Finding the Right Motivation

Sequential processing is an important part if most neurodevelopmental programs. We play different games to help K develop her memory. Sometimes we have her do a series of actions while other times we may do an activity like have her repeat words back to us.

K will do a series of actions but has been refusing to repeat words for quite a while. We figured out a new game to get K to do it tonight.

When she was little & we were walking with her holding 2 peoples hands she liked us to swing her between us. At the time to encourage speech we had her say "123 go!" first. Tonight she wanted to do this again so I told her okay but say "5931". I repeated this several times & each time she easily got 4's. By the time we walked to the mall I tried 5 words & she got it first try! I guess we'll be doing a lot of walking & swinging from now on!

What activities help motivate your child?

Canadian Down Syndrome Awareness Week -Printing practise

K is finally started to agree to doing some handwriting practice. For the longest time, she didn't like writing of any kind.  Following in the footsteps of KJ, my now 9 year old, she didn't even want to pick up any kind of crayon or felt pen.  I tried to give K lots of opportunities, while not pushing & she is finally much more agreeable to this sort of thing & often initiates it herself now.  

We have been doing Handwriting without Tears for a while now but sometimes it is nice to do something new different so I try to have lots of different options for K.  

I think any kind of writing is helpful to gain the fine motor control needed so we use lots of different mediums.

I have a peel & stick chalkboard in K's room for her to play with whenever she wants.

We like the magna doodle for in the vehicle. It's pretty sturdy & I don't have to worry about losing pens. We do take coloring sheets or blank paper & pens at times but the magna doodle is our constant travel toy.

This Giant wipe off book is a fun way to practice letters. It was a 50 cent purchase at our annual town wide rummage sale which raises money for local events - win, win!

and another rummage sale purchase - this Discovery Toys printing set cost $1.00 & is so much fun with multicoloured pens.

I often leave a different style of pen, crayon or paint brush on her little table that sits in my kitchen to hopefully entice her to do some art.

I printed off worksheets from First School & ones like this from Preschool Learners - There are thousands available on the internet & I love that I can just search for whatever K is interested in to use activities she enjoys to learn with.

I recently discovered this printing worksheet maker - with this I can make any kinds of sentences which is great for keeping K interested.

These are just a few of the printable options but there are thousands & thousands available on the internet.  My favorites are actually bookmarked on our other computer that I isn't here right now but there are many other great sites. Sometimes I will just do a google image search  - I always get lots of great ideas.

K's handwriting is starting to improve.  Sometimes her art is not recognizable - she still enjoys filling in the entire page on her magna doodle, but then some days I get artwork like this:

What activites do you use to help your kids with printing?  Please feel free to share your ideas & links in the comments:)

Back to School Thoughts

K headed back to school last week. I am having some mixed feeling this year.  She turned 5 about 3 months ago so is eligible for kindergarten but we have decided to wait one more year before starting.

Academically there is no reason for holding her back & it seems strange to me to see many of her little buddies, both in person & online head to kindergarten without her.  However, there are a number of reason for waiting.  Physically she is on the small side & not able to run as quickly as her same age peers.  K's speech is good & improving by the day, but is also not equal to that of most of her peers. I often think she is less mature than many kids her age although after spending a couple of days with her class I had to wonder at times! lol

My husband & I also wrestled with the question of whether or not to hold back one of our older daughters.  This particular daughter was born in mid December.  KJ was the only one of my kids who I wished would have been born 5 or 6 days late rather than a week early - this would have put her birthday in January & solved my concerns by missing the cutoff. I would have even put up with an extra week of  pregnancy - a 8.5 months of morning sickness type of pregnancy!

While looking into the option of holding back KJ, we researched as well as talked to a lot of parents. We talked to a number of parents who regretted sending their kids early but I have yet to talk to a parent who wished they hadn`t held their child back.

I believe that holding KJ back allowed her to be more confident & become a leader within her class.  School work has also come easily to her as it did her big sisters who were both born in the early months of the year.

This article on kindergarten readiness sums up what I feel as well.

