Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Keep it up!

The past few weeks have been busy for us with the normal routine plus a stomach bug and the never ending cold mixed in. A few weeks ago
E-man's school gave us some homework to do with him and while this adds to the chaos I'm still glad to do it. It gives me a chance to see how E-man is doing and figure out how to use his strengths to provide more learning opportunities throughout the day.
The assignments include stuff like matching objects (2D and 3D), practicing making different vowel and consonant sounds, fine motor exercises, throwing a ball back and forth and my favorite, turning on music and dancing! 
To make sure that we are running the assignments correctly we video taped ourselves and sent it to his clinical supervisor at the school.
Along with that video we sent an additional video of regular play time where we were bouncing E-man on a big exercise ball and stopping and having him request more "bounces". It was actually really exciting because he was saying "buh" for more bounces and had eye contact while requesting it!
The response from the school was so great. They noted that we ran the drill perfectly and E-man did a great job following direction.
They were especially excited about the bouncy ball video, requesting that they have permission to show it at conferences! 
A huge gain for him has been putting his socks and shoes on by himself. I try to help him as little as possible and he's getting better and better. 
The fact that he's been saying mama with purpose towards me and often are my personal favorites of his recent gains. He's also been attempting to imitate the beginning part of the words I use when speaking with him.
The progress has been tremendous. There are still many things to work on, we need to be more vigilant about sitting down with him to do quieter tasks, which can be a challenge because he likes to be super active.
Making sure he is "checked in" when asking for items or when he is asked to do a task. His inclination is to look away while doing these things and not be fully present, so we are encouraging more eye contact during these activities.
Overall I feel like he's making great improvements, I'm so proud of him. It's incredible how much work it takes for him to do simple things most take for granted, even myself. I try to really appreciate and celebrate every accomplishment E-man makes because it's not just us and his teachers doing the work, he does too. It is truly inspiring.

No comments:

Post a Comment