Page 2 of 9 24
th
January, 2009Periods 38-39
with the sounds that Zain makes at times.
Hafsahas also become adept at coming up with stuffto do while Zain is being exclusive. This shesays was something that just needed sometime investment on her part.
Glad to know youare at ease, ‘more so then before’ as youqualified yourself. That is of course half thebattle!Saniya had a mix of a lot of sessions butthe underlying mood was generally good.Thankfully no major tantruming manifested.Despite the fact that in between Saniya camedown with a cold and was not as readilyresponsive as might have been the case undernormal circumstances; but they got through thatlittle hurdle and things have been pretty smoothotherwise.
She notes that it is a lot easier tohave your sessions close to one another andat a regular pace.
It is a lot easier tomaintain the flow and foster a stronger bondwith Zain. It also helps for it is easier foryou to maintain the mood on you own part
; soit is a lot easier to have the sessions in a gowithout big gaps. Initially there was a first ofeverything for the newcomers, and since it takestime to get accustomed that is dealt with in duecourse. Saniya is getting to know Zain a lotbetter now and is even catching some of his cueshere and there.Fatima has had a really good periodexcept perhaps for the very first session whichwas rather sleepy. Maheen enjoyed some whilenot others. This time Mehreen mapped out thetone/mood of the volunteers at the end of thesessions according to which one of Maheen’ssessions was ecstatic, 3 happy ones and 3 sleepyones (probably the morning ones).
Maheen notedthat even if a session is slow it can still berather pleasant mood-wise. It does depend alot on our mood too for Zain is picking up onour cues as well.
Hafsa shared the experiencethat sometimes when her mood is relatively downit is in fact Zain who engineers something towake her up!According to the afore mentioned mappingHafsa had one confusing session in her account.Fatima had one ecstatic and one challengingsession while the challenging count for Saniyawas two.Aveen had just two sessions one startingoff on an exclusive mood gradually shifting to amore cuddly and interactive session. The secondone was a bit more challenging for Zain was a bitupset about his toothache.
The process of building andrequesting could translate into a veryinteractive session as well. Joining is actuallya technique which we used to work with Zainthrough his various stages of exclusivity.These are actually parallel techniques… itsmoving towards interaction. Requesting isemployed where the program goals are beingreinforced, like asking him to say a word;nothing hard and fast of course.Typically if he gives you contact, it’s agreat signal; but what if it’s a different mixof signals and actions. Jumping for example…could it be an ism? It is very interactive andhe doesn't really ignore you. But when he isactually looking at you it does constitute agreen signal. The thing is that Zain likes tohold your hand when jumping. Could it justbe an interactive ism? He is happy but is helooking?! He obviously wants you there…perhaps you then become a part of the ism!It is very self stimulating when one jumps onthe trampoline. Jumping is clearly an ism forZain especially when he doesn't let you addany peripheral changes in the activity; e.g. ifhe doesn't respond when requested to clapwhile jumping. Zain doesn't copy much; thisis a challenge for him. When he can imitate,he needs to be really motivated in order tolearn, where he thinks he will actually beable to copy. It’s an issue of confidence.How many times has he actually been able tocopy? If he is not letting you build on it… trysomething else; clapping is hard for him so
Leave a Comment