"But Blakey has some sour cream"

Isaac is growing each day, but his stimming continues to be a worry and many times over-powers his ability to learn.

Today, Isaac was sitting at the table with the other kids as we enjoyed a family dinner. He LOVES sour cream and always asks for it (and often times will eat it by itself). He had the understanding that everyone had to have at least 3 bites of their enchalada, and THEN sour cream. For some reason, he thought Blake was getting sour cream without having to eat any of his enchilada. He cried out "But Blakey gets sour cream". It was so funny. Why is that important? I think it's something we haven't seen before: comparison to others. It is showing the ability to look at his surroundings and draw comparisons between himself and others.

Just as he's growing that way, he is also extremely distracted by flickering lights (that noone else would see), dish washers, clothes washers, showers running, etc. His therapist said today it's dishwashers, tomorrow it will be something else. Their approach is to redirect him from the distraction of the day.

Great progress, but still stimming

I haven't written in the journal in a long time. Isaac has been assigned ABA, ST, and OT for quite a long time now. ABA is only within the last 6 months, but the other two have been ongoing since we arrived in CO - for the last 2 1/2 years. He is making tremendous progress in eye contact, asking questions, etc. One area he is really struggling in, however, is stimming. He is able to learn very well, but when he is stimulated (by a sound, a texture or something else), all learning takes a back seat to his need for stimming.

He is learning many phrases and creating his own language around these phrases. The other day I was asking him to feed Max, our dog, a bone while on a walk. He kept telling me "Max is not hungry" and "He doesn't want a bone". Then, at some point, he said "OK, I know Max is hungry, but I don't want to give him this bone. It was cool to see him reasoning within himself and explaining the "why" behind his decision.

My goal for this week is helping him stim only when appropriate.