Simmi
Age: 5 years 4 months old

He is on the GFCF diet, ABA therapy, biomedication and underwent HBOT (40 hours previously).

Behaviors: Simmi is hyperactive and often stays in perpetual motion. He likes to keep on jumping and spinning and climbs on furniture.

Language: Simmi needs instructions repeated several times and has difficulty with phonics. He has a short attention span, and often needs to be prompted. He is easily distracted by noise and has a delayed response to verbal stimuli. He often gives inappropriate responses to conversation.

He relies on lip reading, finds it difficult to find words to express himself. His parents feel that he is non verbal. He does not speak clearly and often repeats sentences and phrases. He likes memorizing words to songs, stories or video. He has difficulty with reading,writing and spelling.

Words that Simmi can identify around 100 to 15o words according to his mother, but his usage is limited.

Sound Sensitivity:
His parents brought him to AIT for speech issues and  his sensitivity to blowers, drills, fireworks, gun shots, sound of rain/thunder, and the sound of the bus opening and closing. He would cover his ears in anticipation of the sound.  His parents also wanted to address his poor eye contact and hyperactivity.

On his 1st Evaluation, he was tested on the AIT unit and he reacted violently and had to be constantly held by his parents during the therapy. He was particularly irritated at the feel of the headphones on his head. He also did not like listening to the AIT music.  He also refused to work on writing, coloring and drawing test given that day.

1st Day of AIT:

During the ride to the center, he would be very restless and would not keep still in the car.  He would cover his ears if he saw a bus.

1st session: Simmi was very much upset and would shout ” Mc Queen!” ” Water” “Mater” and would count numbers during the session. He was crying and had very low frustration tolerance. He had to be heavily prompted to say ” Please remove” and “Please open the door”.

2nd session: Upon seeing the center again prior to the 2nd session, Simmi said “Bye! Bye!” He didn’t want to go through with the 2nd session. He tried to run before going through the door of the AIT room. He was again upset and would cry until the session finished, but he is calmer today than he was yesterday. He was prompted heavily to say “Please “. Simmi is used to saying “Give me” . It took a little while for him to get used to saying “Please ” as in “Please give me Dinoco. “Please give me Lightning Mc Queen. ” “Please give me Chics” and “Please remove”

2nd Day of AIT:

Mom noticed last night that Simmi had hurt himself by removing the irritating dry skin from his lips. Simmi started shouting “Blood! Blood!” upon seeing blood on his fingers. Mom was surprised to see him connect the word blood upon seeing real blood. Normally, he is not able to do this, although he has heard his mom say the word several times before.

On the way to AIT, Mom also noticed that Simmi was not covering his ears so much anymore.

1st session: Upon seeing me, he said “headphones” before going into the AIT room. During the session Simmi is amazingly calmer and behaved, he is like a different boy. Although it took a while to get him to say ” Please give me Luigi”. He was already crying in frustration because he couldn’t say the sentence properly, and I would not give him the toy until he said the sentence properly. I was surprised that he wanted the towel so much (to wipe his tears) that he was able to say “Please give me towel” after two prompts. After he said that, it was easier for him to say ” Please give Luigi or Please give me Panda” . He was also able to easily say “Please open the door”. His words were clearer and I only had to prompt him twice.

2nd session: Simmi was calmer and would fidget but is generally behaved. He accidentally peed on on his dad during the session. He is faster now in saying ” Please give me Chic (like he has learned the pattern of the sentence) . Please give me VAN”. As for opening the door, it is a breeze for him to say ” Please open the door”.

3rd Day of AIT:

Last night , Mom was calling Simmi for 10 minutes to go to the bathroom, but he didn’t respond. Mom went out to look for him and to find him lying down on the bed smiling and looking very relaxed.

On the way here, Mom and Dad brought Simmi to a restaurant before going to the center, and Sam noticed this and said ” ears” pointing to his “ears”. He knew it was not their typical routine for the past two days. Mom noticed that Simmi was very calm and able to sit down. He is usually restless and say his mom says ” Super likot” and  is unable stay in the same place for long.

1st session : Was very calm and relaxed, would smile often and make cute faces. Simmi automatically said “Please remove” after the music.

2nd session: He was able to follow instructions saying ” Please remove headphones after one prompt”. He was also able to say ” I want to eat lollipop”. and “Please open lollipop.”

4th Day of AIT:

Last night, Mom bought french fries. Mom taught Simmi how to say ” Mommy give me french fries”. Simmi was able to say “Mommy please give me french fries” or “Daddy please give me french fries”. Mom gave the fries little by little. She and Dad took turns teaching Simmi

When they reached home, Dad took time out to play with Simmi. Simmi usually doesn’t like people touching his toys when he is busy playing or building. Dad decided to tease Simmi by trying to touch the house he was building, Simmi would then grab his hand and pull it away in annoyance.

Usually Simmi does this without saying anything, this night, Dad taught Simmi to say ” Don’t Touch, Daddy” or Please Don’t Touch”. This action was repeated three time by Dad. Simmi was able to pick up on this and was able to say ” Don’t Touch, Daddy” and Dad stopped bothering him with his toy.

Dad also turned the wooden house’s parts into a learning session for Simmi to start asking ” Please give me wrench or please give me screw .” It took Simmi a few moments to pick up the concept of using the identified item with the sentence ” Please give me” . He also knows now to identify saying either ” Mommy or Daddy” before saying “Please give me.”