 My expectation is that K will do everything that her peers will do in school & I feel that giving her one more year to prepare will help her to succeed. Once she starts kindergarten we will not hold her back as we feel it will be best for her to stay with the same bunch of friends that she starts with.

I admit to having another motive for holding K back. Her neurodevelopmental program takes quite a bit of time & by holding K back we will have one more year to concentrate on it.  The program has allowed her to progress much more quickly than any mainstream program so another year will be great.  Of course we will continue to do a neurodevelopmental program when she is in school but once she hits grade 1 it will not be possible to focus nearly the same amount of time on it.

As an added bonus, I get to enjoy having her at home for an extra year:) ..........Yes, it's hard for me to see my baby grow up sometimes even though we have worked with K practically since she was born to prepare her to be independent. 

We are so pleased that we are able to offer a preschool in our tiny community. It is organized & run by the parents who hire a teacher & fund raise to be able to keep fees very reasonable, buy toys & supplies etc. The preschool had a bit of a glitch with getting a teachers aide in place for the start of school on Monday so as president & founder of the organization, I was asked to step in as a parent volunteer to help get preschool up & running smoothly. 

After being able to spend 2 days in the classroom, I am confident that we made the right choice. My biggest concern at this point is still about K being bored when the other kids are working on academic concepts that are much to easy for K. For example, they did one activity involving placing some little glass stones on letters on the coconut tree from the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story. K's boredom became evident in her refusal to cooperate partway through the game.  She was eventually persuaded to join in again but wasn't thrilled with the idea.  Next they identified numbers from 1 to 10 & although this is equally simple for her, the fact that they swatted the numbers with a modified fly swatter made it so much fun that she had a blast.

K did well in gym class although she is often the first one to follow when another child is running around out of turn or jumping, playing etc when they aren't supposed to be.  For the vast majority of the time though she is doing well.  The extra year (& probably our summer running program) has made quite a difference in her ability to keep up with the others.  She also quickly understands the games they play & joins in easily.

I even notice little things like the fact that she isn't always the last in line on the way back from the gym as she often was in past years & that she is much more self disciplined about eating her sandwich before her snack at lunch time. 

Most importantly she seems to have really overcome her shyness & is playing well with the other kids in her class.  K has spent much more time with older kids & adults & in the past & because of that, has been a little more reserved with kids her own age.  It was wonderful to see her join in when the other kids were playing with horses & to initiate playing dress up.

First Day of School

My girls are growing up too fast!

"Happy Birthday to You, You Live In a Zoo"

K sang this to me today.  Word for word.  Unbeknownst to me, her sister KJ spent a little time one afternoon last week teaching this to K in preparation for my birthday today.  Unprompted, K gave me the cheekiest smile & sang the whole entire song.  The only variation was that for some reason she ended the song  "Happy Birthday, one, two."

Good speech & the ability to learn quickly is a good trait right?

K does know when it is appropriate or not too. She sang the song properly when everyone sang happy birthday to me tonight.

If my cheeky little monkey decides to cooperate, I'll try to post of video of her singing in the next couple of days.

Gathering the Info............

That's how I feel about a lot of things we have taught K. It's been a few years since we started teaching her & I am really seeing the results now. There are times when my husband laughs at the wide variety of subjects K is learning. Not that he disagrees - he just finds it entertaining. For example, this week on Little Reader we are learning about biomes as well as a more in depth look at the digestive system. It seems like a lot for her age but my husband also laughed when around 18 months of age we did carpentry tools. One year later when we built our house, K knew what a hammer, saw, nails etc were. At 18 months K was just "gathering the info" but a year later she put that info to work as she played carpenter & occasionally retrieved a misplaced tool for someone.

Batter Up, Up, Up, & Away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was one of those days when I know we have made (mostly) the right choices for K.  Her neurodevelopmental program, supplements as well as the stimulation of a busy family are helping K to reach her full potential.

K started T-ball today.

Her aim was pretty good in batting practice.

Catching was probably the hardest the hardest skill for her.  She caught some of the balls, although with a group of 3 & 4 year olds, you can imagine how many balls hit the ground & flew in all directions!

