At the Park
I wanted to share with you a little scenario that encouraged us quite a bit today. As you know, this new therapy we’ve been introducing (RDI) emphasizes social interaction through play activities. We’ve seen Hannah’s eye contact and social referencing increase significantly in the last few weeks.
Today we went to a nearby park to play for a little while. The older girls were on the swings, and Hannah and another girl were the only two on the playground equipment. I was standing near Hannah to keep an eye on her and discourage any getting-stuck-in-a-routine actions. The other little girl approached Hannah and asked, “Do you want to play?” I held my breath. Two years ago Hannah wouldn’t even have acknowledged the girl’s presence; one year ago Hannah would have glanced at the girl and walked away. Today Hannah replied, “Mmm, hmmm” (which means yes but is so hard to type!). The older girls came over to stand in the shade with me and we watched the scenario unfold (and evaluated Hannah’s actions to identify what we still needed to work on 
Here is what we observed.
- At least half the time Hannah interacted appropriately with the girl, following her lead. Whenever there was a break in the interaction, caused by Hannah’s not responding to subtle social cues, the other girl would take reparative action and re-initiate the interaction. Hannah would then respond.
- Hannah picked up on a quick abstract suggestion from her play partner. On the playground equipment there were four short plastic tunnels that formed a square. The girl said, “Let’s go through the square. You go that way; I’ll go this way.” Hannah turned and started through her tunnel while the other girl turned the opposite direction and started through hers. When they met in the middle, going opposite directions, Hannah was a bit taken aback. But the other girl told her to wait, crawled through the tunnel, then told Hannah to go through in her direction — which she did.
- Hannah did not pick up on an implied play request. The girl walked under the playground equipment and between the four plastic tunnels and called, “I’m in a trap!” Well, the implied request was, “Come help me get out.” Hannah didn’t catch that and broke off the interaction by wandering away to a different piece of equipment. The girl noticed and followed, reinstating the play by calling out, “Wait for me!”
- Hannah does not comprehend how to play tag. The older girls have tried to teach her, but she doesn’t get it yet. The little girl tried several times to entice Hannah to chase her, but Hannah would turn and do other things instead.
- When it was time to go, the little girl came over to say good-bye. Hannah listened, then turned away. So I turned her around to face the girl and said, “What do you say?” She said, “Thank you.” (We’ve been using the cue “What do you say?” a lot to teach when to say “thank you :-/ I told her, “No, you say good-bye.” Then she said good-bye. Mental note: need to mix up those scripted cues instead of always using the same one
We’re excited to see this much progress! I remember last fall when we were at a different park and a little boy came up to Hannah and asked, “What’s your name?” She didn’t answer that day. Today she interacted with a little girl her size for a good 15-20 minutes, with little to no guidance or coaching from us. Please thank the Father with us.
