The Greatest App I've Downloaded this Year!

I downloaded an app about a month ago from the iTunes app store that has seriously changed my life.  I've used it a lot over the past few weeks and it has my stamp of approval.  I have to share.

Every app out there is designed in some way to make your life easier.  So let me share with you my "First, Then" card.

To explain, "First, Then" is a behavior management tool for kids with Autism.  It is used as a visual prompt for children to know what they must work on or accomplish before they get a reinforcer.  The "First" is what the child needs to do.  The "Then" is the reinforcer and what the child has to look forward to when they accomplish the task.

Here is a sad sad sad sad picture of my "First, Then" card that I've used this past year.  The lamination is totally falling off.  The card is bending.  It looks awful.

You can see that there is a tiny piece of velcro on both squares so that I can put a visual prompt (a picture) on the card so that the child knows what to do.  It will end up looking like this:

I have a PECS kit (Picture Exchange Communication System) that I use for the pictures on my "First, Then" card.  The kit has about 150 stock photos in it.  I think I use maybe 8 of the 150 pictures regularly.  That isn't my toilet, but a stock photo of a toilet.  And my kids have never seen candy that looks like that before in brightly colored wrappers.  Kind of reminds me of the really crappy candy that's in those giant Costco bags at Halloween.  Anyway, I've taught my kids that this picture means candy.  So they know that if they use the potty, they will get a piece of candy.  And more specifically, they will get 1 M&M of the color of their choice.  Wouldn't it be nice if I actually had a picture of something that was useful to our specific world and routines?! I used to take pictures of everything, but that got old fast.  I was taking pictures, getting them developed (who develops pictures anymore?), and then running to get them laminated.  Plus I was running out of velcro or the velcro was falling off my pictures.  It was a mess!!

This is all of my PECS photos.  What a waste!  I hardly use any of them!

Enter the greatest app that has made my life so much easier!

It's called "First & Then" and you can get it here!

This is a lovely screen shot from my iPhone.  This is what the app looks like when you open it.

This app let's you take a picture of anything you want or use pictures that are already on your phone or iPad.  Or it let's you use pictures that you have already used in the past on the app.  It is AWESOME!  You take a picture of something that your child doesn't want to do.  In this picture above,  Asher doesn't like brushing his teeth.  He LOVES stories and being read to, so the bed time story is his reinforcer.  If he let's us brush his teeth, then he will get a story before night night.  IT WORKS!

Another thing about this app that my kids like is when they are finished with the "First" task they drag the picture to the checkered box and it completes the task.  You'll here a big swoosh sound.  It reminds me of the sound when you send an email on your phone, except much louder.  My kids love dragging the picture to the completed box when they are finished!  Also, see that clock in the middle of the app?  You can also put a timer on any of the tasks.  For example, if the reinforcer is an iPad you can put a timer on the "Then" card so that the child is only spending how long you want them to be spending on the reinforcer.  It also makes transitions away from the reinforcer so much more easy!

I use this app probably 5 times a week.  I just used it this morning.  Asher did not want to get dressed this morning (he has issues with taking shirts on and off over his head).  BUT Asher really wanted a cereal bar for breakfast.  So I quickly took a picture of his shirt that I was trying to get him to put on.  Then I took a picture of the cereal bar he was begging for.  When I show him what I want him to do in this way, he understands it and the tantrums are not as severe!  Hallelujah!

So there you have it!  The greatest app I've discovered this year!  Download it and try it out!

Doughnuts!

Lately my Ezra has been super into doughnuts.  It's adorable.  He often asks: "Go get doughnuts with daddy?"  My husband, Jason, works a lot.  He is a patent attorney in Washington, D.C.  He is brilliant at what he does.  It's awesome, but it also means that most nights he gets home after the kids go to bed.  He has been trying to spend special time with each boy alone.  Saturday mornings he has been taking Ezra to go and get doughnuts.  Ezra loves it and feels so special!

It's really nothing fancy.  He just takes him to our local Shoppers grocery store.  It's kind of a ghetto grocery store, but they have the best doughnuts fresh each morning.  Cheap too.  Ezra knows the routine.  He picks up the box and chooses 3 doughnuts to put in his box.  Then they walk to the check out and Ezra puts the box on the conveyor belt.  He carries the box to the car and holds it during the drive home.  Once home he takes his shoes off and brings the box of doughnuts upstairs and puts them on the kitchen counter.

I know this seems so simple for all of you parents out there that do this all of the time.  You don't even think about it because it is so easy.  But we have worked our way up to this for weeks.  All of my boys' behaviors have been taught, mimicked, and practiced over and over.  At first Ezra did not want to let go of the box and would freak out once it went up on the conveyor belt.  He also would get mad if something came out of order- like if Jason grabbed a few extra groceries before they went to check out.  Or he would get upset since he had to put the box of doughnuts down in order to take his shoes off.  Believe me, we've experienced it all.  It's taken about 7 weeks, but he has it down now and loves spending time with daddy.

They also stop to check out the poodles getting haircuts.  My boys LOVE dogs.  Love them.  I definitely think that one of these days I will succumb and we will probably get a dog.  Not yet though.

Now Ezra finally gets to enjoy his doughnut!  Notice his rocketship shirt?  If you haven't already seen it, you will see a lot more of it.  He loves it and asks to wear it almost everyday.  I try to wash it as much as I can so that he can wear it.  He wears it probably three times a week.  His preschool teachers probably think that he has no clothes!

We are working on eating and chewing with both of our boys.  Ezra has the inability to take a bite of food.  He doesn't know how.  Our therapists say it has to do with the whole 'he cannot tell where his body is in space'.  Meaning he cannot tell when or if his mouth is full of food.  We are working on it though and he is getting much better!  All of Ezra's food is cut up or broken up into small pieces so that he can put them in his mouth and chew them.  If we gave him this entire doughnut then he would shove the whole thing in his mouth (which would not fit) and he would probably gag himself and throw-up.  That's another story, but the first few years of his life we had a lot of throwing up going on.