They had a running base practice & she did well at that too, tagging every base as she went by & remembering which was 1st, 2nd, 3rd & home & stopping on whichever base she was told to.

The only point in the whole entire practice that I think someone may have picked her out of the group was when she & 2 other little girls ran across the length of 2 ball diamonds & she was about 20 feet behind by the time the arrived at the other side of the field.

The things that stood out in my mind though?  My once shy little girl never once needed her mom & didn't even look for me. In a whole new group of people, K was so confidant & self assured out there!   She went with the group to every station to practice each new skill.  She listened to the instructions so well & never got distracted even once.  If I didn't know better, I would never have guessed this was her first practice.

All of the hard work that K & our family has done for the last few years is paying off & I was so proud as I watched my independent little girl tonight!

................&  in case you are curious, no, I did not mention on the sign up forms that she has trisomy 21.  It is likely that some of the organizers knew because we live in such a small community, but I didn't feel it was relevant & the sign up sheet only asked about medical things & she does not have any medical concerns that would affect her playing T-ball. I am sure that at least one of the coaches had no idea & the one that did has known her since she was born.

Tonight, I am going to bed content.  Yes, we still have work to do, but today was another wonderful reminder that we are on the right path.

A Quick Miscellaneous Update

We are 3/4 of the way through the skis race season & only have one week left in Jr. High basketball for the next set of playoff games & we seem to be still surviving!  It is a very fun time of year, but I do occasionally long for the summer months because while we still keep busy that time of year, we have no regular practices or obligations.

Anyways, here is a quick update on some miscellaneous things that Miss K has been up to lately.

She has conquered a new kitchen appliance.  K has been using the toaster for a long time,  & the hand mixer for a couple of years now.  I still don't let her plug them in though & I have to admit that this is not because I think she is not capable, but because I didn't let any of my kids do this until they were older because I am nervous about electrical things -  kind of silly, but better safe than sorry!

Anyways, it never really occurred to me to teach her to run any other appliances, until the other day when she "desperately needed" to have popcorn at snack time.  She even used her cutest new technique when she thought that I may say no. "Please can I have popcorn, honey?"  Who can say no to someone who uses the word honey to soften you up & uses please in the same sentence?

I decided that popcorn would be a fine idea for a snack, but as I went to get out the popcorn maker, I realized that there was no reason that she couldn't do it herself & besides me plugging it in & reaching the popcorn kernels in a tall cupboard, she did!  Making popcorn really isn't too difficult, but she did have to remember how all 3 pieces go together & make sure the bowl was lined up properly & be cautious about the hot air as it could burn her.  It was a simple task, but a good one to boost her confidence.

I have noticed some interesting changes in K's reading lately.  Since January she has been reading 3 or 4 books to me each day, as well as several to herself & the improvement is evident.  She is really understanding punctuation & is reading so much more expressively. If she makes a mistake on a word, she will go back & try again.  Sometimes this happens a couple of words later after she has read more of the sentence & she realizes that the word she said does not work in the context of the sentence. This is really proving to me how much of her reading she understands.

The thing that I am most excited about though is that she has grown 3/4 of an inch in exactly one month!  She is constantly asking for snacks, so I suspected she must be growing. Her thyroid was a little on the high side on her last blood test & I have been looking into ways to support it with the help of K's naturopathic doctor, some research & the advice of a friend.  All that I have done so far is to increase her iodine intake & I'm thinking that it is already making a difference.  Here is a link to some information on Andi's blog about stimulating growth in kids with DS.  

That's all for now!

The Alphabet is Boring:)

Here is another recent question:

In your blog you mentioned that your daughter knew her alphabet by the age of 2.
What program or strategy did you use to teacher her this skill?

To be honest, I did not teach her the alphabet & did not plan to teach her until she was close to school age - but K had her own timetable & taught herself!

K did watch the Love & Learning videos  on & off from when she was about 1 to 2 years of age.  We also had the Leap Frog alphabet fridge magnets on our fridge & a set of letter fridge magnets & probably a few other toys with letters that allowed her to learn them on her own. She surprised me one day in the hardware store, when she started pointing out letters on the signs.  I still remember my shock & amazement when she toddled over to a  Shamwow display rack, pointed at the M & said M,  mmmm.

