Rasmus's development log

Anja, Naja, Tove, Ulla, Susanne and Dorrit, they are the persons who has (or had) a huge impact on Rasmus's development. Thank you so much for your efforts. We can not with words describe what your efforts mean to us.

As Rasmus was approximately 15 months old he lost his language and a large part of his social behaviour, it was very difficult to get in touch with him. Rasmus had his own agenda, with repetitious activities and we could as parents not really engage in any forms for interaction with him. To go for a walk with Rasmus was impossible. Rasmus would always run the opposite direction, and he had an obsession compulsion behaviour. As an example, he wanted to look down into all the drain covers we passed and after looking into them he needed to stamp with his feet's on the covers. Rasmus would often not enter shops where there was a sharp light at the entrance and we had to give up eating out since Rasmus would not sit on his chair. Rasmus always searched for a way to escape, and if he got free of our hands, he ran away, without looking back. We choose to go opposite of what most "experts" from the established health-care advised us. They advised us to get Rasmus into the daily routines, fixed to the exact times and to blindly do Rasmus addicted to communicate via signs or pictures and then later to try to develop language through the pictures. We saw instead that Rasmus was not getting fixed routines. Of course, Rasmus had fixed times for eating and sleeping, but otherwise we have always taken care of bringing Rasmus with us everywhere in order for him to get used to the wider community. We sing and talk all the time with Rasmus, and explain to him in clear terms where we are going and what we have to do. We also ensure that Rasmus is participating in everything we do in and around the house, which he enjoys very much. Rasmus adapted surprisingly quickly to be around with us and it is very rare that Rasmus now comes in affect when we are out. However, there was not really a development of the language. His language was equal to approximately a ½ year old child when he was almost 3 years old.

We soon found out that it was necessary to break a task down into pieces so Rasmus could perform it. For example, it was difficult to teach him to cycle on a 2 wheel bike with support wheels. Rasmus found it difficult to steer and use the pedals. The way he learned to cycle was: I pushed him around in the garden along the inside of hedge. Rasmus would then only have to deal with turning when we reached a corner which he quickly learned. Then we began gradually to put obstacles in his way which he quickly learned to avoid. My wife took a daily 2 to 3 kilometres trip with him where he after some time he learned to use the pedals. Now Rasmus is racing around in the garden and avoids with grisly precision any obstacle which lays in his path.

We started on a self financed low intensive ABA treatment in June 2007 and in the time of this writing, Rasmus has been in the ABA treatment in some 3 months. Rasmus has always been cared for at home but during August month he has gradually been included in a kindergarten where he is associated with 2 educators who started the ABA treatment with him. It has been going perfectly. Rasmus loves to be in the kindergarten and he loves to train ABA with the educators. The educators make a great effort and we are speechless over the transformation Rasmus is undergoing here at the start of the ABA treatment. Almost every day Rasmus surprise us with new skills he has acquired. From having been almost without language, Rasmus is now in the process of developing language. Currently, there are new words every day. The cognitive development is also in an rapidly evolving and Rasmus is now much more in interaction with his family.

D.11-09-07

During the first 3 months, Rasmus only trained about 10 hours a week (even interrupted by 2 weeks of vacation) and Rasmus masters now: 10 bricks jigsaw puzzle, match 2D and 3D objects, to imitate simple movements and about 40 words (however, with some problems with the pronunciation of most of the words), playing with picture lotteries and other simple games, Receptive instructions (for example, "come here", "Sit nicely", etc.), Receptive titles (for example, "Give me" followed by the name of an object).

Rasmus's self stimuli is strongly declining. He is part increasingly in play with his little sister and they imitate each other very much. We see now also glimpses of fantasy play. Rasmus can now drive a toy tractor on the floor and imitate the sound of the engine.

Rasmus waves goodbye to me when I go to work and say "Hi Hi" when I go.

D.05-10-07

The tremendous development continues. Rasmus has been introduced to Colour Cards (Map illustrating verbs. Example. A boy who is drink, a girl who is eating, etc.). To everyone's great surprise then Rasmus was from day one able to finding out to choose the right card out of 3 possible when we, for example. asked for "Give me the boy who is drinking." A few days after the introduction of Colour Cards I tested Rasmus by running all 40 cards through with him. He made only 2 errors, so we could conclude that we had found one of Rasmus's great strengths. The picture lottery  was now too easy for him because he now without any problems mastered all 4 plates at once. Here the focus is now on to let Rasmus play picture lottery with various children and adults. Simple Jigsaw puzzles is now no challenge to him so that we now use progressively harder puzzles during the training. On the social level, there is also a great development. Rasmus's fantasy play is sharply increasing. Today, Rasmus "made" me a plastic burger and "fried" it on his little sisters toy cooker. He served the burger for me and together we loudly "ate" the burger. We see great development in all areas. Rasmus is top motivated for training and often he has the initiative to want to train by pushing us into the training room and point out boxes with the materials for training.  Often he seems more eager to train than to play with rein forcers which will be offered during the training.

