bountifulplate

We are heading towards 600 orders for Dominic's business. Since our long-term goal for Baked Goods By Dominic is having a "brick-and-mortar" and hire those with disabilities, it is essential and imperative that I continue to teach him all parts of the business. Since I prompted Dominic for so many years for speech, he has become "prompt dependent." What that essentially means is that he will look at me for a prompt, like, "what do you do next?" I do that one a lot. Dominic has been going to a private speech therapist for over ten years and she reminds me often that Dominic usually will know the answer, if I am patient and wait for him. That has been a very hard habit to break! Dominic has an incredible memory, so I put it to the test this morning. I didn't write out the steps, I wanted to see how much he could do completely on his own. We have a customer picking up his order today, but the only thing that had been done is putting the cookies into t...

There was a time (in the not so distant past), when we would have to do pretty much everything for Dominic, like telling him when to eat, drink, get him dressed, etc.  I can remember when he learned how to button his shirt and zip up his own jacket - I was overwhelmed with emotion. Right before the holiday break, Dominic's class went to a movie theater and also bought snacks with their own money.  I was so excited when I heard his class was doing that, because he had never been to see a movie in a theater, much less purchase his own snacks.  Earlier this week, I was making myself a ham omelette and asked Dominic if he wanted a piece of ham.  He came over, took one look and said, "good bye, ham!" I love that he was able to tell me how he felt, plus with the added bonus of being a junior comedian :)  Thursday night, I was upstairs and I heard Dominic say "milk" downstairs.  I then heard my husband say, "do you want some milk??"  Dominic said "yes....