Where to begin? I often write what I think. Most of the time I have no idea if it makes any sense to anyone else... somehow getting it down on paper works for me. Today is no different! We had a fantastic day at the institute today. We continued with the old and added some new. Noam worked with a new therapist today I was a little apprehensive when I looked at the weeks schedule and saw that he had some new therapists. My theory was that we had gotten through two really tough weeks, finally he was settling with the therapist he knows and now they go changing them on me! Well good thing they did. Not that I don't love the others because I do, but this lady was fantastic. She taught me a lot about following through. She worked on behaviour as well as cognitive abilities. We discussed Furensteins three stages of thinking.  There is the input and data gathering stage, the processing stage and  the output stage through intentional mediation Noam is able to restructure his thinking and in tern develop a greater skills in learning abilities.  She explained to me why Noam needs more input and how it will help his overall understanding as well as behaviour. She showed me the difference practically and once again it all just fell into place!

Today i discovered the importance of constantly doing things differently with Noam. Noam is a creature of habit if something is done one way once or twice then thats the way it will be forever! The therapist tried getting him to spell his name with letters.. She had his name on a pice of paper then had individual letters. He had to match them. He did because Noam knows his letters however placed them on top of his name rather than on the board. Noam is used to matching by placing on top! Today after three attempts he learnt a new skill!

Now for the best part of the day! Noam joined a group of five children at the institute. These sessions are run by OT's, Speech therapists, special Ed teachers and I am sure some others.. The idea was to leave him to give me a break! when i left he SCREAMED!! I cried like a baby!! When I came back i could hear Noam from out in the corridor. he was having fun! He came out of the room and was so excited to see me. One of the boys who also has DS a good few years older than Noam asked him if he would like to join them in the class room? the therapist translated for Noam and Noam said YES. Loud and clear YES YES.. he didn't even look back. He went with the boy to the class and sat with the five children.
He actively participated in the group session for 30 minutes. Dong everything all the kids did and interacting! The therapist to my amazement ran the class in english and hebrew!

I got some pictures of the group session but they are a little blurry because I had to hide!