P.L.A.Y. Project - Visit 1

Our first official visit with Kelly Melius, our P.L.A.Y. Coordinator was Friday June 19th.

(P.L. A.Y. stands for Play & Language for Autistic Youth) We will have 10 visits will Kelly throughout the next year. Each visit will be 3-4 hours long, in our home or at a location we determine (park, pool, etc.) We talked of Kelly's visit all day and he was very excited for her to come. When she arrived, Kannin met her at the door and called her KelKel. We video taped portions of our play, following Kannin all over the house. We were upstairs in his room, living room and kitchen and bounced on the moon bounce and played in the Toy Room in the basement. It will be interesting to view the video clips from our session as we will be receiving a DVD of our session with evaluation after every visit.

Kelly tries to join Kannin in his solo playing. We constantly asked Kannin..."What do you want? What does Kannin want to do?" We have always had to guess in the past because of his lack of communication. He opened up more and more to Kelly throughout the session.

"Where is Kan Kan?" He loved hiding from daddy and surprising him.

Kannin is very responsive to deep pressure sensory activities. He loves squeezes, rolling on the floor, us sitting on him ( I know it sounds like torture but it is one of his favorite pressure activities) and he loves being thrown up in the air and wrestling with dad. We incorporate counting with the picture you see above. Matt will lift Kannin up in the air while Kannin lays on Matt's hands and we make Kannin count "1-2-3...GO." Matt will then throw him up in the air and then catch him. It makes him use numbers and words. We will incorporate "Throw" instead of "GO" to get a new word out of him next.

I turned on one of Kannin's favorite songs..."I Kissed A Girl"...I know...CRAZY choice for a 4 year old...but he loves the beat! He danced and danced and even let Kelly join in.

He danced and spun to the music. We would pause the song and make him tell us to turn it back on. We asked him..."What do you want Kannin"...he would then tell us "Moosi" (music) and point to the CD player. Music was a new word for him that day.