Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

There's something to be said about this time of year.  Perhaps it is a bit delayed this year as we haven't yet seen an snow here?  There are things that remain static, and things that change.  Only one is predictable, though.

The last of the leaves were scraped off the curb last week.  A mix of rain and sleet seems to fall every few days.  We've done entirely too much switching back and forth between sweatshirts and the whole winter get-up.  Soups and hot cocoa have become regulars in our kitchen.  I'm starting to think about putting up our Christmas tree.  Some gifts are wrapped and hidden from peaking eyes.  All these things-static. traditional. routine.

But among all this is one constantly changing little boy.  He has amazed us in the last few months.  There aren't enough words in the English vocabulary to describe how much incredible progress AJ had made.  It has gently reminded me to enjoy each precious moment with him.  Suddenly, his life feels like its in fast forward.  I am indeed not sad about this revelation.  In fact, I'm delighted.  Ask any special needs parent and I'm sure they'd agree.

When our children grow, in any way shape or form, it is monumental.  How our children's lives begin is never far from our minds.  AJ has recently designated himself as the official light-switch operator.  It started with just his own light-switch in his room, but has since migrated throughout the house.  Besides the obvious gains of cause & effect understanding, fine-motor, and gross-motor, the most important gain is the simplicity of the act.  As I observed him giggling, turning lights on and off around the house, my mind was flipping back as fast as a tape deck gone haywire.  That sound was there too.  Come to think of it this flipping reminded me of a view master.  {Can you tell I was an 80's child?}  From a limp, tiny child to a tall, ever-increasingly independent big 6.5 year old who is doing things we were told were very unlikely.

Keep flipping those light-switches kiddo.  Change is a good thing.

Family Match Game

One of the first theme for AJ's preschool class was Families.  I picked up this at Walmart one day (because Daddy likes Curious George and it was cheap):

And ended up making our very own Family Match Game!

I made a simple two column/three row table in Microsoft Word.  I cropped as needed, then copied and pasted family photos into each space, sizing each to 2.5x 2.5 inches.  Easy Peasy. 

I printed each sheet twice...

Then cut them out...

 Then matched everyone up to double check I had everyone present...

Then  laminated them and cut them out.  I place them face down, with the white side of the paper facing up, and AJ has to match his family and friends.  We are working on a set of 4 right now (which means 2 people), but I made this with the intent to make it more challenging as we go along.  I plan to add our pets and his school staff to this game too.

FUN!

Modifications

I seem to have this knack for finding things and making a mastermind plan to make them bigger, better, or different all together...

Especially when I pass the 'oh so conveniently located' $1 bins at Target.  Or go to the $1 Store.  Or shop any craft store with a $1 section.  See where I am going with this?

Over the summer I bought these two books from the $1 bins at Target.  I really loved the layout of the pictures, the whole sha-bang. 

I've been wanting to really work on the ABCs and Numbers with AJ, so these were just perfect.

Things that are paper, particularly flimsy paper don't last too long, so I wanted to make them a bit more durable.  I knew we'd be using these A LOT. 

I removed the staples...

 Cut everything at the crease...

 Laminated each page, used a hole puncher, and added binder rings. 
VOILA!

I also found these at another store...

 I punched the cards out of the frames...

 Laminated them...

 TA-DA!

What a Treat

Yesterday I went out on a limb and offered the box of dog treats to AJ.  No, not to eat.  He promptly stuck his hand in, took out one treat, and handed it to Rocky, our German Shepherd.  After initial shock and awe, followed by loads of praise, I offered the box again.  He took out another bone and gave it to Sunny, our yellow lab.  My initial thought was that AJ would put the bone to his own mouth.  No.  He knew the objects purpose.

Rocky, is uber gentle.  I mean if you say the words "gentle" he won't take it.and he'll go lay down.  He's a shep, but thinks he's a puppy and doesn't know he's suppose to host the all the stigmas of shepherds.  He's my gentle giant.  Now Sunny.  He's not vicious either, he's just a bit excited that he's getting treats.  And, sometimes I think he thinks he's getting the last treat ever in the whole wide world.  But with AJ, he was great.  Something about our giant dogs and their precious little boy. 

