New routines

With Garrett's communication difficulties, even something as simple as a drink of water requires a routine. It has taken almost the entire six weeks that we've been here to get this down. He still has trouble with it sometimes, but if I give him a cue, he knows what he is supposed to do next.

I leave a cup on the edge of the bar by the fridge where Garrett can see it. If he wants a drink, he guides me to it and I'm hoping he will eventually point to it. I pick up the cup and hand it to him, giving him another opportunity to communicate with me.



Garrett hands me the cup and I fill it with a half inch of water.





When he is done drinking, he has to hand it back to me to indicate that he wants more. If he doesn't hand it back to me, he's done. It has taken a LONG time to get this part down. Even now, sometimes he'll forget and he'll throw the cup down and scream at me. If he does that, I'll wait until he picks it up again (which has only happened once), or he guides my hand down to pick it up, and we start over again.




Note: Did anyone notice all the eye contact in these photos? Crazy! Because he's looking at the camera. He's not looking at me.