Teaching. Mom.to SEE is HARD!

This morning Ryan and I had Grammy on speaker phone and Grammy asked ..do you like having Ashley teach you? He spells:
EDUACTION MAKES SO HAPPY RYAN

So, then I said.. hey.. do you like Mommy teaching you?.. and he spells

NO

great.. that made me feel awful......Then I asked him why in a kind voice so he would be honest and tell me...... he spells:

SEEING SO HARD

I have been asking him to read the computer screen multiple choice questions and we did geography last night. We were learning about the concept of borders Like one question was look at the map... find Italy.... and what two countries border Italy... he had to look and then spell on his letter board the bordering countries.......so ...lots of looking.......hmmmm.. he has said this before seeing is hard....... I told him I will teach more by talking vs looking... also I want to ask him exactly what could physically be going on... he can definately see tiny words..

Ashley can now do letterboard fluently with Ryan!!

Well, a new milestone for our family!!!!!!!!!!!!

My 13 year old daughter now is fluent on the board with my son Ryan! She now teaches him his OVA content along with me. I knew she could get a few words with Ryan here and there......well. now they are talking in sentences... she is teaching and he said this afternoon and yesterday

TEACH RYAN ( ashley had board and was talking to him)

Who do you want to teach Ryan? ( ash asked)

RYAN WANTS ASHLEY TO TEACH RYAN

Yes yes.. yes he is enjoying learning with her.......... Oh my gosh..........this is unbelievable. They did math asssesment testing today completed one math unit and did vocab for the novel he is reading " Sign of the Beaver" historical fiction...he loves it!

He is also reading the computer screen and answering mulitiple choice A-D options..

Please.. anyone who reads this...your child can do SOOOOOOOO much more then everyone thought.. Go to HALO... learn this method.. My son... would have been stuck with 25.. I want pecs cards or a talker for the rest of his life.......... now he has a voice and opionion and is free to stand up for himself... he can tell people exactly what he thinks.. it is not just my son....all the families who went to halo from Cincinnati... have the exact same experience as we did........... Give your child their voice...what do you have to lose.......

What was Joyce saying?

Every morning Ryan and I have our bible study. I give him a choice of watching three different Christian programs. He chooses Joyce Meyer all the time.. probably because he has grown up around watching that program...

So, we were watching this morning and Ryan grabbed my car keys and was walking around.. laughing and being quite joyful.. ( I stopped saying silly... because I would not want someone to call me silly when I may not be trying to be silly)

Well.. I said.. hey... we are suppose to be watching Joyce..she is teaching us some strong principles on how to live our life... no response...from Ryan... so I grabbed his board and said..

Who were we listening to.. inside I thought..Teresa, you know he knows ..you shouldn't ask him.. well of course .. with ease he spells JOYCE

Then I said.. What did she teach us did you hear her............................

He spells............ WANTS US TO DIE TO SELF ...LIVE FOR GOD!

Yes, correct!! Exactly her point. Joyce's 10 minute lecture... with quoting scripture and saying this principle in every way except the words " die to self" . However, know this.. Ryan picked up that term ( which I did not know ) from Joyce's other lessons he and I watched...


By the way.. " die to self" is really " like saying "get your mind off yourself and love and help people like Jesus does".

Remember..................our kids are listening.. A good morning for us!!!! Thanking God!!!

"RYAN HATES MAKE DANCE" OT OBSERVATION

An OT was observing Ryan session with his therapist the other day. She was talking about Ryan to the observer but saying only positive things.......BUT Ryan got upset AND SAID FIRST

RYAN NOT DANCE

then

RYAN HATES MAKE DANCE ... of course in tears and screams he is spelling this out..

I knew what he meant......He doesnt want to feel like he has to perform for people..............UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I asked him do you me perform for "X" and he said YES. My awesome OT asked the observer to step out and Ryan calmed down ..

Remember are kids get it they are in there...........we must pay attention!