As I stated earlier, I did not plan to teach her letters & don't see the point in purposefully teaching this to a very young child.  The alphabet really has no meaning to a toddler & won't be much fun to learn.  Because sight words are the most effective way to teach a toddler (teaching phonics is really important, just not at this age - click on this post as well as this one for my reasoning for this), I don't think that teaching the alphabet is helpful.

Sight words are so much more fun! Put yourself in a toddler's shoes.  Would you rather learn that A says aaaa, or that M.O.M. spells Mom? We focused on the most important words in K's life first.  Family & pet names, favorite toys, foods & animals. Reading needs to be fun at this age in order to foster a lifelong love of reading.

If however, you have a school age, or almost school age child, letters will probably be more beneficial to help them keep up with what the other kids are learning.  We did intend to teach K letters by about age 5, before we realized that she had taught herself the alphabet.

Some good resources that I can think of off the top of my head are the many iPad/iPhone apps available.  We like LetterSchool lately for printing practice, but I think it would also help a child learn the letters.

There are some good DVD's out there but my tired brain doesn't seem to be able to come up with a title tonight!  I'll try to edit this with an example.

This is a similar product to the one that k used to teach herself the alphabet: LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet.

Alphabet letters are everywhere, making it so easy to incorporate fun games into everyday life.  There are big foamy bathtub letters & letter stickers to do different projects with. Our local Dollar Store has tons of different types of letters in the toy aisles -you could do so many projects with them.  Pictures, paintings, make one of those find the letter I Spy bags or put the letters in rice or popcorn for a tactile experience.  Use tweezers to grab the letters to work on letter recognition & fine motor at the same time.  Look for letters on signs, etc when going for walks. 

................and lastly, of course good old flashcards - They are tons of commercial ones available, or I'm sure BrillKids has some too.

Huge Big Brag! Drum Roll Please..................

 As I write this post, I find myself in awe of my little girl once again.  I think I have said before, that I only learned about early reading when K was a baby, so I was never able to try it with my older girls.  I had never seen a child a 4 year that could read even very simple books.  It still seems so amazing even to me & I see it every day. 

Anyways..............here is the big news:

K had her neurodevelopmental evaluation yesterday. Back in September, K was evaluated as reading at a 2nd grade level. She is now reading at grade level 3.9!  Meaning 3rd grade, 9th month! That's almost 2 grade levels in 4 months!

I should explain though, that this doesn't mean that she would willingly pick up a 3rd grade chapter book & read it from cover to cover - she has the ability to read the majority of the words, but she prefers not to. She does easily read shorter grade 3 level stories though. She can read at that level of vocabulary, she just chooses not read that length of story. Although I think K has a good understanding of what she reads, I'm not sure if she would follow the storyline of a long chapter book, but at this point, I have learned not to underestimate her either.  She  also still prefers to read books with larger print. This could be vision related though, & I am planning on trying to get her in with the pediatric opthamologist a little sooner if I can.

Houston.....................We Have Steering!

After preschool the other day, K enjoyed riding it up & down the hall at the school.  The music in the background is being played by the Jr. High class who were playing basketball in the gym, but K enjoyed that too!

Happy New Year Everyone!

We've had a wonderful start to our new year & been incredibly busy.  Too busy to blog!  The alpine ski racing season has started for my older 3 girls, & the oldest 2 are both on the Jr. high basketball team.   My 2nd oldest has also qualified for the winter games in our province in alpine skiing, so we have been running from practise to race or game & on to the next practice.  K has also had another neurodevelopmental evaluation recently, so that & her program as well as preschool has kept us busy!

The other reason that I haven't blogged until now, is that just before I hit publish on anther post, I got thinking that maybe K should have the first word in 2012.  I have a whole list of other blog posts that I have been working on in the meantime & will post soon, but first, here is her Happy New Year's message from our family to yours!  This is the first take - no practice runs because with our busy schedule, we may not find time again until June!  I think my sleepy little girl (it was bed time - she yawns 1/2 way through) did a great job!

