Day 108 – Grayson’s Condition

Dear family and friends

The staff reported that Grayson did wonderfully today. The staff is trying to encourage him to initiate his chores, as opposed to being reminded of them every day. Toward that end, they developed a picture task list for him to follow when he arrives home from the clinic. He was introduced to the book this afternoon, and when prompted, did each of the chores right away with no objection. The long term intent is to have him accomplish the chores without prompting.

After his chores, he went to the rec center. There they did the therapeutic home program (THP) interspersed with Karaoke. Today the THP's were filling in the blanks at the end of a sentence. He breezed through these as always. He sang with the karaoke machine for about 30 minutes – he loves it! His resident assistant (RA) told me that he sang one Beatles song from beginning to end – with all of the words. She was impressed, and Grayson had a ball!

After the rec center, they hopped the transportation to a pizza parlor. Grayson was chatty on the bus (he is usually quite non-verbal in public), and he saved a seat for his RA. When they arrived at the parlor, it was starting to rain, and he offered his coat to cover his RA's head. She was impressed. (Mom and Dad were proud.)

Probably the most significant thing here in Regina's opinion, is that these were deeds outside of "himself". He was thinking of someone else, and initiating action, as opposed to waiting for something, or to be told what to do. We consider this a very positive sign.

We called this evening right after he had returned home and gotten himself ready for bed. In the course of our conversation, he asked us how our day went – another sign that he realizes that there is a world outside Grayson.

The only bump in the road today was at the pizza parlor. It was quite noisy inside, and there was a lot of activity. Grayson can only tolerate that kind of environment for a short period. By the time the food arrived, he was done. He ate impulsively, and wouldn't be dissuaded from stuffing his mouth past full. He and his RA wound up sitting in the bus until the rest of the group finished, but that turned out to be positive and quiet. He calmed down and talked with her until they returned to the residence.

So you see, we have improvements and challenges. Today the good far outweighed the bad!

Pax!

Brant