I was going to do a year in review until I realized that I had only started the baseline for this year in July so any official before/after will only reflect half the year. And anything before July isn't detailed enough to warrant a full post unless you go back to 2007 and then it isn't really a "year in review" anymore.
And then I thought why not do a "future goals" post? But by the time I'd finished writing it, I wasn't sure I wanted that much detail in a public forum, especially since Rachel and Sarah are so high-functioning they'll probably end up reading this blog within the next few years. And I've run out of time for anything else.
So, here I am with no idea what to post to my blog except the above ramblings. I guess I'll do an update.
Worked with Rachel yesterday catching her up in Saxon K. Because of the birth, I missed all of December and there's no way to catch her up in her meeting book before January. That's okay. I'll just keep doing the lessons in sequence because we're at the really crucial lessons now. Up to this point it's been mostly counting and shapes; yesterday we started learning about numbers and today we begin to associate numbers with amounts (as shown through pennies). I'm going to need to go slow for those lessons because I really want to make sure Rachel gets the concept. Plus, she's getting frustrated with herself. And when she gets frustrated she get starts giggling or sits there smiling at nothing in particular. I learned this is how she shows frustration when she burst into tears at the end of one of those giggle fits, saying she couldn't do it.
Point is when she gets frustrated, I get frustrated because she isn't even trying anymore and the whole thing falls apart. Better just to take things slower.
Haven't worked much in a formal sense with Sarah. I've been trying to get Rachel back on track first since she's the one I'm working the most with and the one who's most behind in her skills. Besides, Sarah has been learning a lot about the rules of interaction through her sisters, especially Becky. It's because of Becky that Sarah's beginning to relax when people don't do exactly what she wants. It's still a weakness of hers but she's starting to let things go when they don't go her way.*
So, that's where we are right now. Looking forward to seeing where the girls are at the end of 2009. :)
*It's not like she's being willful. I want to make it clear that she gets very rigid about how people act because she clings to structure as a way of feeling secure. Take away the structure and you take away her security in a very deep and real sense: it really freaks her out. In the past this has extended even to little things like when certain songs are sung. Apparently she's been feeling more secure because we've been able to reason with her more and more often regarding things she wants.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Vacation is over
Christmas was nice this year. We got a wonderful present for the whole family (our baby) and everyone had enough presents and food to satisfy but not enough to make people sick. :) I think the key to my happiness this year was chanting "Christmas is like any other day," over and over until I really didn't care if things were perfect or not. More on that on my other blog.
As for therapy, I'm starting it up again with Rachel and Sarah. I've already started work again on pronunciation with Rachel. She's doing really well with the "ng" sound. We had used popsicle (sp?) sticks to help her get her tongue in the right position. It's actually pretty neat... you put the stick on the tip of your tongue and push down and a little back. That little nudge puts the back of the tongue against the back of the mouth, closing it off. Between that and putting her awareness into her nose (I would pinch my nose to show her how the sound needed to only come through her nose) she started to get the hang of it.
My point with this long ramble is that when I did some therapy with her Friday, she didn't need to use the stick at all. She did the sound all by herself.
Yeah!!!
After she proves proficient in creating the isolated sound, we're on to syllables and then words. And then it will be integrated in her "regular" therapy, which right now includes using future tense.
As for Sarah, I've found a really neat RPG that I hope will help her with decisions. It could also make her dependent on rolling dice to make decisions and if it does that we'll stop the game. Anyway, it's called Shadows. Sarah's weakness is narrative. She tends to make lists instead of describing actions. My hope is that this game will help her create scenarios and especially help with "what if" questions and speculation. I'm also going to be stressing experiments more this year in school to create more "what if" opportunities. We will also continue our current "what if" generator: stories/books/movies.
