TV Star...

I awoke very early this morning, had a bowl of cereal then pondered whether I should just get showered and dressed and get on with the day or go back to bed for an hour with the puppy training manual.  I chose the latter and promptly dosed off till almost 10am! 

We had a visit from Tracy the Speech and Language Therapist this afternoon to talk about the communication strategies she wants us to introduce to Alan.  One to allow him to express thoughts, preferences and feelings and another for general choice communication i.e. where he wants to go, activities he wants to do and what he'd like for dinner etc.

It's a symbol based system where he can choose symbols to express himself.  The symbol are 2" square and can be logos that he would recognise e.g. Tesco or photos of the actual things / people he might choose.

We already know Alan will use symbols effectively to tell us what he wants to eat / do / or where he wants to go, but he is less keen to talk about feelings.  Even asking him to choose a favourite something causes him to break eye contact and asking him about his feelings / likes and dislikes seems to embarrass him,  so Tracy wanted to spend some time with Alan to try a simple communication strategy of taking him through a pile of animal symbols in the hope he would tell her which he liked and which he didn't.  The point though, is not to ask him a leading question such as do you like ducks?  Yes or no?  as including the word "like" in the question could lead him to say yes.  Instead, she would ask him what do you think about ducks and he would have the choice of two symbols - LIKE and DISLIKE

He's only met Tracy once before for only a few minutes, so we weren't sure whether he would entertain her or even be willing to do the task.  The problem is if he gets the merest hint he's being tested or assessed, his head goes down and he completely disengages (there are reasons for this too long to go into here but suffice to say if I did, there would be a lot of F words and the word professional would appear in inverted commas every time it was used!) 

After a lengthy chat with us, Tracy went off with her animal symbols to chat to Alan.  We fully expected her to return within a few minutes. After five minutes she was still with him and we could hear him laughing.  

We put the TV in the garden room on where we were able to watch what was happening in Alan's sitting room via the camera that's set up to our home control system (to let us check he's ok without having to disturb him) and we were astounded to see him giving Tracy his full attention.  He let her go through the animals and amid much laughter and mischief, he divided the animals into like and dislike.   

Not surprised to find out he LOVES dogs (the dog symbol got a very enthusiastic LIKE response (phew!) but interesting to find out he is also rather fond of giraffes!   

We are delighted (as is Tracy) that the session went so well.  It opens the door to discovering his deeper personality and allowing him the chance to fully express all of his emotions, thoughts and feelings (if he so wishes.)  

Of course it's not straightforward and the skill lies in how the questions are asked and how the conversation is facilitated should it go off at a tangent (conversation rarely follows a straight line and I am the master of going all round the houses when expressing anything!  lol) so Tracy is going to train David and I and Alan's support team so that we have a consistent approach and are using the strategies without asking leading questions or second guessing what Alan's responses will be.

Tracy had also made symbols of the head shots I'd sent her of family members, friends and his support team and asked Ashleigh to spend some time this evening asking him to sort them into family, friends and support workers.  

Again we weren't sure if he would engage in this activity but he did then wanted to do it again...and again!  With only a couple of changes of mind he got it right (he confused friend Gail with Auntie Gail the first time but corrected himself) 

He now also has a weekly timetable that we can attach symbols to that remind him what's happening on that day.  He can also chose symbols to tell us what he might want to do other days of the week e.g.. Thursday afternoon go to Cafe Bianco etc.   

But his favourite thing is the visual rota for his support workers.  Each night at dinner time he likes to know who's coming in the next day and the day after so we discuss that.  Depending on who is in his good books (usually the blondes!) he will indicate who he would rather be coming in.  We call that his pretend rota.  He knows the difference and thinks it;s funny.  Now he will have a real rota with the photos of who is coming in when, but he can also have fun with it and change it around to reflect his preference, a bit like a fantasy football league but with support workers!  :-))

We are so happy that this has gotten off to such a great start and over the next few weeks my job is to continue taking photos of anything that Alan is interested in, places he goes, things he does, food he eats etc etc and send them to Tracy so she can make them into symbols for him.

On top of that we are well into puppy prep with a planned visit to Pets at Home tomorrow and possibly Hungry Hounds in Falkirk to buy in food supplies.  Lola has been weaned onto a raw diet and we want to continue with that.  Think we know which vet we are going with too so that leaves Pet  Insurance to sort out.  Oh and a collar and lead!  :-))

Also in the throes of organising a reunion at ours next Sunday for retired and ex-employees of my last place of work.  So far there are 25 people coming, some of whom I don't even know as they had been and gone before I worked there, but I am really looking forward to it.  

So, a busy week ahead!  Bring it on :-))