Progress.

An extinction procedure is essentially an intervention that makes a behavior occur less often or stop occurring altogether: Extinction procedures apply the "principle of extinction" which proposes that because behaviors occur for a reason - they get us things we want - if we stop getting what we want after we engage in a certain behavior then that behavior will eventually stop occurring because it no longer serves any purpose for us. Said another way, any behavior we engage in will become "extinct" (stop occurring) if it no longer has a function.Applying the principle of extinction to implement an extinction procedure means that you would deliberately stop allowing a behavior - a “target behavior” - to obtain the reinforcing outcome(s) that the behavior has always previously gotten. This procedure then makes the behavior ineffective and so it will occur less and less until it eventually stops altogether.You could describe it as a procedure where you would stop giving the behaviour “what it wants” and what it has always gotten in the past.

 - Educate Autism"

So far it seems to be working. This past week has proven to be working. One of the tasks that needs to be worked on is tooth brushing. Boy! Does he not like that. Once that task comes up, everything goes out the window. Literally! Michael began throwing items at both his tutor and myself. This behavior lasted for about an hour, even after his tutor had to leave. I didn't know what else to do and just walked straight into the bathroom. I sat down and cried. I could feel the weight of the items (possibly books) being thrown at the door. I've never felt this helpless before. After about 15 minutes of being inside, I walked out. Michael came up to me and just said "Im sorry you are having a bad day." It took a lot for me to not yell that it was me, but in all honesty, I was. His tutor and I received some reinforcement and we are now better equipped. He has now calmed down a lot quicker from that behavior and we praise him for it. Whew!

A lot of these sessions take a toll on me. My husband had a week off from work to heal from his surgery and has witnessed how much work is done with Michael during his work hours. When people ask me what I do, he explains in the most prideful way how much work I do. That sort of pride with how hard I work is what helps me keep pushing forward and give everything I can to our son. It's a lot of hard work, I won't lie, and most days I don't even know how I do it. We talk about another child, but that's for another post. However,


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That post was written in October. It's been sitting in waiting to be finished since then. However, a lot has changed.

Michael now brushes his teeth when asked, and about 80% of  the time does it with out complaints. New Foods is also a task we do during session time. We have don't have a lot of non-compliance like we used to for trying out new foods. He's matured a lot. We see it.

Speaking of maturity, Michael is now 6 years old. We don't do birthday parties as it takes a toll on him with being around so many people, but we did celebrate it. We started on Sunday the 2nd of April and continues until Tuesday April 04th. On Sunday, our day started with our annual trip to Toys R Us to choose toys he wants,  to dinner at Chilli's. Monday evening, we spent it at my parents house where two of his cousins came over for a pizza party and birthday fun. Tuesday, we kept it low key and it was just the three of us.