Brilliant Minds

I've had a few friends ask me recently about how Jack's therapy is going at Brilliant Minds and they were kind enough to point out that I haven't blogged about it yet so I thought I would do that today. I'll start by saying that we have been EXTREMELY pleased with his therapist, ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and the techniques that we have been able to learn and implement at home and Jack's progress although it has played out in a much different way than I envisioned at first.

Ms. Kassi (Jack's therapist) and I felt that Jack's biggest issues when he started where his inability to eat in a public resturant (for fear of babies or diapers being in there) and with our family members who had babies and his unusual and irrrational fears. So, she started working with him on his eating. There are lots of specific words they use for their techniques but for me, not being trained in ABA, it looked a lot like desensitization to me. For instance, she started with eating candy with a picture of a dipaer, then an actual diaper, and a picture of a baby, then a baby crying, and finally a real baby. Once he mastered the candy, she moved on to real foods and on and on. She used a lot of positive reinforcement with things Jack loves like SEC mascots, paint, play dough, Seminole magazines (which are in abundance in Destin:) and other fun stuff. This sounds very easy when you read it but you have to understand that we went through straight hours of screaming, fits of angry, physical aggression and various other difficulties with Jack just b/c we pushed the issue of him eating a starburst with a picture of a diaper in the room.

We began going two days a week for two hour sessions and are now just going on Fridays. There have been improvements in Jack's eating. For instance, he ate in a resturant with a baby at the next table last week and ate with Ella and Maddox (a nine month old) like it was no big deal. I know that sounds very minor to everyone, but we were THRILLED!! You have no idea the fights and long days it took to be able to do that!! But, he will regress too - this past Sunday he didn't want to eat when Ella was at our house. So, one victory doesn't mean we're done. BUT my major issue with the eating was how irrational, loud, and defiant he would become around babies and food before and now he will calmly state that he doesn't want to eat. That I can live with!!!! Although, it's an odd thing, a calm statement of a desire to wait to eat is an appropriate response and I will take it!! So, we've made progress in that area.

The coolest thing to me about the therapy is that for a while we didn't seem to make much progress in the area of eating. We've been going for a few months now and it took until the last couple of weeks to see a lot of progress. But in other areas - like the irrational fears - we saw HUGE progress!! It was like Jack was able to take the processes from one behavior and apply them to another problem area that was easier for him to change. I can't remember the last time Jack was fearful and couldn't verbalize it - which has been a HUGE issue in the past. The great thing about this is when he can verbalize, we can face it, and he normally gets over the fear immediately if he can touch it, talk about it, figure it out. But when we didn't know WHAT the fear was, we couldn't talk to him about it or deal with it at all.

So, in conclusion, we've seen lots of progress. Most of it is really small things that nobody else would even notice but makes our day to day lives soooo much easier. The best part is these little victories seem to make Jack happier, more easy going, proud of himself and more confident in trying new things and going new places. He's not "fixed" and he's still behind in some areas (like motor skills which Ms. Kassi is about to start working on) and he has setbacks on a regular basis. But, he's figuring out ways to deal with his difficulties - positive ways - and even though he doesn't always USE thoese techniques, he has them and he's learning and that's great! And I'm letting all my friends who were asking know....

We like ABA, we like Ms. Kassi, and we love Brilliant Minds - especially Jack's brilliant mind!! :)