Mommin' It Up!

March 30, 2012March 30, 2012

No need for fanfare

sophiefancynancy — Girl loves her some Fancy Nancy books!

A couple of weeks ago Quaker asked me to tell you about an “at-last” accomplishment, something I’d worked on that was worth the time and effort, and I did. And also gave away some cash from Quaker as well, in celebration of the fact that they FINALLY started making Quaker oatmeal cookies! That first accomplishment I wrote about, working on our “Fun Room” in our house, was easy for me to think of and write about. But when it came time to write a second post on the topic, I faltered. Nothing monumental came to mind. And then…it hit me. We did have a major accomplishment in this house last month.

Something happened in February that I’d been waiting on for about 18 months. Waiting, anticipating, dreading, fearing, hoping, worrying…and then it snuck up on me, when it was time. All of a sudden it was upon us and it was easy, it was over, it was done – no big deal. And yet a very huge deal. When it happened I just wanted to kind of keep it to myself and cherish it for awhile. I needed to sort it out and contemplate how I was feeling about it. But now I’m ready to tell you.

Last month, I registered Sophie for kindergarten.

“Regular” kindergarten. “Normal” kindergarten. “Mainstream” kindergarten. Whatever you want to call it, the thing is, when we set out to help Sophie bulldoze her developmental delays, our main goal was to catch her up to her age group so that she could attend regular kindergarten. And I am proud to say, that goal was accomplished! Sophie will not be in “special ed” next year. She has met her goals on her IEP and she’s done with therapy at school as well as privately. She is now “typically developing”. Little Miss Typical, I like to call her. Although academically she is actually testing “advanced”. (Hey, I have to brag a LITTLE!)

I always knew she could do it, in my heart I knew. But when we first started this journey, the “what-ifs” were terrifying at times.

So this accomplishment, this meeting of our goals is a relief, and a quiet triumph – after all, kindergarten in general is a bittersweet thing! But in it’s quietness, it’s HUGE, monumental, amazing, and joyful. And I am so, so grateful for it. When August rolls around and Sophie heads off to kindergarten with her peers in her cute little uniform, I’m sure I’ll have some tears to shed. But right now I am just grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the fruits of our work together, and enjoying my time with her before she marches off to full-day school. My little girl. I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together next!

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This post was sponsored by Quaker who asked me to tell you about something I accomplished that was worth all the time and hard work, like their “at-last” accomplishment – finally making delicious Oatmeal cookies after 14o years! Stay tuned to the Quaker Cookies Facebook tab for yummy free sample offers coming soon!

March 30, 2012February 26, 2014

More Activities & Apps for developmental delays

I was cleaning out our “fun room” this week, sorting through things Sophie and I had used when working on overcoming her developmental delays. I wanted to put some things away for Jonah, set some things aside to loan out, and get rid of what we just don’t need any more. While I was sorting through everything, I found some things I’d forgotten about that I wanted to share with you. First, for working on your child’s hand strength, try one of these guys:

A classic wind-up toy is GREAT for hand and finger strength! The one pictured above has the winding knob on the top, which makes it a little easier to twist than the traditional wind-up toys with the knob at the back. If your kiddo’s hand strength is really poor, try one of these with the knob on top first. You can find these just about anywhere, especially at Easter time, I got several Easter-egg wind-ups at Kroger last year. These are great because they are fun so your child will be highly motivated to make it work. Sophie wanted to make these toys work soooo badly, she worked really hard at it until she could really turn that little knob. It was tough and sometimes frustrating, but it was AWESOME for her little hands and fingers, and had a great payoff when those toys did all their fun tricks!

My next tip is on teaching your child to button. When I was cleaning out our learning stuff I came across many different buttoning activities, some of which I’d purchased. But the ones that worked the absolute best was using ACTUAL clothing. To start out, I clipped the collar and buttons off an old polo shirt that Joshua had outgrown. This was great because Sophie didn’t have to deal with a lot of extra fabric and could concentrate on the buttons. After she got that down, I took an old shirt of hers that had a little more difficult button shape and cut the top part of it off. Finally, I had her do a full button-down shirt while she was wearing it. I would recommend this for zippers also, using a real jacket instead of a “learn to button and zip toy”. Hanging a jacket over the back of a chair and having the child learn that way first is a technique that worked for us. After they get that down, they can practice zipping while actually wearing the jacket.