Interaction is still a major weakness, though the girls have gotten a lot better at it over the past year. At the beginning of the year, I wouldn't have even tried an RPG in therapy because of the lack of interaction. And I'm no longer worried about major fits if I take them outside (though I do worry about the lack of privacy since we live on a very busy road just off the highway and a person can easily see through our fence... when I have no energy to keep an eye on the world outside that fence, the kids don't get to play outside... must move...). Oh, and they are doing very, very well in our church's children's group (Primary). They have been joining in the group activities and their teachers don't have to keep as close an eye on them as they did in the past.
I mean, if we're considering taking off the locks and putting a simple chime/alarm in place, that says a lot.
Gosh, I'm tempted to do a "year in review" but I'm not sure if I'll have the time. Therapy has been integrated quite a bit into our life because of the baby; however, it's still time consuming. We'll see. Actually writing down some of the progress makes me really, really want to just lay it all out though.
We'll see.
As for therapy, I'm starting it up again with Rachel and Sarah. I've already started work again on pronunciation with Rachel. She's doing really well with the "ng" sound. We had used popsicle (sp?) sticks to help her get her tongue in the right position. It's actually pretty neat... you put the stick on the tip of your tongue and push down and a little back. That little nudge puts the back of the tongue against the back of the mouth, closing it off. Between that and putting her awareness into her nose (I would pinch my nose to show her how the sound needed to only come through her nose) she started to get the hang of it.
My point with this long ramble is that when I did some therapy with her Friday, she didn't need to use the stick at all. She did the sound all by herself.
Yeah!!!
After she proves proficient in creating the isolated sound, we're on to syllables and then words. And then it will be integrated in her "regular" therapy, which right now includes using future tense.
As for Sarah, I've found a really neat RPG that I hope will help her with decisions. It could also make her dependent on rolling dice to make decisions and if it does that we'll stop the game. Anyway, it's called Shadows. Sarah's weakness is narrative. She tends to make lists instead of describing actions. My hope is that this game will help her create scenarios and especially help with "what if" questions and speculation. I'm also going to be stressing experiments more this year in school to create more "what if" opportunities. We will also continue our current "what if" generator: stories/books/movies.
Interaction is still a major weakness, though the girls have gotten a lot better at it over the past year. At the beginning of the year, I wouldn't have even tried an RPG in therapy because of the lack of interaction. And I'm no longer worried about major fits if I take them outside (though I do worry about the lack of privacy since we live on a very busy road just off the highway and a person can easily see through our fence... when I have no energy to keep an eye on the world outside that fence, the kids don't get to play outside... must move...). Oh, and they are doing very, very well in our church's children's group (Primary). They have been joining in the group activities and their teachers don't have to keep as close an eye on them as they did in the past.
I mean, if we're considering taking off the locks and putting a simple chime/alarm in place, that says a lot.
Gosh, I'm tempted to do a "year in review" but I'm not sure if I'll have the time. Therapy has been integrated quite a bit into our life because of the baby; however, it's still time consuming. We'll see. Actually writing down some of the progress makes me really, really want to just lay it all out though.
We'll see.
Monday, December 8, 2008
New Baby
Yup. We have a new little one in our house. If I haven't already contacted you, please email me for details. My life is more than a little chaotic at the moment... I don't mean to be rude.
Thank goodness for my priority list. I would be very overwhelmed right now if it weren't for that. That and routines. Priorities and routines. Very good things. :)
Posts will be rare for the next month. Rachel is sick right now (can you tell we ran out of echinacea and didn't resupply?) and Sarah is recovering from a nasty fever, so chances are good therapy won't happen this week, not to mention we're still getting used to having a newborn in the house again. However, this bout with severe illness has been a surprising mark of progress. Sarah's ability to reason and listen to reason (like when she tried to argue her way out of taking any medicine) has improved dramatically: she bargains now regarding how much she has to take. We've used bargaining in other situations, but she's never been willing to bargain when it comes to any sort of medicine... even the ones that taste like candy. Now, we were able to get her to take some of the medicine willingly (we hid what was left in juice... I know... we're sneaky).