Feelings about School! and Ohio Virtual Academy

Ryan is doing Ohio Virtual Academy this year. They have a thing called class connects. It is on illuminate a meeting site. Kids get on and the teacher does instruction! The kids can raise there hands and answer questions.. Talk on the mic... The teacher is doing Literature.. a novel." The Sign of the Beaver" Ryan came to the table and banged the computer wanting to listen to the story and interact with the kids. See he can make noise and take breaks whenever he wants.. IT IS SO COOL. But he feels like an active part of the class answering on his board. He was asked to make a prediction based on the cover what the book is about. Will post that next.. So smart.. and intuitive!

Well I asked him. hey do you like being with the teacher and learning with the kids.. and this was his answer:

Spelled name of his past school... then said _xxxxxxx SCHOOL SEPERATES RYAN..LIKE MAKING DECISIONS

See in the classroom he can answer with the kids at his pace we can keep talking while the teacher is teaching.. it works.. it is brilliant.......... we really love the repeats.. because I can pause the teacher .... give Ryan time to think and respond.. and then not miss a lick............... Ryan feels like he is participating making decisions.. answering her provoking questions.. she is getting the kids to think.. and Ryan loves it He loves to make decisions!

Visit with the new speech therapist!

I have not had to start up with a new speech therapist in a long while.. This situation was perfect for RPM... because we sat at a table. THIS IS WHAT WAS SO COOL................Everything had changed.. Before I would speak for Ryan.. I would say what he was interested in and what he wanted to accomplish at the sessions.. I spoke for him always...............This time Ryan had his voice........he told her ......

Please HELP ME SPEAK. I DON'T LIKE COMPUTER. LIKE TV I LIKE MOVIES I THINK SOME GAMES ARE .. NOT FOR RYAN .

He sat there answering her interview questions via his letter board. ..... that was awesome!!!!

He kept gently touching under the therapist chin.......well before rpm I would have said. NO hands down.. thinking it was a quirky behavior.. However, he told me several months back that he does that to say I like you will you and will you be my friend..................think about that...........how loving is that .. and I was grabbing his hand. and feeling somewhat embarrassed about the action..

God is good......is what comes to mind.. I am so grateful to have my son's voice.. we get each other now.

What every Mom wants to KNOW!!!

Ryan is non-verbal.. so he could never tell me if he was sick or something hurt...............Well now he can!

I noticed dry blood in his ear and a scab .. like he was picking at his ear..so I said the following.. Ryan does your ear hurt ..does it bother you.. do you have an boo boo..?? why am I going into such detail and talking baby talk........NO IDEA .. I do know I needed to get his attentions so talked for a little bit about what I was going to be asking him . however.. did I need to babytalk........NOPE.. so he says to me:

EAR IS TOTALLY HEALTHY.

Well after that mature comment.... I was the one feeling stupid.......... so good to be able to talk to my son......... We must come to a point of understanding.. just because our kids can not speak does not mean they are stupid............ yes.........lets start the change of thinking.... I am first in line and have to be reminded at times. Thank God for Ryan' s sake .. I don't have to be reminded so often any more!

The true heart of Ryan and how it helped Ashley

To honor Ryan I will not share specifics but a few minutes ago Ashley had to help Ryan while I was on the phone. She wanted him to wait for Mom to help him vs her and had also damaged a personal item in here room.

So I came to help them got Ryan all fixed up and knew from his noises and upset sounds he was very upset for sure over the entire incident.

he spells on board when we came downstairs

RYAN WANTS YESTERDAY

I said why...

NOT WANT TO HELP RYAN..

I knew he was talking about Ashley but asked and he spelled ASHLEY

Called ASHLEY DOWN AND Ryan said..