Now, on to some great apps! First, I would recommend for speech and language (particularly the “language” part), a couple by Super Duper Publications that have really helped Sophie learn to express herself. The first is simply called, “HOW?”

One of Sophie’s challenges was answering “WH” questions, but in addition to that, explaining HOW things are done. I remember one of the questions she bombed on an evaluation was “How do you make a sandwich?” – she simply had no idea what to say. This app is very simple, but has a great variety of “how” questions so you can start exploring different topics, finding out what your child or student does or doesn’t understand, and teach them how to explain different processes and activities. Since I am just a parent and not a pro, one of my main challenges was coming up with what to ask her, and how to figure out what she needed to work on. An app like this, with soooo many topics (you can select only ones you want, deselect those you don’t need) is a lifesaver for a parent like me! It also make it very easy to track how many questions your child or student got right, and which ones they missed so you can keep working on those.

Another app from Super Duper that I love is “All About Me, All About You“. This is an excellent app for any kiddo whose speech delay has also contributed to a delay in social skills. It helps your child learn how to tell others about themselves – not only the basic facts like name, and age, but also likes and dislikes, favorites, and all the things you tell someone about yourself when you are getting to know someone. This one was really fun for Sophie and me to do together. Like the other Super Duper apps, you can pick and choose what questions and topics you want to use, and easily track results.

I love these apps from Super Duper because they are such simple tools for a parent that wants to work at home with their child. And, I like that they are available for Apple AND Android devices, so that more people can get ’em!

Super Duper has a grammar app available for FREE right now, “Using I and Me” – I think Emily should get this one since the mix-up of these two pronouns is one of her pet peeves and she judges me HARSHLY whenever I mess it up. 🙂 Give it a try for free, it’s a great example of how simple and easy-to-use Super Duper apps are! (Em you will be happy to know Sophie and I did a few questions on this app and she got 100% correct!)

Hope these tips and reviews have been helpful to you! I love to hear from you when you have questions or need suggestions on these issues, so let ’em fly!

March 12, 2012February 26, 2014

Speech: Teaching Spatial Vocabulary at home

The little girls & guy pictured above are some of Sophie’s favorite toys, from the “Stella Squeak” Fisher-Price line. But in addition to being her toys, they were also valuable tools I used at home to supplement her speech therapy. I used these to teach her spatial vocabulary – concepts such as behind, in front of, between, next to, under, on top of, etc. Here are a couple of ways to teach these words and concepts to your kiddo using toys.

The first exercise Sophie and I used for learning spatial concepts included a prop – in our case, an old Halloween trick-or-treat bucket -we called it “the Bucket game” (creative right!?). Using her favorite toy mouse, Stella Squeak, I’d place Stella in various positions around, on top of, under, next to the bucket, explaining as I did, “Stella is on top of the bucket. Now, Stella is under the bucket.” After I went through all the spatial positions, I’d give the toy to Sophie and ask her, “Can you put Stella next to the bucket? Can you put Stella in front of the bucket?” Right answers were praised and incorrect answers were merely corrected with a cheerful, “No, that’s _________. Here’s _________ the bucket.”

The other exercise we used her toys for involved all the little mice pictured above. Sophie knew all the names of her mice, (Candice, Stella, Barry, Priscilla, and Juliet, FYI), and so I’d put three of them in a line and say, “Sophie, who is between?” or put one in front of the group and say, “Sophie, who is in front?” After a few turns of me asking her to show me the correct answer, I’d give her one of the mice and say, “Sophie, put Stella between Priscilla and Candice.” or “Sophie, put Stella next to Juliet.”

Show me which one is in front, behind, etc.

Another really fun activity which Sophie and I did NOT do at home, but you can, is to hunt for items. Sophie’s SLP did this with her often at therapy so we didn’t repeat the activity at home, but it is a great one. Simply hide objects where they can be easily found – toys, whatever you want to use. (Sophie’s SLP used plastic eggs.) Then sing “a-hunting we will go” while the child looks for the objects. When he or she finds one, have them tell you WHERE they found it using spatial terms. “Where did you find the egg?” “I found it behind the pillow!’ or “I found it next to the lamp.” Sophie’s SLP put little treats in the eggs which made them extra-fun to hunt for. When she had found them all she got to open them up.

Those are just a couple of ideas on how to teach your kiddo spatial vocabulary at home! Even if your child is not speech-delayed, it can be a fun way to play and learn!