Rachel, during this illness, has been using her words in spite of her lethargy. And her improved pronunciation has paid off this time around in that she's able to speak pretty clearly, even when she's completely exhausted. Not everything comes out clear, but we can hear she's doing much better than even a month ago.
What's really creepy about this illness is we aren't the first to get it this time around. There were people at Rob's job who had come down with this and several of our friends who have been fighting it off for a few weeks now. It's a nasty bug that seems to linger forever and I'm surprised it took as long as it did to come to our house. I had been hoping we would miss it entirely.
On a side note, all this work we've done with Rachel and Sarah has come in pretty handy recently... a close relative of mine was involved in a four-wheeler accident and cracked his skull (idiot didn't wear a helmet). As I've been talking to yet another relative about his condition, his progress, his recovery, etc. I find myself returning again and again to things I've learned working with Rachel and Sarah. For example, I was really happy when I found out that friends and relatives have been playing games with The Idiot Who Didn't Wear a Helmet. They were doing it to help him get his mind off his current predicament, but I learned several years ago that games are the best way to help the brain develop new pathways and heal. The person who was telling me this also knows how helpful games are so it's nice to have that level field as well. With the new baby, I haven't been able to visit The Idiot. I'm not too happy about that. But I can do Google searches here at home and relay what I find if it's useful. And thanks to my past experience with this, I have a better idea of what's useful and what isn't.
Anyway, enough rambling. Baby needs me and I still have to get the kitchen cleaned up from breakfast. Then, I rest. Lots of resting this week.
Thank goodness for my priority list. I would be very overwhelmed right now if it weren't for that. That and routines. Priorities and routines. Very good things. :)
Posts will be rare for the next month. Rachel is sick right now (can you tell we ran out of echinacea and didn't resupply?) and Sarah is recovering from a nasty fever, so chances are good therapy won't happen this week, not to mention we're still getting used to having a newborn in the house again. However, this bout with severe illness has been a surprising mark of progress. Sarah's ability to reason and listen to reason (like when she tried to argue her way out of taking any medicine) has improved dramatically: she bargains now regarding how much she has to take. We've used bargaining in other situations, but she's never been willing to bargain when it comes to any sort of medicine... even the ones that taste like candy. Now, we were able to get her to take some of the medicine willingly (we hid what was left in juice... I know... we're sneaky).
Rachel, during this illness, has been using her words in spite of her lethargy. And her improved pronunciation has paid off this time around in that she's able to speak pretty clearly, even when she's completely exhausted. Not everything comes out clear, but we can hear she's doing much better than even a month ago.
What's really creepy about this illness is we aren't the first to get it this time around. There were people at Rob's job who had come down with this and several of our friends who have been fighting it off for a few weeks now. It's a nasty bug that seems to linger forever and I'm surprised it took as long as it did to come to our house. I had been hoping we would miss it entirely.
On a side note, all this work we've done with Rachel and Sarah has come in pretty handy recently... a close relative of mine was involved in a four-wheeler accident and cracked his skull (idiot didn't wear a helmet). As I've been talking to yet another relative about his condition, his progress, his recovery, etc. I find myself returning again and again to things I've learned working with Rachel and Sarah. For example, I was really happy when I found out that friends and relatives have been playing games with The Idiot Who Didn't Wear a Helmet. They were doing it to help him get his mind off his current predicament, but I learned several years ago that games are the best way to help the brain develop new pathways and heal. The person who was telling me this also knows how helpful games are so it's nice to have that level field as well. With the new baby, I haven't been able to visit The Idiot. I'm not too happy about that. But I can do Google searches here at home and relay what I find if it's useful. And thanks to my past experience with this, I have a better idea of what's useful and what isn't.
Anyway, enough rambling. Baby needs me and I still have to get the kitchen cleaned up from breakfast. Then, I rest. Lots of resting this week.
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