Study at UF

Today was day one of a study Jaden is involved in at the University. The Psychology Dept is doing this study on the language development of autistic children. I was originally not very excited about this study because I felt that life was busy enough without adding three extra appointment times to our week! But Reg encouraged me to do it--even if we were extra busy for a while and the study did nothing to help Jaden personally, it hopefully would be helpful to other autistic children in the future. I promised to 'try' and see how things went.
So today, our first day, I spent a half hour playing with Jaden while being videotaped. (that felt kind of strange) Then I got to watch through the mirror while a student spent the next half hour 'playing'. I talked with the person in charge of the study and she told me that the goal of this study was to work on imitation skills. I got a bit excited about that, since JadenGrace desperately needs help in this area. In fact, at 9:30 this morning, before our appointment at UF, our ABA therepist came for her weekly visit and she said imitation skills were the next thing we would begin to focus on!
God knows exactly what Jaden needs! \o/
AND I didn't get lost at the University! THAT is a miracle!