kids understanding and following instructions than with Jonathan.

Today we also noticed that he was a bit more distracted than normal, yet less hyper.

Improvements:

• Language (expressive): this week we noticed a huge improvement in his intonation, sentense structure and fluency.
• Language (receptive/comprehension): I don't have to rephrase as much anymore.
  
• Auditory Memory: I can give him 3 instructions at a time and 2 out of 3 times he gets them right.
• OCD: his normal obsessions have minimized. He only played less than 1 hour of Nintendo Wii each day. And he played a bit with a couple of games in his dad's iPhone, but not obsessive.

Areas of concern (besides language):

• Stims: He is humming more than ever. I keep telling him "you are humming" and he goes "ugh!", he stops for a few seconds and starts again. Unless he is watching a movie or playing a game, he hums. Even when doing pretend play on his own. If he has to converse, he doesn't. It seems as though his brain is so active that he needs to hum to keep it under control. That is my hypothesis.
• Bowel Movements: still very loose. We are going to see his DAN! this wednesday. I sent in CDSA 2 weeks ago and I hope it will arrive by the time when go.
• Attention: he seems to be more distracted than usual.
• Sensory: he needs sensory input. He keeps moving, rocking.