Olivia's Week at Adam's Camp

I can't get the pictures from the book that they made us at Adam's Camp into the computer, but here is one that we took of Olivia with her sand pictures that she just had to make and another one at the closing ceremony of Olivia with the therpists (pinning her into the circle so she couldn't leave). Sorry for more long writin...after the last marathon post, I'm sure you are happy I don't have more time on my hands :)). I won't type out everything they put for her goals (they went into detail about the interventions and the results as well--I'll summarize that part. They also included a lot of really wonderful pictures of Olivia's week which was nice because we didn't get to see her do a lot of these things. So, see below for what the therapists wrote about Olivia:

Strengths & Abilities

• Good problem solving abilities
• Able to follow through with multi-step directions once provided with a visual model
• Age appropriate fine motor skills
• Socializes well with well-matched peer
• Once bonded and comfortable with a peer, she is talkative and expresses interest to connect even when peer isn't present
• Knows what she wants
• Takes leadership role with close peer
• Once comfortable in an area, easily able to communicate wants and needs
• Loving, supportive, and dedicated family

Learning Style

• Visual learner
• Visual schedule
• Routine
• Responds well to First, Then prompts
• Learns by doing
• Responds well to peer model
• Responds well to positive reinforcement--reassures learning
• Responds well to silliness when comfortable

Goals:

1. Olivia will participate in back and forth communication for 3 exchanges (she talks and you talk is considered 1 exchange). They said that when she was in a 'resourceful place' she could participate in 5-8 turns within a play routine and/or in an familiar activity. They also said generally upon initiation of an activity or with direct questions, Olivia will not respond or will respond with a 'no' [don't we know it!!!]. Methods to get her into a 'resourceful place' are: lotion massages, shared control and humor.


2. Olivia will appropriately express wants and needs. When she is in an 'resourceful emotional state' she is good with this. More tips for getting her there (or "touchstones" as they called it) were: checking her schedule (they said that this really calmed her down), wearing her jacket/sweater, lotion and peer modeling.


3. Olivia will actively participate in activities 4 out of 5 times. They said that she needs some warm-up time and a bit of control over the situation, but then she is able to participate 100%. If she does not feel some control or during transitions, she has a lot of trouble participating.


4. Olivia will consistently follow simple 2-step directions within camp activities/routines with fading prompts. They said when she was doing well she could follow 2 and 3 step directions. She did not follow directions at all when distracted or upset.

Recommendations:

• Briefly acknowledge feelings, set clear expectations, then redirect behavior
• Play groups with a consistent group of typical peers
• Tangible reinforcements for toileting routine
• Bathroom picture on picture schedule
• Timer
• For increasing turn-taking, communicate about immediate environment and/or immediate experiences
• Use visuals to facilitate communication about present or past events and/or things not happening in immediate environment
• Social Story for toileting, fears of toileting routine
• Come back to Adam's Camp!

So, they gave us a resource of Carol Gray for the social stories. This is something I still need to look up. Essentially, they said that she will build her ability to talk to us by practicing with visual pictures first. A suggestion was using the Adam's Camp book and looking at the pictures with Olivia and then making comments or asking some questions about the pictures with her. I did this on Sunday and we had one of the best conversations that we have ever had. So far, Jason and I have noticed a difference (improvement) in her speech which really surprises me because I wasn't expecting to. There have been times we've actually looked at each other, almost in disbelief, at some of the things she has said in the past couple of days. Of course, we still have a lot of room to catch up, but I think the camp was great for building some confidence in Olivia and allowing her a lot of time to get intensive therapy. We both feel like they really "got" her and understood her which was very reassuring. I'm really glad we made the trip.