We decided to have another session with the Solisten Headphones, also known as the Tomatis Method. Our last session was in June of 2014. This is a listening training device. He listens to a program for 2 hours a day for 13 consecutive days, we did a combination of emotional and language. It transmits the sound by a vibrator (on top of the headphone) that connects with the skull. The sound goes directly to the inner ear. This may help improve emotion, language, memory, and attention.
To stimulate the brain while listening to the headphones he does his smells and some vestibular stimulation (spinning in a chair) every 15 minutes during the 2 hours. As you can see from the photos below, I got some help with the spinning and smells.
When talking with FHC and deciding on which program to do during this session, he was asking me about various aspects of Kevin's communication and understanding. I had just had an experience with Kevin that gave a good example of some challenges that we were encountering.
We were visiting my parents and leaving that day so I put our plethora of travel bags by the door to take out to the car. Kevin was sitting on the couch and could see the bags. He started letting me know that he was upset, he was very insistent but I couldn't figure out what he was trying to communicate to me. I eventually gave him a choice board with the options: Stay at Grandee & Pap's; Go home; Something else; I don't know - he pointed to Stay at Grandee & Pap's. So we decided to take a walk outside with Grandee and eat lunch and then we would go home. Later, when we walked in the door from our walk outside, the plethora of bags were still sitting there, one of those bags was his DVD movie player - which Kevin indicated that he wanted as he walked in the door. OH!, that's what you wanted!!!! Why didn't you point to it or go over and get it!? Kevin is very capable of communicating in some form that he wanted that DVD player to watch a movie.
We've completed the Solisten session and we have noticed a small increase in his verbal sounds. On day 2 he began "talking" while listening. One other interesting improvement that I want to remember.
On day 14, it was a mollie suit day. Kevin is usually not happy about getting in the suit. Once he is in it, he is fine, but it is often a struggle to get the suit on. I put a dish with 3 of his snack balls in it in sight but out of reach while I put the suit on him that morning. I told him if he didn't hurt me that he could have the snack balls. He started kicking while I was putting on the pants and I told him he lost a snack ball, and I decided to eat it in front of him so he would understand. Oh gosh, I was worried this was going to escalate things to a new level. Then I proceeded to finish getting the pants on him without any further struggle. But once I started the jacket there was more struggle so I had to eat another snack ball...only one more left. Oh boy, I hope this works! And it did! I could see him processing it and he let me finish getting the suit on him and then he made a beeline for that last snack ball. The following suit days he has earned all 3 snack balls.
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| We even travel for the day up to Grandma's with our spinning chair |
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| Smells |
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| Your turn to smell it Grandma |
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