Oh, & my other news for the New Year is that I am now on Facebook! You can find me here: Down Syndrome Up Up Up & Away

Hope you enjoy the video!

One year ago tonight........................

One year ago tonight, I held my daughter's limp, blue, not breathing, unconscious body in my arms.  We had been performing first aid for several minutes, but it wasn't working.  Our SUV stopped in the middle of the road, so my husband could help, the hospital was still 15 minutes away & the ambulance that we were expecting when we called 911 was even further away. It was the single scariest moment of my life.  Typing this now, even a full year later is difficult, the tears are streaming.  A few minutes before, I had thought we would get to the hospital in time, but at this point I wasn't sure.

About 15 minutes earlier, we had sat down for supper.  We were in a bit of a rush, because we were heading down to the ski hill soon.  Hot dogs are a rare treat in my house, but at a grocery store in a different city a few days earlier, I had found some hot dogs that I thought were better nutritionally.  In my rush to get the kids fed & out the door, I forgot to slice K's hot dog in half length wise like I always do for my kids at that age.  She was quite hungry & very excited to get such a treat for supper, so she took a big bite & didn't chew as well as she should have.  Within moments, she was struggling to take a wheezing breath as a large chunk of hot dog blocked her airway. We tried doing the Heimlich, & because she was little we also tried doing the back blows & chest thrusts that you would do for an infant who is choking.  When we weren't successful, we quickly decided to head for the ER.  K was still able to breathe, but it was laboured & she was still wheezing. Once in the SUV, I phoned 911, which is when we were told that the only available ambulance in our tiny community at the moment, was way on the other side of town.  We had to make it to town with her still alive as the ambulance would never arrive in the few minutes it takes for a child to pass away from lack of oxygen.

Every first aid course I have ever taken (& there have been quite a few) came back to me as we desperately tried to get K breathing again. I'm sure it was only minutes, but it seemed like hours that we worked on K`s limp body to unblock her airway & get her breathing again.  Finally, I managed to dislodge the piece of hot dog & get it far up enough in K's throat, that my husband was able to put his finger in her mouth (which is actually a no no, but at this point we were desperate) & get it out. Within a very short time, K regained consciousness & her skin started to return from a terrible blackish blue colour to pink again.  By the time we reached the hospital 15 minutes later, although sleepy & not herself, she was starting to become more active & respond to questions.  The hospital monitored her for a while, then sent her home the same evening.

Although K mostly recovered quite quickly, her face looked terrible for a few days as many blood vessels broke during her ordeal.  She also had a number of bruises from us performing the Heimlich maneuver & back blows so many times.

The next evening, we cancelled all of our New Years plans & spent a quiet evening at home, just thankful that all of our family was there to enjoy it with us.

I am surprised at how hard this has been to write.  I don`t remember when I shed this many tears last.  I think how easily things could have ended differently & I am so grateful.  

If you make only one plan for the New Year, make a resolution to take a first aid course.  I pray you will never have to use the information, but it is better to have it because you never know when something like this could happen.  

Look What I Can Do All By Myself!

Today, I had a little time to waste while waiting for winter tires to be put on my truck.  I really didn't need much for groceries, but thought this would be a good time to try out an idea that I had read about recently.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think I might have read about this idea on Geraldine's blog The Down Syndrome Action Plan.  Today was K's first, mostly independent shopping trip. It was a great way to incorporate reading into an activity which required thinking, memory & learning new skills.

I didn't think of this ahead of time, so I quickly scribbled down 

a few items on a scrap piece of paper. Here is her list:

 

....and off she goes! Sorry for the terrible picture.  Next time, 

I'll have to remember to take more than one. I think the little carts are adorable!

Some of the items were a difficult for K to reach, so I did help a little.  Next time, I'll be prepared with a list for her ahead of time that included things that are easier for her to reach, but all in all, it was a great first experience.

Canadian Down Syndrome Awareness Week - Let it snow......................

