April 21
We had quite the drama around "the transition" from one assistant to the other and I was not very happy with how it all went down. I'm not going to get into the details as I've had time to breathe (I was pretty angry) and Luke's been thankfully behaving appropriately despite the way all the adults were acting and handling the situation. He is still on a very good roll which is all the matters to me at the end of the day. One day I asked him "What did you do in school today?" and after a short pause he looked at me all innocently and replied "I behaved." LOL. Right answer, Luke. And so he's been participating more, listening better, responding to questions, and being the overall obedient kid that we know and love.

Lukeisms lately: He was eating strawberries one day and he looked at Sarah (our BI) and said "What is that?...... Sugar?" and she said, "Sweet!" He was trying to describe the taste... and his eyes lit up when it was described as "sweet". • He also is beginning to be interested in lego... he didn't think he could take it apart or put it together ("I can't") but Sarah encouraged him and he did it himself and was SO PROUD of himself. We're going to continue to encourage playing with lego! • At another time, he was at gymnastics and a little girl was playing with a pretend baby. Sarah asked to hold it and gave it a kiss and hug, and then Luke asked to hold it and he gave it a kiss and hug (this is a big deal!!). • He also wanted to play with a little boy's stuffed animal and so he asked Sarah for permission. Sarah told him to ask the little boy, but Luke asked way too quietly... so Sarah said you have to go over, get his attention and then ask him... which Luke did and the boy gave him the stuffed animal to play with for a while. • During circle time one day someone was passing a stuffed orca and when it was Luke's turn to look at it, he pretended it was going to bite him ("It's going to bite me!") and he tossed it to the next kid... he actually got laughs from all the kids... yay Luke. • I caught him playing Hullabaloo all by himself the other day, and while he was a bit delayed to respond to the instructions, he did play it for some time... he did get a little distracted by the tv, but I was happy he was playing a "real game" appropriately.

Next stage: working on his social skills. I went to the parent's meeting the other night and I am now convinced that Luke needs help to socialize properly with other children. I'm going to try to contact Insight Support Services again and see what they offer in the way of "RDI" or relational development intervention.

I am pleased to say that Luke and Joel will be attending the Kamloops Christian School in the fall. The women who will be supporting him are awesome. They came to the house last week and watched an ABA session to get a feel for Luke's capabilities as well as how we've been successfully teaching him for the last 3 years. They are very excited to have him, and are thrilled with my "binder" of Luke's IEPS, Diagnosis, Report Cards, and Strategies that I put together (thanks for the idea Betty-Ann!). Also, the woman in charge of special needs at KCS will be attending Luke's IEP meeting next week at his kindergarten school. Joel, btw, will be attending Junior Kindergarten with a wonderful teacher... and the grade one teacher for Luke seems so perfect as well. Needless to say, I'm excited for both boys.

I have a call in to the Oxygen Therapy Centre in Richmond and am still waiting on confirmation for a July treatment session. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

The KTRA (Kamloops Therapy Riding Association) called me the other day and we've booked Luke in for the September 6- October 20 horseback riding therapy (aka hippotherapy). I'm happy that it's finally been booked and am interested to see if Luke will gain new confidence on horseback.

I'm also waiting to book a screening session with the Chris Rose Centre for Luke to attend in the fall, one or two days per week... they have all the therapies under one roof, and are located just behind the Christian School.

I had a phone appointment with Dr. Bratt on Monday April 18 and we affirmed the positive changes in Luke since starting the Nystatin on March 25. Because he's been battling a cough again, we're planning to have him stay on the Nystatin for an extra month (it gets rid of the bad yeast). I really feel that all his behavioural issues in the winter were due to a flare-up of bad yeast, because as soon as it was under control, he was 100% better. His OCD (obsession with doors) has relaxed quite a bit which makes me happy. He still eats weiner skins and brown crust from the toast, but that is not worth the battle at this point, in my opinion.

This morning we had Fran Campbell from POPARD come and watch Luke and give suggestions. She highly recommend a more consistent visual schedule for Luke... which the school will incorporate. Her other major suggestions were to get Luke to socialize more by beginning with basic non-verbal gestures and move on to prompts and back-and-forth questions/conversations in regards to play. Another suggestion was to have another child join him during his gross motor skill sessions, as well as to encourage a rotation of children during his "social session". She was a very nice woman and she said she would be available to follow-up at the Christian School in the fall if we applied soon enough in September for her services.

April 30
Had an autism week! Started out on Tuesday meeting with a mom who's daughter was just diagnosed. We talked for 2 hours about everything, and it was nice to be able to show her Luke's progress and give her some guidelines for therapies. She's going to work with both Dr. Bratt and Dr. Wagstaff as well as ABA.

On Wednesday, two of my "autism moms" came over for coffee and it was so nice to catch up with them and find out how their kids are doing. All three of our boys were in ARCS together a couple years ago (remember??). Each boy is so different, and yet we all have much in common, so it's great to continue to reconnect. Awesome moms.

In the afternoon that day Ms. H. came over from Insight Support Services and we discussed their intergration of an RDI program for Luke to begin in the fall (after school). This is Relationship Development therapy (based on Gutstein... have to get a hold of his book!); basically it teaches Luke how to have relationships and interact successfully. They start one-on-one (with another child, probably typical) so a friendship can form. Some of the activities are board games, mini golf, movies or simpler games like Hide-and-Seek. I'm looking forward to watching Luke form friendships!

The day after that (April 28) was Luke's second IEP meeting (Individual Education Plan) and Ms. M. from the Christian School was able to join us. Everyone was awesome... everything's on track for Luke as far as progress in his communication, socialization and physical therapy (the 3 original goals). Ideally we'd add (in the fall) an academic goal. Ms. T. (LA teacher) invited Ms. M. to come to the school towards the end of June to observe Luke in the classroom in order to see his capabilities and be able to transition him to the Kamloops Christian School as seamlessly as possible.

On a Luke note: He's been progressing wonderfully lately. The other day when two different kids said "Hi" he said "Hi" back immediately to each of them (which is unusual for him). He had a bad cough again for a week or so and missed some school, but he's healthy again and back on track. Ms. P. (his returned assistant) has no problems with his behaviour. He stays the whole 40 minutes in music class and sings along and acts out the songs and was even dancing the other day! Way to go Luke! (Previously he'd be kicked out in the first 5 minutes for disruption/loudness).

He's still on Nystatin to kill the bad yeast. I started Mannabears (with Ambrotose) which I had heard about 3 years ago, but there was no way Luke was going to chew on a gummy bear back then and I wasn't too sure I wanted to get into the whole pyramid scheme thing to get my hands on them (and both Dr.'s were not endorsing them). Anyways, the new mom I met buys them for her daughter so I was quite excited to finally try them (it was always one of my regrets as the one thing I hadn't tried). So I'll be giving him 4 a day and see what happens... I've been told it helps with concentration, focus and reduces disruptiveness... not that Luke's disruptive anymore but he can always use some extra help. I'll keep you posted on any results/changes....