Some NET away from the table, Mark, etc...

[Guest guest]

Dear Mark, , and others who wrote about reinforcement and moving away

from the table and the EO and all that, and keeping things more productive,

After reading about Mark's sessions here and there, and everywhere, some

sounding quite fun, I decided yesterday when I had no staff to work with

Ize, I would work with him a short while and call it quits. Or so I

thought. I did 45 minutes of table work basically, although we moved around

some, and it was very constructive actually, so I was in a good mood, and

so was Ize, or maybe he was in a good mood which allowed me to work with

him creating a good mood climate. ;-)

Anyhow, after a half hour video and a light lunch, I packed Ize into my car

and headed south. We drove to Rhode Island and after a couple wrong turns,

I found the zoo. We stayed for about an hour and a half. Now, remember

Isaac is minimally verbal, and has only recently acquired a fair echoic,

not a great one, and is starting to tact a handful of objects, etc. We saw

a variety of animals, and I was narrating away and not getting a lot of

verbal feedback, BUT, and that is capitalized on purpose, he was very

attentive to my pointing at a distance compared to usual, which we struggle

with, and he was watching kids and other people with even more interest,

lol, and being very appropriate.

We then went and saw the giraffes and had to wait for the people to move,

so we could get in closer. This was slightly annoying him, because he hates

WAITING n lines.

Me: " Look, Isaac, see the giraffes. They have very long necks. What do you

think? "

Isaac: " Ummm, " (noncommittal remark?)

Me: Well, I like them. See how they bend down, way down... " and as I

demonstrate, Isaac bends down and touches his toes. I figure out half way

through he thinks I am doing gross motor imitation. I burst out laughing!

Me: " Ahhh, Isaac, you can stand up now, okay? " and he does and looks at the

giraffes briefly and mutters, " All done, " and so without furthur ado we

move on.

We head to another exhibit and we go to the area with the elephants and

watch them giving each other dirt baths and enjoying the sun. Isaac looks

much more interested.

Me: " Ize, look at the elephants. Look how big they are. Three elephants. "

Isaac: " Efant. "

Me: " Nice talking. What color? " and I was about to prompt, GRAY, no

pressure, and Isaac looks at the three elephants and squints for a minute

and looks at me and says,

" Brown, " or a very close approximation. I started to say no, and correct

with a gray casually, but after second thought I realized, the elephants

were covered with dust and dirt, and I guess they did look brown.

Me: " Yeah, they look brown don't they. They're pretty dirty. " Isaac nods.

We stare for a bit longer. Isaac loses interest and starts to wander toward

a food area. I redirect. He points out an attraction,

Isaac: " Baby " and I look and see a lady with a stroller and a baby in it.

Me: " I see the baby, " and smile and make conversational comments about

babies and zoos and so forth. Isaac is happily nodding and smiling and not

saying a lot, but listening. He is fascinated by babies.

Me: " Wanna go find a bathroom? "

Isaac: " Go pee, "

Me: " Right, nice telling me, " (even though I had just mentioned the bathroom.)

We headed to the restrooms, did the peeing and so forth, and went to a gift

shop and pointed out some shirts, Ize receptively identifying three colors,

two animals on the sweatshirts, and a few stuffed zoo animals. We paid for

our shirt we bought, and he echoed, " Money, " and " buy, " and " Go now, "

without cueing, sort of just tuning in to certain key words in my sentences

and we went out and saw some more animals. Then we went to the diner type

place and ordered chicken nuggets since that had been a recent exciting new

mand opportunity, his first " chicken " in relation to nuggets, so I got a

dozen mands easily, some clearer than others, but all two syllables and

close to CHICKEN!!! I am now fond of chicken nuggests for a reason that has

nothing to do with food or nourishment. I love anything that spurs

language. He also said ADE for lemonade and, " up, " for ketchup which was

cute. We finished our snack and headed back the way we came. We decided to

see if we could see the cheetah this time, because before she was hiding

behind some rocks, and this time she was gliding along in the grass very

visible.

Isaac stood watching, kind of interested, but trying to pull me away. I was

trying to figure out if the nice manding, " Go " should be honored or not.

Me: " Isaac, look, what do you see? " (Purely rhetorical, expected NO answer.)

Isaac: " A cat, " and started to walk off, with me standing dead in place,

probably looking stunned. Now, I know it was a cheetah, but he certainly

would not have known that, and the thing is he only just started tacting

CAT pretty reliably in pictures and when we make him echo us when we see

our cat. He has not generalized it in a real way, but did so at the zoo

pretty nicely, I thought. So, that was our NET experience at the zoo. I

made him mand for GO and he did, and CAR and he echoed that and HOME and

OPEN, and GO again when I put the key in the ignition. After that both of

us were tired and I was busy trying to figure my way back to the right

highways and all that, so there was very little said, but I figured that

was pretty good for somebody who barely said anything, especially back and

forth, and on demand two months ago.

Jennie