Max's IBI Therapy.

Max has a full therapy schedule - it ranges from 14 to 18 hours every week, and will be increasing in the near future. The biggest component of his therapy is IBI (Intensive Behaviour Therapy), but he also receives Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Music Therapy, all at blueballoon.

While I have a fairly good understanding of what IBI therapy consists of, I had never actually seen Max in an IBI session until this week. Brian, Max's main Behaviour Therapist, was kind enough to record part of Wednesday's session for me. The sessions typically run for 2 to 2.5 hours, so this is just a snapshot.


This video captures Brian working with Max, using several reinforcers (a stretchy snake, vibrating elephant, and wolf). I am really glad that we have started taping sessions, as I think it will be a good tool to track Max's progress. I only wish we had taped sessions when Max first started working with Brian in January (though I'm guessing it would have been hard to watch them as Max struggled with compliance for the first while).

What blows me away about this video is Brian's intensity level. Can you imagine keeping this up for over 2 hours? Plus, this is Max on a good day. Some days, for whatever reason, he isn't nearly as agreeable as you see him here. But just because Max doesn't feel like working, doesn't mean that he wins the battle, it just means Brian gets to work all that much harder. So, big ups to Brian and the rest of Max's IBI team! I'm looking forward to sharing more video of Max in the future (hopefully by then he'll be able to say "Mommy" when he is shown a picture of me).

The Language of Music.

Today was a good day. It's important to say that out loud and to say thank you when these days come around. Today was a good day. Max had a terrific Occupational Therapy session at Blue Balloon with his therapist Jess, and then followed it up with a Music & Speech Therapy session that made me smile all day. What I love about Blue Balloon is that Max's team takes such joy in his progress, and is fantastic about sharing his wins with eachother, so that they can all continue to build on his new skills. I truly believe that this is why Max is progressing at such a rapid pace. This is why our Max is starting to emerge - we are finally getting to meet our little boy.

Tonight when I checked my email, Max's Music Therapist Rob, had sent the following email to Max's team at Blue Balloon:

Hello Team Max:

I thought I would pass along the positive results of the joint SLP/MT session that Irene and I had with Max today. Every week we are seeing and hearing a greater degree of positive results.

Today we witnessed a sharp increase in Max’s ability to follow directions. For example, when asked to help clean up Max placed all the farm animals back in the basket. Even during new musical experiences such as “Rolling the Ball to a Friend” Max quickly picked up the motor planning involved and was soon independently rolling the ball to Irene and mom! Using the word “push” to cue max during this activity seemed to really help coordinate the physical actions involved.

Max also followed some of the required actions during another new activity “The Scarves” song. These actions included throwing the scarf into the air and scrunching it into a ball. Max also had an opportunity to play the large hand cymbals. After demonstrating the actions needed to play
the instrument, the therapy team pared these actions with the word “push.” Soon Max was almost independently pushing the cymbals together!

In terms of his socialization skills Max continues to make progress. During the Good-bye song he imitated a wave. Max also held sustained eye contact on several occasions during the session.

In terms of his speech and vocabulary Max was heard using many different words today. These included:

Rooster
Farmer
Guitar
Moo
“Hi” with hand wave
Jess
Mama
Irene
Roll
Bye
Yeah, hooray – (said several times)
Hooray we did it – (said several times)
Bye bye

I am personally really pleased that Max is progressing so quickly. We will strive to keep everyone informed as Max continues treatment. I think it would be good if we could all continue to provide updates as they come available to his entire treatment team.

WAY TO GO MAX!

With warm regards,

Robert W. Harris
Music Therapist B.M.T., M.M.T

*****

How can this kid fail with a team like this behind him? Go Team Maxwell indeed!