 Today was the ski swap & ski race program registration at our local ski hill. We had ski equipment spread all over this morning making sure that everything fit before my husband & the older girls left for the swap.   Of course K saw all of this & insisted that she go skiing.  We had just enough snow fall on Thursday that she was able to ski down a hill in the back yard.

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I think the new goggles are a little too big!

Crashing at the bottom of our big backyard hill!

 

K lasted about a dozen runs before she decided she should play in the tiny bit of snow we have. Aren't her skis just the cutest little ones you've ever seen?

31 for 21 - "W is for Wabbit"

I know its supposed to be 31 for 21, but I have completed my next 2 posts & want to do a Halloween post on Monday, so I'm going to add an extra.  35 or so for 21 is OK right?  This is a neat story so I really want to share it. You would think that I'd have run out of things to  talk about already:)!

Although K's speech is quite good for her age, we do have a lot of things to work on.  For example, she is starting to be able to say her R's, but still has quite a bit of trouble. It does lead to some funny situations sometimes. Tonight, Kassie asked me to play an alphabet game that she enjoys.   When we came to the letter W, she said "W  -  Wabbit"  I told her "No,  R - Rabbit".  Of course she insisted that W was for Wabbit & carried on through the alphabet. 

Although she was wrong about the spelling, it really showed that she is comprehending how to figure out the first letter of a word, because I'm sure none of us played this game using the word "Wabbit" or wrote "Wabbit" as a sight word.  She was able to sound the word out in her head & come up with what she thought was the first letter.

31 for 21 - A work in progress......................

Today we went to the funeral of an elderly neighbor.  It was a lovely celebration of life with a wonderful slide show showing his life story in pictures.  Our older daughters were all in school, but we took K along.................An hour long service sitting on a church bench can be a recipe for disaster, but I'm proud to say that she behaved wonderfully!  For over half the service (including the slide show) she just sat watching & listening.   She read books for the 2nd half, but did so in such a quiet whisper that she did not disturb anyone.

Then at the volleyball game later, she also sat for the full first game & most of the 2nd without complaint.  Eventually she did get bored & go play with some of the other kids who were coloring in the corner, but she sat for longer than she has at a game before.

WOW!  This is a skill that is really coming.

Of course, she is still a mischievous 4 year old, so I will share another story which explains why this is a work in progress.

At swimming lesson on Monday, really listened well & stayed with the group the almost whole time.  She is a good little swimmer, so paying attention the whole time really the most challenging part of the lesson for her.   I was very proud of K for listening so well, because there was only one incident when she decided to wander away.  The reason she got in trouble from her mom after wasn't so much the running away, but the fact that at one point when her instructor caught up with her, she took off running once again & yelled back "Ha Ha!!!!"

31 for 21: Don't you wish you could do this?

 

In case you can't tell from the picture, her feet are up on the step that 

she has the ipad sitting on.................yes, she is flexible!

31 for 21 - Can you guess what kind of book we're reading this week?

These are some of the words K has been learning this week.  In anticipation of Halloween, we are reading a cute book about 5 little ghosts who keep getting in trouble at school.  It is a pretty simple book, but although we often challenge K with her reading, I think sometimes,  it is good to have her read books that are simple& fun to help build her confidence.

31 for 21 - Creative Thinking!

K is getting much more creative & thoughtful when she is trying to get her own way.

A couple of days ago, while getting the kids ready for school, I noticed that K was no longer sitting at the table for breakfast - she often sleeps about 1/2 hour later & therefore eats after the older girls are all done. I went looking for her & found her in the bathroom............she had shut the door so I couldn't see & was quietly eating the organic bunny crackers that I had packed for her snack at preschool.

A couple of weeks ago, I taught K to use the computer mouse, so she now turns on Little Reader whenever she has a chance. Tonight, I needed to send an email, so I told her that when it was over, it was my turn. Twice when I wasn't paying attention, she put it on again. Finally, I said it was my turn to have the computer now. K is getting much better at thinking of how to get her own way & tonight,she turned to me, gave me a hug & very sweetly said "You need to go right to bed"