DID NOT MEAN TO ________________ CAN YOU PLEASE FORGIVE ME
Ashley was sitting at the kitchen table she ran around the table crying telling ryan I was not mad at you I was just tired and in a bad mood I love you Ryan... yah.. I was holding back my tears..Then he spells out

SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO _____________________. and ran upstairs Ashley followed. She now is sitting next to me and told me what she told Ryan... she said.. ,"I should ask you to forgive me. Ryan, you are the most awesome brother..and several other sweet things ....... she has the heart of God and so does Ryan.. together we will get through all that comes are way.

I shared with Ashley how it must be very hard and at times humilating to not be able to make your body do the right thing or be trapped inside and have no way to explain anything. Please if you have a child with Autism learn this method.. help your child have a voice...

I am sorry I point Kate!

Well Kate came over and Ryan and all of us were talking.. He told her he liked snicker doodle cookies at Whole foods. ...this was a new food item which earlier this morning I had him read the sign at the store vs. going in and grabbing the cookie..and then spell the word to me . Next I showed him how to use the tissue paper and take a cookie from the glass shelf. He remember how to spell the word hours later as we sat talking to Kate..impressive!!

Well he said to Kate: I XTREMELY WANT TO SPEAK RYAN SORRY HE POINTS ..

Kate being her totally sweet self said .. that's OK Ryan I like that you point.. Ryan got really silly tried to say something else then ran away........it was fun and so cool.. Ryan really felt OK for that moment about pointing .. like I said to Ryan we are working on speaking and pointing ..it is all coming along so well..

We love Kate!!

Spelling a question and describing the car!

Ashley always says.. your funny Mom you spell everything now.......... Well, I was talking to Paul and Ryan and started spelling.. a word...... and thought. Ryan are you even paying attention to me..... So I spelled the following sentence to him NOT saying the words.. spelling the words.. Letter by letter I spelled this:

F-L-O-W-E-R- O-N- T-A-B-L-E- -I-S-W-H-A-T-C-O-L-O-R?

Ryan spells on board YELLOW....................He is correct! He is listening to me spelling multiple words comprehending the words the question and then answering!!

So blown away.... I was thinking. About sentences and I said.you know what Ryan I think you need to write higher level sentences like people do in college.. how about that!!!! So, I explained when I was in college my teachers wanted us to use more description when writing . using adjectives for example. Explained what an adjective was then took his plastic toy cat he was holding and said, I could create a sentence about this cat like this: THIS IS A CAT or I could use adjectives and describe the cat this way: THIS IS A GRAY CAT WITH WHITE STRIPES AND DARK SLANTED EYES.

So next I grabbed a toy car out of toy basket and said Ryan make a sentences describing this car. This is the awesome sentence he wrote.. the car had all those colors on it....


................. THIS IS A PURPLE WHITE GREEN TOY CAR.

Wow............. I am so impressed and all this took place this morning sitting on the floor in the morning room by the cool air duct..........his favorite place:) Today is a great day!!

Our Kids ARE hearing us............

Sharing this to let other parents understand... our kids hear and are affected by what we say.


Paul and I were discussing a problem and Paul when he is upset can take on this tone...... but Ryan is very aware when he is upset about something. . Paul brought up past situations of problem X .. well Ryan said the following but before that he starting pacing and talking/ sounds in DAD's face...trying to tell us to stop.

So Paul got the board and Paul and Ryan were talking ..Ryan spelled
DAD STOP YELLING

Ryan was standing up...and getting tired so we said lets talk sitting down.. then I took over the board and Ryan spelled:

PLEASE RYAN REALLY WANTS EITHER YOU STOP REMEMBERING
RYAN UPSET XTREMELY
STOP YELLING

Then Paul said I am sorry Ryan when I get upset I tend to speak louder and I am sorry buddy. Ryan consoles Paul here we go

WAS VERY SORRY TO ( we said do you mean to as in also..he spelled YES.)
SOMETIMES RYAN SO MAD TO
SO VERY HARD TO REACH OUT

then we talked about that and then I said anything else you want to tell us

LOVE YOU.....

My son .. I he is so kind and so understanding.. I want to be more like him