Here it is! Abbey’s Year video!! I don’t think I got around to doing one last year, but we have several older ones on our YouTube channel. It’s amazing to see how far she has come! She’s happier than ever, communicating more than ever and is really getting the hang of going new places and trying new things!
Celebrate with us as we look back and see how we have helped Abbey learn and grow!
Click here to watch Abbey’s Year 2014!
So, when the new pool arrived, we knew Abbey would be happy….but look at her go, wow! Let me add that the box weighs 130 pounds! Yes, she’s amazing!
Click on the video below to watch!
The Abster is a grumpster this morning, didn’t want to get ready for school! We distract and stay busy once we’re all ready and waiting for the bus!
She wasn’t very into doing her exercises with me this morning, but she did them. Then we smelled the roses and pulled the petals off to stay busy for the rest of the time. This is a favorite activity for Abbey, but I don’t let her do it very often, so she sure got into that!
Here she is with the roses:)
Click on the video below to see her doing her exercises, rather grumpily:
P.S. She’s carrying her iPad mini in a Chat Bag, found at http://www.chatbag.net
Here’s Abbey actually playing with some toys appropriately, which is hard to come by! Ok, well, kind of.:) It’s super neat to see her playing and not ‘stacking or piling!’
You’ll also notice the sensory component that is included in everything she does!!
Abbey has made so much progress communicating and with so many of her really hard behaviors, but why does it seem like when they make great progress in one area, another area gets harder?
It seems like Abbey’s sensory world just gets completely out of control, out of this world crazy sometimes, and we’re seeing it now more than ever! Is it just because she’s so much bigger and older now? She has broken a very long list of things in her house like her window, holes in walls, our couch, her bed, more chairs than I can remember, just to name a few…and none of them when she was mad! She broke all of these things just rocking, bouncing, jumping around in big, huge movements. We have swings inside and out, exercise balls, stuff to chew on, sensory stuff all over our house for her to play with…but it’s just not enough. Will we be able to find something that is enough? I don’t know, but we’re working on it! We’re working on another outside trampoline as her inside one just doesn’t seem to do much for her…but, problem is, she’s so heavy and so rough on things, we need a really good, safe one…yes, expensive, just like everything Abbey needs and breaks! Well, more praying! AND, as we work on these really hard things, we’re just gonna keep on focusing and celebrating the great things that are happening, ’cause that’s what it’s all about!
Ugh, sensory issues are so hard! Just when you think, just maybe, the days of picking tiny pieces of non-edible things out of their mouths is over, it’s not. The need obviously comes and goes, for Abbey anyway. Pica, or chewing on all those non-edible things, has always been a problem for Abbey. We go through so much Spry gum, it’s crazy!
We’re working on getting her a big trampoline again, realizing how much she really does need that outlet and that sensory input. Finding the sensory things that help them, can make such a difference and teaching them to learn to ask for those things is imperative!
Well, for some reason teaching quantity, for Abbey, has been a huge challenge. So, finding apps that she likes that can help with this has been a lot harder than, say, word apps, tracing apps, etc..
Watch a video of her playing with her fav ones…Click here! Or just click on the video below, to view it!
The pics shown are from the app, Critter Doodle Math: Numbers. There are lots of activities, but by far, Abbey’s fav activity is the tracing. I am pretty sure it’s because you pop the bubbles as you trace the number, but then the cool part is that, as you see below, when they are finished tracing the number, bubbles come up to pop and count, for each number. That’s a very motivating way for Abbey to learn quantity!
One of the other great activities is teaching largest to smallest, big and small. This has also been a hard concept for Abbey and she enjoys this activity as well!
Happy Counting!!
So every day, it’s something new. One thing about autism is, it’s never boring. You work on one behavior or challenge, just to have another one pop up! Yesterday it was, how do I get Abbey into Walmart because we’re out of toilet paper…yep, we made a story on Pictello about being out of toilet paper and made a grocery list in her story…worked great! The things you have to do to get toilet paper, gheesh! Today, she’s back to playing in the water in the fish tank. Yep, thought we had that one licked, so sometimes you even get to go back to an old challenge and take it on again, fun!
As you can see, from the picture, I put a bowl in the sink for her to play in. AND, added a picture of a faucet, with the words, “play in water” as a button on her iPad, so she can ask…super important! Communicating is the key to it all, we have finally figured out! She’s asking permission now before she does things, when she has a way to! Obviously, today is a water day and it’s winter, no pool. What is it with water and our kids with autism? They love it! She used to ask for baths all day, when she was younger. That was too much, got out of that one. So, sometimes you have to go with it, figure out how, not to get them to NOT play in water, but how they can. It’s like that with so many things. If you fight the challenge, it will win..you have to find a middle ground, something more acceptable, replace what you don’t want them to do with something that they like and you like too. Yeah, not always an easy task!
What worked in the past with the fish tank was a “Stop” sign. Ok, we had tried the stop signs in the past on things, didn’t work. So, sometimes what didn’t work in the past, good to take it out and try again, you never know. It seemed to work this time, yeah! Talk about an exciting day when she pulled me to the fish tank and put her hand on it, looked at me and I pointed to the stop sign…and yes, she accepted it, walked away and didn’t play in it for weeks, until today!
So, what’s your daily challenge today? Is it potty training, or something that is a daily challenge that won’t seem to end? Or is it a new challenge that just came up today? You get to be a detective every day, some days that’s pretty cool…other days, exhausting! Hang in there! Even those challenges that seem like they aren’t getting any better, usually, over time, with work, they do! Then you get to look back and feel a massive amount of accomplishment! And that, is a totally amazing feeling. Don’t forget to look back and see what you have accomplished when you’re working on your new daily struggle, it will help you have hope and the will to get through it!
So, yes, it’s hard every year to pick out presents for Abbey. She can’t go on Amazon and make a wish list like my other kids…yet. So, sometimes we pick winners and sometimes we don’t. Here are some great things that were definite winners this year!
First is a little hand massager. We put this on her communicating app, as an option and she asks for this at bedtime. It helps her relax. 
Next are see through blocks that nest and stack. The ability to pick which size fits in which is an early math skill that Abbey still needs help with and she LOVES to look through transparent things with different colors, so 2 awesome features in one. Transparent Stacking Tower
And finally, Abbey loves squishies, I mean really loves squishy toys. Our problem is, we go through them quickly as they pop and sometimes quite messily if they are filled with goo! Here is a totally cool one that Abbey loves that will hold up!! 
Hope this gives you guys some ideas! Great to offer the pictures of these objects and have them ask for them, to work on communication too!
abbeysvoice 