the first workshop...

It was 8:00 am, a Saturday and the day was finally here, it was sometime in January 2004. Today was our very first workshop. I was really excited, very overwhelmed and a bit scared to start our ABA therapy.  We had 3 consultants and 2 tutors that would be designing Hunter's program. We had heard that the kids do not always like the workshops, that they tend to protest to "coming to the chair" and that it can be a difficult transition. Not for our boy! He loved every minute of it, maybe it was because he is an only child, and loved all the attention, or maybe he knew that this was going to give him the tools that he so desperately needed to survive in this very big world!? They called him to the chair for the first time, and he went right over with a gigantic Hunter smile that melted the entire room! Everyone clapped and cheered, he just looked at them like, "are you guys crazy"? They did some basic questions, he nailed them, then they told him to "go play". He looked confused but followed their lead and everyone cheered again. It only took Hunter about 2 times for him to get that he would get all this positive reinforcement with cheers and clapping when he would do something correctly, and boy did he LOVE it! By the third trial, he looked at everyone right before he was going to answer their question with this cool look on his face and little swagger, like I know I am going to nail it and impress these strangers and get them to cheer---he was right! His reinforcement that first day was raisins, he was working for raisins (M did not want him to have candy or sugar when he was little) so that was his treat, and he worked so very hard for them! I think by the end of that first day, probably in the 6th hour or so, he was also working for rocket ship rides in his chair from one of the coolest male consultants. Hunter was on his way...