C ase History Progress Report- Sammy

It has been two months since Sammy started the Spectrum Center treatment. His family has noticed the following differences,

"The most significant change that we notice is improved eye contact. He doesn't seem to look through us all the time and he looks at things for longer periods as if he is studying them. He's noticing more things in his environment. For example he looks out the window when we drive, or he looks at buildings we pass, or if we are in a restaurant he'll notice the waitress rather than just look at the wheels spinning on his toy car.

In fact that's another major change - we can go to a restaurant. We think it was the noise that was too much for him before. He can only stay a short while but at least we can do something beside drive- thru. He's still bothered by the blender and the baby crying but he doesn't put his fingers in this ears any more and we see much less of that humming.

He's also much more affectionate. He wants to cuddle and his favorite thing is to squeeze between the two of us and have us press into him. He really lets us know when he wants this because he'll pull us over to the couch and sit us down. Even though it seems kind of weird we do it because he works so hard to let us know what he wants! He still hates having his hair cut so we just do it at home, but he is better about having it washed, and he is letting me brush his teeth without a battle for the first time.

He also loves to press his face firmly against ours- you know sort of cheek to cheek. He's still very picky about what he will eat which still has us very worried about his getting sufficient nutrition. What can you suggest about this? His newest thing however is putting everything in to his mouth. He never did this as a baby but now it's non-stop. He's ruined several shirts by chewing on his sleeves. What should we do about this? Should we stop him because school thinks it's really bad? We also notice that he watches himself in the mirror a lot, like he's studying himself, especially his mouth.

He really is babbling more and there seems to be a rhythm to it, as though he's trying to make sentences but they all sound like nonsense. At times he even has facial expressions and changes the tone of his voice. Oh yeah he really is starting to imitate facial expressions. He loves it when you make a big face such as really happy, and he will even try to copy you.

We had some people over for dinner the other night and instead of leaving the room he came up to everyone. He wanted to sit on their laps and study their faces. Our friends were game and they made faces that really kept his attention and that he responded to. He also has this game, which we call the "Sh" game. He comes up to you and says this sound and he won't give up until you say it back to him. He even did this with the man in the booth next to us at McDonald's and he got the man to play back with him. They did this on and off for about ten minutes.

He seems to be less frustrated and we would say that there is a 50% decrease in his tantrums. He just seems happier, though he is a little more willful and it isn't as easy to redirect him when there is a specific thing he has on his mind. He has also started his dragging behavior again. He used to do this years ago with letters and numbers. Now his is dragging us to things and using our hands to point to something he wants. Is this a regression?

We also notice a decrease in his rocking behavior. He only does it when he is really over tired. He also goes to sleep more easily. It used to take him along time and we would often have to hold and rock him. Now five nights out of the week, we can just put him in his room with a tape playing and he falls asleep by himself. He also is less restless at night and he doesn't move around in his sleep as much.

Overall we see changes but they are really subtle. What we mean is, he's still not talking so it seems that there isn't a lot of progress in language. Is our treatment going to help with this?