Today, AJ picked up Rocky's frisbee and gave it to him.  No prompts or anything by me.  We were standing by the door and he just picked it up and gave it to him. Another round of shock, awe, and praise. Rocky is a frisbee freak, so this thrills him to no end.  I give it a day until Rocky is running around behind AJ trying to get him to throw the frisbee.  Throwing is one of AJ's goals @ school...perhaps this may work for both parties.

We followd the inpromptu frisbee giving with a few verbal prompts.  "AJ, give it to Rocky."  To which he did.  No pointing, no visual cues.  Just my voice...and a sweet pointy-eared dog staring directly at him channeling " frisbee" through his eyes. 

I took it one step further and asked AJ to pet Rocky.  He took a step toward Rocky put his little hand on his neck and pushed in a little.  Amazing. 

I purposely did not "model" these activities.  I wanted to truly see what AJ understands on his own.  The dogs have been here since he came home, so they certainly aren't foreign to him.  He knows they are large, take up a lot of space on the floor, and that when they bark, someone is at the door.  If they get in his way, he climbs over them or pushes them out of the way.  Somehow, the dogs are just fine with that, which boggles my mind.  AJ sometimes kneeds Sunny's back like a cat does to your lap.  And he just lays there.  {Sunny's coat also happens to be a great sensory experience for AJ's legs and feet} Although they've been around, AJ hasn't "sought" them out much.  Until now.

Rocky came in the room a bit ago and I asked AJ, "Where's Rocky?"  He stuck out his arm and reached for Rocky.  Today, when I gave him a treat for the dogs, he whipped his head around to look for them. The amount of eye contact he's giving them is amazing.  He's looking to find them, them watching them as they retrieve their treat from his hand.

That, my friends, is called gigundo progress.  And yes, in my dictionary gigundo is a word.

Today: I am proud of all of my boys.

 

Kicking it Up a Notch

AJ has become a sorting champ.  Seriously.  He had a great speech session on Wednesday at school, despite being tired and hungry toward the end.  While he was having lunch that day, I was prepping crayons for another crafty project that we are working on. 

{Which I am so excited about
I cannot wait to post about it!}

 I had the genius idea to kick this sorting thing up a notch. 

As I unwrapped two different sizes of crayons:

 I grabbed two glasses from the cabinet,
took some of the unwrapped crayons,
and took a few wrapped crayons out too.   

AJ SORTED THEM. 

"Mom, I totally got this.  Dont' you worry."

See I can even do it without looking.

I can even sort with my left hand.

Slam dunk!

The result of AJ's hardwork. 

He sorted all of these, minus the two I placed

 in each glass as an example. 

He sorted the SAME object,

even though they were DIFFERENT. 

Awesome AJ. Awesome.

Normal Expectations

A few posts ago I mentioned that AJ's teacher wanted to explore a specific curriculum for AJ. The curriculum is called Every Move Counts. The entire school team that works with AJ met with another district EI teacher who uses the curriculum to discuss the program, the assessment,what it includes, and AJ (of course) this past Tuesday. It was, apparently, a very productive meeting.

The first part is to conduct a video assessment of AJ. It will be a 30 minute assessment where they take him through multiple sensory experiences. The assessment will be on Monday. The team will review the video that afternoon after school, and the following Monday we will watch the video along with AJ's team here at our home during our monthly home visit. We are anxious to see what this assessment will show not only us, but AJ's school team. While I know I don't need to say it, I am thankful every day for AJ's school, his program, and his team. They continually go above and beyond to help my son. That is priceless.

This curriculum was suggested since AJ is making gains in every area except communication.

This fact is literally, breaking my heart.

I find such odd parallels in AJ's adoption journey and AJ's cochlear implant journey. We spent so much time defending the Guatemalan adoption process, defending his small size, so much time creating a pretty, happy story. So much time explaining facts and how it would be when he came home. Giving rules and sharing normal expectations.

