April 20, 2009

Where does the time go? Time is moving at warp speed lately, and I don't expect it will slow down anytime soon. We're looking forward to summer, things should slow down by then. S and mom endured another day at school today. I've realized that it is a rich and rewarding experience for her and that she doesn't see the faults like I do. If it only affects me, then I don't need to worry about it. Today S put a cup up to her mouth like she was going to drink multiple times. I think she thinks she was faking us out. She looked very skilled at her attempts to drink, if you were watching from a distance, you would have never known she wasn't drinking. She did something really great today at school. a little boy was trying to take away her play plate at the play kitchen area. She held tight and wouldn't let him take it from her. She thought quickly and grabbed another plate with her one hand and gave it to the boy. This made him let go and she got to keep her plate. Way to problem solve!!!! She is the oldest in the class, and it is the most evident in her play skills. The other children come up beside her and play with the same toy as she is playing with. She always lets them play whereas they will push her away or pull the toy away from her.

She is using many 3 or more word sentences now. She'll point to something and say,"See the _____?" She is really catching on to what letters are and mean. When she sees letters, she will say some of the letters that she knows. 'Z' is her favorite letter. She loves to sing the ABC song, even though she doesn't know most of the letters. Today she heard someone say a letter and she started saying a letter and it's sound. I am really amazed at the progress she's making. She seems to be improving in the area of attachment also. The only area we still need to work on is increased eye contact, which is coming along with her increased vocabulary. I make her look me in the eyes when she is asking me something. She used to be really scared when people were clapping their hands. We were at an event the other night and she wasn't scared at all. Another thing she is doing is saying scared or afraid when she wants to be picked up. She is 34 months old today. I'm hoping that she'll be caught up developmentally by the time she's 3. There will be some areas that she'll still fall behind in, but they are due to unresolved sensory issues. We are hoping NR will repair all of that. We go for our re-eval in about 3 weeks, so I'll be sure to report on her progress.

April 11, 2009

There's so much that's gone on since I've last written. I write little notes so I don't forget, but I don't have the time to write down everything(wish I did).
She was holding this little drink umbrella that her sister had saved for her doll. I asked her, "Do you know what that is used for?" I wasn't expecting that she'd answer me, since she doesn't answer most of my questions anyway. She proceeded to lift that little umbrella right over her head! Now the remarkable part is that I don't remember when we've even used an umbrella or where she's seen it. This is an example of what I mean when I say that she shows us what she knows when we least expect it. She has been watching everything and taking it all in. I knew she was watching everything, but I didn't know she remembered everything.

The other day I left her with daddy for a short time. When I came home, she called out, "MOMMY!" I was so excited.

Probably the biggest developmental milestone is that she asked WHY? I was shocked that she asked me, not really sure she said 'why'. I answered her and she seemed satisfied with the answer. She has since asked why a couple of more times.

I have these little plastic star shaped reusable ice cubes that I have had in the bath tub with her. She dug them out the other day and when I mentioned star, she started singing twinkle twinkle. I sing her twinkle twinkle when she lets me hold her like a baby while feeding her a bottle. She hasn't wanted to be in this position for a while, but she did recently. I forgot to sing, so part way through her bottle, she said "up above" I caught on and starting singing. Since the ABC song is the same tune, she'll start singing, "Next time won't you sing with me" while I'm singing twinkle twinkle.

One of the other kids was asking me if I bought Peeps for Easter. I had showed S what marshmallow peeps were earlier at the store. I asked her if she remembered what peeps were and she didn't. She related the word to the closest familiar sounding word to her which was beep. She proceeded to tell us a story. She said car seat, drive drive, beep, had fun! That translates to: She got in her car seat to go to the park where she played with the steering wheel(she calls it a drive drive because that's what she does with it). She went beep beep on the steering wheel and she had fun! This was the first time she had told us a story.

She has communicated with us since we've been home by taking our hand and placing it on what she wants. It was a very effective method of communication, there was never any question what she wanted. If she wanted to go somewhere, she would have us pick her up. She would then lean in the direction she wanted us to go in. We felt like a horse! Anyway, the point of explaining this was to say that she tried to get her teacher to do something by grabbing her hand. The teacher didn't comply, so she immediately realized it wouldn't work and said the word instead.

At school, they are given a plastic egg and need to place it in the bowl with the same color. Since she has a 50/50 chance of getting it right(they only use 2 colors), I thought the first 2 times could have been lucky. Well, she did it a total of 5 times and got it right each time. Now if you set her down to do the activity at home, she won't cooperate at all. That's why it's so hard to know what she knows. I think in time, she will surpass her peers. Although I haven't been able to predict her timeline, I do think by the time she is done with NR therapy, she will be long caught up. The last day we went to school, her 11 year old sister was able to come with her. I knew this would be a good experience for both of them. She was much more bold and tried new things because she saw her sister doing it. In the beginning of class they sing a song. S did all of the hand motions with the song for the first time. She sang in a loud voice that we could all hear. The best part was when she sang the entire last sentence of the song, "I hope that you are too."

I've been reading on the neuro-network group about self regulation. That's an area we need to work on. She likes to have her way and do what she wants to do. She has a really hard time sitting in school. I'm having a hard time with this because I don't think that's an overly important area to be working on now when we have so much more important things to work on. I guess if this is the only thing I'm worried about, then I'm doing okay.

Progress to report

So much has happened in just a couple of days. S is using all of our names, even Mommy!!!!! Today she spontaneously called out Grandma when she spotted her. When we came in the door today from being out, she said hi to the dog using her name. I had to go to WalMart yesterday and she would only sit in the cart for a few minutes. When she got out, I told her she had to hold my hand. She will NEVER hold my hand. She protested, but I told her she had to hold my hand or get back in the cart. She held my hand the entire time. I can't tell you how happy it made me to be able to walk through a store holding her adorable little hand. Today at OT, she actually played with the moon sand. Until now, she never touched it, she hated the feel of it. Yesterday at school, she actually put one of the dollhouse people in a bed. She has never played with the people before. She ate an Oreo for the first time yesterday at school. They mixed crushed oreos and vanilla pudding. I kept them separate because I knew she would never try them together. She doesn't eat anything soft. She was really hungry, so she just grabbed a piece of oreo and put it in her mouth. I dipped a little in the pudding, and she still ate it. She wouldn't eat it when there was too much pudidng on it, but just the fact that she ate it at all was pretty huge. We are really gaining a lot of momentum, I want to keep it going. She is saying more words than I can count. There are a few sounds she can't make, but for the most part, her words are really clear. Today, she also pointed to some pictures on the wall at OT. The student intern was saying the word to what she was pointing to and then S pointed to another picture on the wall and said, "Cookie" at the picture of the cookie. I'm not sure if it's her confidence that is making her respond, or something has just matured, allowing her to express herself the way we want her to. The kids in her school class don't do much talking, so she isn't doing it because she sees and hears them. I would love to have her with older children, but unfortunately, they don't allow mommies with the older children. I wish there was a facility that allowed that. Yesterday she got hurt by another child and she was just sitting there protecting herself from further harm. She only cries when it really hurts. I saw that she was waiting to be rescued, and I was glad I was there. That's part of the reason why I will only let her go where I can be with her. Unfortunately, there are so few people familiar with the dynamics of attachment, they don't understand the need for me to be there. That's all for today.