Gabe's eating program has officially transferred to the snack table at school. It started a little rough today with complete refusal of all foods presented. I sat straddling his chair, as Gabe faced the table and a plate of 4 different bite sized food. He squirmed, said no and tried to get as far away from me on his chair that he could. It would have begun on a more successful note, if the communication between the head of the program and myself had been a little clearer. In my opinion, it seemed that she thought Gabe had successfully completed the eating program, The End. She was under the impression that I was going to take the "Bull by the horns" and ride off into the sunset with a carrot sticking out of Gabe's mouth. I was like..."Hooray...er.....what?"
We still have to fade the video at home, fade the SD "Open" when wanting Gabe to open his mouth to accept food, and there is that whole thing about Gabe still not really liking the new foods. He accepts the new foods, but he likes the reinforcer given after he eats (ie Potato chip) What happens when the reinforcer is no longer given? The whole idea is for Gabe to be able to be reinforced by the foods he eats, not a randomly given potato chip. We are far from finished. Aren't we? Gabe's eating has been addressed with great success, it's the behavior that we have to direct our attention to now. Am I seeing what she sees? I have been tainted from past experiences with Gabe and eating. Maybe it will be easier than I think and my lenses are just clouded with worry.I'm hoping that Gabe stays consistent with his "behavior routines". What I mean by that is, Gabe will start something new pretty easily, because it is new and he does not know what to expect. The next time you try to do the same thing is when you are met with great resistance from Gabe. The severity of the resistance is in correlation to the displeasure that the new change brings. After awhile, days or weeks ,again dependent on the severity of change, he typically accepts it. I've seen this happen when we went from Stage 2 baby food to Stage 3. It took about a month for him to accept Stage 3. When we first started ABA Therapy Training, he was good for about 3 weeks, then decided he had had enough. After about a week, he was back to enjoying it all over again. We'll see how it goes with the Eating Program. I want to believe that if we just keep going slow and not push the idea of success, he will not end up resisting.
Gabe's reinforcers for eating are potato chips. He loves them. I can not even descibe the intense relationship that my son has with potato chips. He doesn't get them often, never has, which probably intensifies it. (I hate the idea of feeding my son junk food, but if it will enable him to eat healthy food...) So, while finishing feeding Gabe in the car today, I had begun giving him random reinforcers of potato chips for eating good. After the finishing a bite of green beans, he looked at the first chip and said "U!" And it was a "U" shape. Huh. Then after a few more bites, another chip...."Dinosaur!" Gabe says with a smile. It was. It looked like a long neck. The next was a snake, a boat! Then, it seemed like he was just really pondering the shape of each additional chip. Gabe has an incredible imagination. An imagination! Critical thinking outside of concrete facts and ideas....amazing. Now I can do a cartwheel for today.