Dad also noticed that Simmi looks in the eyes more now when he is being taught. Eye contact is no longer as fleeting as it used to be. He is now aware that if Mom, Dad or Teacher Steph are talking to him that we are trying to teach him something. He knows that if he learns the concept, he will be rewarded with something.

Mom also noticed that Simmi’s tantrums are lesser. He usually cries a lot in the morning like around 10 to 15 minutes. This is the first time he cried only for 2 or 3 minutes only. Simmi removed his nappies by himself for the first time, and his mom found him trying to roll it up by himself.

Upon waking up, Simmi was looking for a part of the wooden house toy, and started crying in frustration. Normally, he just cries and expects Mommy to look for the toy. But this is the first time he was able to look for the toy on his own. He kept going around the room, checking for toy parts. He tried to ask his mom for help by saying ” Please..” but he stopped since he didn’t know what the part of the toy was called. He and his mom looked everywhere for the toy.

Simmi eventually found a similar toy part that he was happy with and he was able to calm down. This is a big improvement for Simmi in terms of frustration tolerance because he seemed to realize that he could look for the missing toy himself instead of depending on Mommy to do everything for him.

On the way to AIT, it was raining hard, and Simmi amazed his parents by not covering his ears.  Simmi usually he has a habit of covering his ears when it is raining, and previously he would say ” Cover ears! Cover ears!” Today he was actually able to sit down calmly at the car. He only attempted to stand 2x. He also knows that he is going to the therapy center, because he keeps saying ” headphones” .

5th Day of AIT:

His mom said that last night was the first night they were able to teach Simmi to say ” Thank you, Mommy.”

Today is the first time I saw him go inside the AIT room and sit calmly for 2 minutes, before deciding to run around again.

2nd Session:

Simmi was able to say with minimal prompting: “Teacher Steph, please open the door.” He also surprised me by saying ” Bye, bye, Steph” as he was so impatient to leave the center.  After minimal prompting, he was able to say ” Bye, bye, Teacher Steph.”

6th Day of AIT:

Simmi’s mom told us that they were actually able to shop at S & R for the 1st time without much interruption from Simmi.  Simmi has a difficult time sitting still on the cart and would try to pull things off the shelf or demand to be released so he could walk around.  For the first time, Simmi’s parents were amazed that he was able to spend almost 30 minutes on the cart without making a ruckus or trying to grab things from the shelves.

7th Day of AIT:

1st Session Sam was cooperative. Today he was able to say ” Can I play with Woody ” “Can I play with Buzz?”. He was also able to say after much prompting and some crying . ” I need my white towel” and ” Mommy, I want to come with you.”

2nd Session: Simmi was able to say the sentences being taught earlier at a faster rate and minimal prompting was needed.

8th Day of AIT:

Simmi surprised us by saying ” What’s up Teacher Steph?” as  he sat down for his 1st session .  He would look at me while talking, although he didn’t seem to expect a reply.

On the 2nd session, it was easier for Simmi to follow instructions like ” I need my shoes ” and “Teacher Steph, please open the door.”

10th Day of AIT:

Dad’s observations.  Simmi is less sensitive to loud sounds.  He is easier to teach.  He has better eye contact.  He is also able to use more language and words now.

Two Weeks after AIT

July 13, 2012

Yesterday, Simmi  was able to ride a theme park car ride without covering his ears. He was able to tolerate the noise around him when before he would cover his ears. He now only covers his ears when he is anticipating something.

Simmi is now able to walk alongside his parents without being held by the hand. Before he would try to run off, so his parents had to hold him for fear that he would get lost. The only times that he strays away from his parents now while walking is when he sees something at that distracts him.

Simmi’s sitting span has improved compared to his previous behaviors prior to AIT when he couldn’t sit still. His dad noticed that as long as Simmi is doing something, he is able to sit behaved on a chair.

Dad’s comments is that Simmi has mastered most of the sentences that were taught to him during the sessions, now he is trying to teach Simmi more words to use in communication.

Mom’s learnings from AIT:

Mom used to just give in when Simmi would cry, since she didn’t want Simmi to be sad or frustrated. Simmi’s tantrums would often last an hour or so and Mom finds this difficult to tolerate. So she would often give in the Simmi’s tantrums just to keep Simmi as happy as possible even if it meant giving in to many of the things he wanted.

These past few days Mom realized she needs to take action and be able to have more patience with Simmi. If Simmi cries nowadays, Mom takes the initiative to try and find out what is bothering Simmi and to teach him the words, so he is able to say what he wants. She doesn’t want to always give in to Simmi’s whims, unless Simmi makes the effort to say what he wants.

Mom realizes that Simmi still has a lot of room for improvement and is able to more or less handle his tantrums better if he realizes the power of words and how to use it.

Mom and Dad’s dream is to be able to go out and have Simmi behave in public (in terms of being able to have a longer sitting and waiting time).

Soundtherapy’s notes:

Parents are a child’s first teacher and they have the potential to be the child’s best teacher. As Simmi’s mom is with him almost 24/7, there is so much that Simmi can learn from his mother. From what I’ve seen of Simmi’s improvements these past few days- the love, patience, and understanding Simmi’s parents have shown in taking the time to teach and label things their child, shows us that Simmi has the potential to be more than what he was when he started AIT.

The mutual involvement of Simmi’s parents in his therapy – do make a BIG difference. Simmi is lucky that his parents have the time and the willingness to be involved in his therapy.

Simmi’s parents are also lucky in the sense that Simmi is very receptive to learning and that he is a motivated learner now that he has seen the power of communicating.