Rasmus is now taking part in arranging the table before dinner. He takes cups and plates to him and little sister from the cupboard and brings them on the dining table. In the language, he has just recently started to combine individual words, such as "Hi Dad"

D.28-10-07

Rasmus remains in a tremendous development. His sense of humour is developing now and he is laughing when there is a funny situation. Rasmus has also started to sing and dance and has also developed into a real tease. With a twinkle in the eyes he has started to test our limits. When I play with Rasmus then he started to involve me in his play and he uses to greater extent his imagination in the play. However, he still tends to go into monotone play if he is allowed to sit alone for some time. Rasmus is now starting to communicate to us verbally and he can sometimes become frustrated and sad when we do not understand what he is trying to tell us.

He remains extremely motivated for training and it is often himself who takes the initiative to want to train. Colour Cards does he in outstanding style even though we now only says verbs and linking 2 of time. Ex. out of 4 different colour cards, I say simply "Eat and Drink" and he return the 2 cards which shows eating and drinking. Briefly spoken we see an explosive development across the field.

It's a long way and many obstacles ahead, but right now we are gradually getting our Rasmus back.

D.01-12-07

Rasmus's rapid development continues unabated. He now masters most of the colours and can distinguish between large, medium and small. Verbally there is happening great things. Rasmus now make use of at least 80 different words in context and can imitate many other words. Rasmus can now pronounce all the letters of the alphabet with the bad pronunciation on only 6 of the letters. There is a huge development in his play, where we now see lots of fantasy, imagination and interaction with the his little sister (Something which was missing for half a year ago).

Following Rasmus's development is also an increased desire to tease and require attention. Something which, although it can be tough, we appreciate very much as it indicates that Rasmus to getting closer to a more general age-development.

D.28-01-08

Rasmus's development continues still unabated. We are now often hearing 4 word sentences from him which he by himself puts together. He gives in clear terms expression of many things. For example, he may say "want sausages and French fries" if I am going out the door to buy food. We can no longer keep track of how many words Rasmus uses in context since it now comes to several hundreds, and every day we hear new words from him. Rasmus has a grip on all the basic colours and are now learning the nuances. Also preposition such as, next door, front, rear, top, inside, behind, etc., he fully masters. Rasmus thrives in the kindergarten (he has always done) and he knows the names of the adults in the kindergarten and on most children in his section.

Rasmus is not so bad to want to "abscond" and we can now usually let him go next to us when we are not in the vicinity of traffic roads. He has also been much better to pay attention to what we say to him. Previously, Rasmus would run in full speed away from us, without looking back, if we were to let go of his hand in, for example, a Supermarket, but now he just follows you and is always careful not to lose his parents of sight. Rasmus even accepts a "No" if he has found himself a piece of candy and he put it neatly into place again when he took it.

 

D.06-08-08 Time is flying. Half a year have passed since I last time wrote about Rasmus's development. He is developing very well indeed. The ABA treatment has a great effect on Rasmus. Systematic and targeted, we build up Rasmus's skills and it seems as if many of the newly acquired skills at an early stage launches a self learning process (Meaning that  Rasmus starts himself to further develop his skills). Rasmus is a very happy and in many areas, a well-functioning boy who spreads joy in his surroundings. He stopped using diapers when he was 4 years old and we can seamlessly expose him for all kinds of new experiences. For example, a visit to LEGO land during rush hour is done without any problems, and he enjoys to try all the attractions there. Kuno Beller tests reveal a great development in all areas. For example, the language went from Rasmus as 2 ½ years old to have a language similar to an 8-month baby to have a language similar to a child of 2 years after just 6 months of ABA treatment. So far, the entire ABA treatment been one long positive journey, which gives us great hopes for Rasmus's future life. Rasmus has started a "career" as a "Photo Model" for Me Too children's clothing. Well done of a little boy who many had doomed to spend his life tucked away in a special institution. Rasmus clearly show all of us that he has come to this world with the intension to have a "full life"

Rasmus as a "Photo model" for Me TOO Children's clothing.

D.17-01-09