Taking the Scenic Route

Well, she is making improvements and is much easier to understand, but we still have a ways to go.  She is actually shy in preschool, which just stuns me, but was starting to offer answers/initiate interaction as the semester came to an end.  Next year they want to increase her ST hours, using one time to prime her for the preschool a little more (similar to what I did with Zane, but not as intense), and the other for pure speech & language development.  I hope to get her into Reading Explorers as well.  She is moving forward.  I proud of how hard she is working.  She is actually adding the “S” and some of the other clusters she is struggling with to her words and it is starting to generalize, so I expect that she will catch up with peers reasonably soon, so that is great.

They did discover the same thing I realized when I heard she was not actually understanding (during testing) some basic things (like over/under…those type of things).  I thought that she knew that stuff, but didn’t realize that she was just following body language.  She is so good at following body language that they found that they have to cover their entire face during auditory discrimination work because she can figure out what the right answer is by looking at your eyes & even just eyebrows.  *snort*  She is absolutely awesome at reading body language, which is really a bit novel to them, since they work with so many autistic kids, and me, who’s first child is all but blind to body language.  (he had to be taught explicitly how to read common body language, but he does have the capacity to learn at least the basics, which is good).

She instinctively follows gaze to an astonishingly accurate degree, even a fast unconscious glance, so you really have to hide your face to make sure she is listening to the words and she can read your face like a book (well, better than a book for her.  lol).  It is going to prove challenging as a parent, but what an amazing gift for regular life.

The annual “Gingerbread House” day was a hit, as usual.  The Clinical Educator goes to the effort, every year, of making Gingerbread Houses from scratch and then transporting them to the school.  They are always awesome, but this year, she actually put a little Gingerbread Baby (I assume to go with the book they read) and a light inside the house so that you can see it through the hole in the door.  She said the thought of Zane and how much he would have loved that when she was making the light part.  (by the way, my Mom came up to spend the day with Zane that day because he would have had a total meltdown having the watch somebody else put together a Gingerbread house and not be able to do one himself…it is one of his obsessions).

Zora enjoyed the houses almost as much as Zane did when he went here.

Jennifer, the Clinical Educator, turns on the light and shows Zora the surprise inside.

She loved decorating, but unlike Zane, she got to a certain point and wanted to go play instead of keep decorating.  She and her friend played in the kitchen area, her favorite spot, and she donned a doggie mask (she loves pretending she is a dog).

And one last shot of the house.

When Zane went to his friendship group, he was only 2 of the 4 boys who wasn’t out sick. I made an offhand comment that “you want a 3yo to fill in?” (because Zora is SUCH a handful during Zane’s group) and, to my delight, she decided that it would be a good idea. WooHoo! So Zora got to participate instead of asking me every 3 seconds about what they are doing and asking to go play with Zane’s friends. It was great for me and the kids. Of course, in anticipation of Zora and her difficulty with waiting, every week I have taken less and less “mama stuff” in order to have free hands for her, and this week I was down to my driver’s liscence in one pocket and my phone in the other, so I had no books or knitting (or camera that I often throw in) that I usually keep in my purse. lol.

So, here are some camera photos of the excitement. The craft project was to make pumpkin decorations out of toilet paper rolls. (I am usually behind the one way mirror in the background)

And then we went home to eat the pumpkin I had made in the afternoon and was cooling off while I took them to Speech Therapy. Turned into a great “pumpkin theme” day.

The last day of his friendship group with the student ST, Lindsay. She has been with him a few semesters now and we are going to miss her. He also seemed to really like the kids we got to hang out with. One was a long time buddy that both my kids like, and the other two were new. The new peer model this semester was just the most awesome kid. He had the innate ability to understand Zane and figure out how to respond and to help him, and he was alway just very laid back and kind. I really hope we get to work with him some more and develop a real friendship.

For the last day, they made pine cone birdfeeders.

When I was buckling Zane in after ST at WSU I asked him (as I usually do) what he did today. For the first time he was able to tell me the entire sequence of the hour, occasionally backtracking to correct himself if he got something out of order. He did it with no visual support at all too. One of the last things was him playing a game with “L”. I asked him who played with him, and he first answered “both of us” (another eyebrow lifter…a pronoun used correctly), and I asked him again (I had heard him rehearsing “”L” and I played a game” under his breath, so I wanted to give him a chance to use the sentence) and he was able to dig the rehearsed sentence out of his brain. It took a while, and he struggled with word recall, but he DID IT! WOOHOO!

#168 Zora at ST. It was her second week. She is still pretty shy, but during one of the reward sections (putting together a princess puzzle) I was able to snap a few pictures. She worked on “sp” blends today. There is already improvement.

I really love the summer session. The are doing another friendship group thing, with two ASD kids and two peer models. Zane really needs this, and I am fairly happy with how it is going so far. Today, during the circle/story time, when asked how he could make a friend feel better, Zane said “give them some candy” (I actually think he said “my candy”, but not sure). He is participating in a more meaningful way and I am happy to see it.

I just thought I would share the materials I am creating to help teach the “Why-Because” relationship. They are designed for kids who can read, and you can expand the scope by addressing the vocabulary as it comes up (for instance, I discovered that Zane didn’t know “skyscraper” so we did a quick sidetrack to show him what that meant). When I thought about it, I included words with “L” so that he could get more practice on that sound, since he is struggling to handle that letter.

I made them so that you can print them out, cut out the visual prompt sentence and lay it on the table for reference. In the first few I also cut out all of the words and presented them in word pairs to fill in the blanks. The last one, I just cut out the top part and lay it down and the word pairs are given verbally. I also have the word “WHY” written out to point at as I give the prompt sentence, then point to the word “because” as he reads back the answer sentence to further emphasis the relationship.

The prompt sentence I use is “Why are the words ____ and ____ related?”

I included a picture of the page, followed by a link if you want to save a copy.

why-because-because-a

why-because-rhyme

On this one, they can just respond that they are opposites, or expand the sentence, such as ‘they are opposite speeds”

why-because-opposite

why-because-part-of

why-because-used-to

This one just uses the top section as a visual reference. The other part is for me so I am not fumbling for word pairs to give him.

why-because-both

After this, I have a list of nouns I can reference to help make it easier for me throw some paired words at him. I have the prompt sentences available (along with a peice of paper or chalkboard to write up a quick new one) to help if/when he struggles with retrieval.

The next step is to try and get him to give you the second half of the word pair. Start by saying “What goes with *noun*” (referencing my list if I get stuck for a random word), then letting him supply the other word, then prompt “Why do _____ and ______ go together?” / “Why are ______and_______related?” and let him give an answer, prompting the “because” if I need to. The main problem I ran into the first time I tried this was that every word I gave him, he paired with a word that rhymed, even if it was a nonsense word, just so he didn’t have to work hard to answer the question. I would then supply my own matching pair before giving him another chance to complete a word pair. The next day, I took a few steps back and had some different prompted sentences so that he didn’t just rely on “because they rhyme”. (and if he is still doing the “rhyme” thing when we get back to this point, you will see more drill sheets with different sentences as I try to get him to expand his language)

Eventually, I want to be able to do a word association game, where I supply a word, then he supplies a word, then we go back and review why each pair are related.

#161 First Day of ST for Zora. She was very, VERY shy. I had to hold her on my lap to do the testing, and after she finished, instead of just heading home, we stayed in hopes that she would warm up to the therapist a bit better. It took a while, but eventually she did, playing kitchen. Then she didn’t want to leave. (taken with the cell phone)

on a similar note, I got the pictures off the phone from Zane’s first day this semester last week.

#126 The semester ends for Speech Therapy.