When we were anxiously awaiting AJ's CI surgery, we spent months defending our decision, trying to explain how a cochlear implant works. Giving repititive corrections about when he would hear and how he would hear. Providing a "loose" timeline of when he would start understanding speech, making sounds, and hopefully talking. So much time creating a pretty, happy story. Giving rules and sharing normal expectations.

I think its safe to say that Jeremy and I are no longer allowed to have normal expectations.

While we never thought his cochlear implant was a "fix", we certainly had what we thought were very realistic expectations. AJ is a smart little boy. So why isn't he making sounds or babbling yet? Note: I'm not saying we think he should be saying 4 word sentences. This is a realistic question. At this point, 8 months post-activation, we should be seeing more. His auditory gains are pretty much on point, but whats with the lack of communication? There is no verbal, no signing, really. AJ's preschool program allows us to be around a lot of other kiddos with CIs (and HAs), which is wonderful. I smile each time I see the older grade schoolers running to the office in the morning, some with CIs or HAs and some with neither, and its just the norm. But it also shows me just how far behind AJ is. Its like his class is running through a jungle, some fast, some slow, and AJ's stuck in the quicksand.

At the back of my head is this stupid chromo testing. I called the insurance verifier at the Child Development Center to see if she had heard anything. Turns out we have the one of the slowest insurances to respond. Fantastic. I was told that T19 will pay for it, but we need the approval or denial from our primary first. Sound familiar?

What if there is something else going on? Maybe his brain is not functioning correctly. I hate to say it, but there it is. Are some receptors not working? While I know the past is impossible to change, all of this had made me yearn for a different experience. FOR AJ, not for me. I wish we could have been there from the beginning, right after his birth. Spoke to his birthmom about her pregnancy. Spoke to the doctors after he transferred to the hospital. Been with him in the NICU. We'd know what happened. It frustrated me to no end that we don't know. What happened while you were in Guatemala? A question that will remain unanswered.

AJ's activation came at an odd time. He phased out of Birth to 3 just 2 months after activation. He had less speech therapy than I would have liked. Why didn't I realize this then? Should we have dropped the sign? All this time and he only has one sign does consistently. Sure we've gotten others, but not they are not consistent. signing now? Should we not focus on signing so much? Is it motor or cognitive? What he understands auditorily is passing up the signs he knows. Sometimes he has difficulty using his vision to pay attention to a task, etc. Should I have him in private therapy outside of school. What can we do different? WHAT AM I MISSING? Pardon my babbling. It helps when its not all in my head.

No one wants to hear that their child is not doing something. Communication is essential to life. Communication is critical. This is a big issue, this isn't "Johnny doesn't like to share." I'm terrified about all of this. Yes, Mel, I used that word. I really am. I don't have the answers, and that frustrates the *#@( out of me.

Since these are the hot topic in the blogging world...

...here is our calendar. I made it a few months ago in an attempt to help AJ understand the routine of the day.



We are just now getting to the point of leaving the calendar up on the door, pulling the activity cards off at the appropriate times, and talking/signing about what we are going to do next. At naptime, I change the cards for our afternoon routine.

I cut a piece of cardstock in half (length-wise) and laminated each side individually. I then used packing tape to attach them make one long strip. I used velcro pieces on the strip and on the back of each activity card. I created a chart in Word using pictures of AJ doing certain activities, as well as clip art. I wanted to him to get used to seeing a variety of things for art time, therapy days, dinner, etc. (not just the chicken nugget picture). I cut each card to size BEFORE I laminated them. Let's face it, anytime I get a chance to use my card making supplies-I'm thrilled! The laminator I have uses sheets that open on one end so you can arrange your pieces and then close it and send it through the machine. I LOVE IT! **Shameless pitch: I got my laminator @ Target for $29. The ones online and at the office stores are way more expensive!

I do really like the Listening Room calendar, but I think its a bit beyond AJ's level at the moment. Our's is a bit simpler and seems to be doing the trick. I still need to make a pouch to keep the cards in-that can be attached to the door as well. And I do like this workboard from Aiden's Mom. Oh my, it looks like I'm going to be forced down into my stamping oasis again.
(HAPPY DANCE!)