January 15

This past week was the first week with volunteers to watch Amy and I started training two volunteers to be in the playroom with Sarah. I train two more this week. I also evaluated Sarah using the developmental model that the Autism Treatment Center of America/Son-Rise Program provides. I had evaluated her over the summer when I did the parent training and this was the first time since then. The idea is to evaluate her every 4-6 weeks and create specific goals and be able to notice progress more specifically.

Given that so much time has passed and that I didn't fully understand some of the developmental model eval before some of the growth noticed may appear bigger than it actually was. I don't actually remember her language level very well from the summer. I know she had many words that she used just one sound to convey and I know that has changed dramatically to include multiple sounds per word and several complete words. Anyway, over the summer I noted that she had acquired 5 words or more that she could verbally communicate but that she wasn't yet in in the 5-60 word category. This weekend I wrote down all of her words including partial words and full words. 221 words/partial words!!!!!!!!! And 33 of those I count as being full words where she really says the whole word (even if her r isn't pronounced right). I'm sure I'm not even remembering all of the words she does have. And her comprehension is certainly even greater.

Her words:
red blue black white brown yellow pink purple green orange ears eyes nose teeth head neck back leg foot toe hair shirt shorts pants socks overalls machine massage shoe coat cold brr hot apple cheese mac (and cheese) juice milkshake mint chocolate granola bar pull push on in off out yogurt goldfish fish matching squares card cord playdough run walk stroller go boom blow tissue bump snow play boot let ("let go") fruit leather zipper Misaki Gregory Sonia Adam Caitlin Amy Mom Dada MomMom Granddad Brian Lani Denise pig dog music Zo Zoe Cara party Scrooge duck fall floor ball big potty pee poop chicken soup banana lemonade help please suds soap water want I you Sarah ipad baby movie nap bed now Steelers frito fries cheesecake bites dibs jump door wire line railing wet dry leaf strawberry blanket cow goat tail paw dirty hand vanilla bike ride Bud horse hi bye cut stay hurt watch bead share b e w row step stairs down up all done more again move bubble light candle gate fuzzy belly dino snuggle puppy table chair egg scrambled baloon ham bagel hot sheet Elmo button belt jeans seem stripe kid ramp train tent block poke hole pinch finger school car ring seed rock dot shh sit mad sad sleep heart tap flower diaper wipe pillow open close one two three kiss glasses wall bunny

Some of these are contextual in terms of knowing what she means and most of these only Carl and I can understand but I know she knows these words and is trying to communicate them to me, often looking at me as she tells me what she sees or what happened or what she wants.