To the beach!

Packed everyone into the car & went off to Kelanang beach today! This would be our 3rd or 4th visit this year. Traffic was good, weather was good - no haze, clear blue skies!

*will upload photos from hubby's handphone when time permits.

Benefits:

(1) Walking on sand gives him good tactile input & requires good balance.

(2) Walking in water gives resistance & challenges his balance even more (he'll happily splash around in ankle deep water, but if it's almost to his knees, he'll want to hold our hand)

(3) Talk about/show him the surroundings e.g. how the mangrove trees were different in terms of their roots, compared to normal trees. Showed him what animals live in a mangrove habitat e.g. crabs, mudskippers, fishes (cognitive, biology lesson)

(5) Catching crabs requires fine motor skills, hand eye co-ordination, faster reflexes. He caught a lot of crabs with his bare hands (with his fingers actually) during the previous visit. This time round, there were much fewer crabs & he wasnt interested. Instead, he was stomping on the crabs! Not to worry, he didnt kill them. They are much faster in burrowing themselves than he was in stomping them. Stomping with one foot requires good balance.

(6) Picking sea shells requires fine motor, hand eye, squat to stand, bending down. Later at home, you can use the shells in various ways: counting, visual discrimination, biology lesson, decoration during sandplay.

(7) Receptive language (speech input) - you can expand his vocabulary e.g. waves, tide coming in, estuary, hermit crab

(8) Expressive language (speech output) - he has the chance to use what he's learnt e.g. he surprised me by describing the clouds as "fluffy clouds", a term that I used only once, several months ago during a trip to the neighbourhood park.

(9) Bringing back sand for sandplay at home! There are areas on that beach where the sand is very fine & white.

(10) Sandplay at the beach itself of course! E.g. build sand castles, scoop & pour activities etc.

(11) Catching fish using a net requires very fast reflexes, balance, gross motor. We forgot to bring a net, so it was papa who caught fish using his bare hands. Papa the hero caught 3! We tried to help but fish escaped instead! : )

(12) Flying a kite requires gross motor skills, balance, visual tracking. We didnt bring the kite cos we knew we wouldn't have time to fly it cos we left much later than normal.

(13) Drawing/writing in the sand - doesnt require a mature tripod grip, so it's good to do this to let his creativity flow, without being hindered by his disability. Also good as a fun alternative to writing with the usual pen, pencil, colour pencil, marker, crayon, chalk etc on paper, whiteboard, blackboard. Fine motor skill still needed.

(14) A lesson in caring for the environment. Unfortunately, there was trash washed up on certain parts of the estuary (apart from the usual plastic, I came across a bottle, hard hat & tyre!). Use this opportunity to teach him that things should be disposed in their proper place or else it gets washed up on the beach etc & dirties the homes of the crabs, fish etc.

Note:
(1) We have to check to make sure the moon cycle isn't at the full moon stage cos the waves comes right up & there's no beach left. He's fearful if the waves are close to him.
(2) Bring insect repellant or at least wear long pants that can be rolled up. I was badly bitten.
(3) There's decent hawker fare at the purpose built "food court" but lots of flies
(4) There's a children's play area with the usual slides, climbing equipment etc.
(5) There's proper toilet but its yucky (very wet, smelly, no soap, sandy/muddy floor - some mums were rinsing their kids in the toilet). Bring your own hand sanitiser & toilet paper.

Foam alphabet puzzle mat

Cheaply & easily available at hypermarkets & supermarkets. I bought the EVA brand at about RM23 for a set of 26 alphabets & 10 numbers pieces. I've so much use out of them that I bought a 2nd set.

How did I used it?
(1) When young & yet to crawl, it was laid out in one layer & he lay on it. The tiled floor is a bit too cold for a young baby.

(2) When he was learning to crawl:
- it softened his falls
- it provided a bit of texture (grip) to help him move forward cos tiled floor was rather smooth.
- gave some visual stimulation as it is very colourful

(3) When he could walk, I lay it to form a "track" for him to follow around the dining table, to the lounge etc. Sometimes it's simply him walking on it (or almost) & sometimes, it's for his push-along toy bug to "walk" on it. These help with body co-ordination & hand eye co-ordination

(4) It was one of the many "toys" to teach him his numbers & alphabets.

(5) Fine motor: he loves to remove (by using his pointer finger to "dig out") the numbers/alphabets from the "frame". I get him to help replace them, which also involves fine motor & hand eye co-ordination

(6) As a subsitute for "step-up" boxes (gross motor, step up/step down):

As he gained confidence in walking, I moved on to teach him to walk up steps. But he's a very cautious boy & for a long time wouldn't want to try walking up the stairs by himself. So I piled some pieces on top of each other to create a wide enough small step & placed it around, like an obstacle course, together with other challenges. I had to hold the pieces together with rubber band so it wouldn't move or else he's slip & hurt himself. After many many times of trying with me holding his hand, he'd eventually try it himself. Gradually, I increased the height by piling more pieces on top.

(7) Writing: I currently also use it as an alternative to sandpaper alphabets. It similarly provides tactile input when learning the strokes in writing the alphabet. It is not as rough, but is more colourful. As with sandpaper letters, you do need to be with him to show him the strokes, at least until you know that he's learnt them.

Farm Animals & Barn

Farm Animals & Barn

How?

-Download images of farm animals & a barn. (I think I got the photos from a toddler activities website & modified the activity to suit my son)

-Cut & paste on cardboard/old cereal box.

-Find old tissue box.

-Use blu-tack to stick barn to box, with the barn door over the opening of the box & place on a raised surface (e.g. table/desk/counter top).

-Use blu-tack to stick animals in another part of the house, on a door/back of chair/fridge door

-Stick them at a height that requires him to really stretch up, but is still within his reach.

-Between the place you stuck the animals & barn, create an obstacle course, for e.g. step-up

boxes, balance beam, crash mattress.

-He'll have to go through the course to obtain the animals & "help" them return to the barn for the night. One animal per trip.

-Observe the child for signs of tiredness and interest. Modify as you go along, for e.g. if there are still half of the animals left & he's already tired/lost interest, then get him to carry back 2 or more animals per trip.

-Vary the obstacle course after a few times of playing this game to maintain interest.

Why?

-Gross motor: stretching up several times to obtain animals & place in box; obstacle course (balance & co-ordination)

-Fine motor: removing animals stuck on door (some versions of blu-tac are a lot more adhesive than others). In setting up the game, I also get him to help pull apart the blu-tac & place it on the back of the animals (it works the hand muscles)

-Hand eye co-ordination: when placing animals in box

-Matching: make 2 or more copies of the same animal & have him match them by saying for e.g. "it's the turn of the black horses. Can you gather all the black horses together & help them return to the barn?"

-Maths: subtraction - count the animals at start of game, then removing one by one (or two by two, at a later stage). Addition - count the animals being put into the barn.

-Cognitive: teach him the names of the animals; talk a bit about the animals (e.g. what they like to eat; sounds they make)

Variation?

-I use pictures of cute/funny dogs & drew my own kennel

- I also have pictures of birds & a birdhouse (obtained from a kids activities website)

- combine animals from the different sets & ask him to select animals that belong, for e.g. in a

kennel

- Use plastic toy animals instead of the cut out ones

Is it Christmas again?

Hand-me-down toys
Got hold of some old toys from my childhood days & received toys that his cousin has outgrown. Great! It'll be like Christmas again for him! These are some of the stuff I took back for him:

Boggle

Will use it as part of reading activities. Reading requires a lot of practice so I'll need different activities to stimulate him & keep up the interest. This one requires fine motor skills. I suspect to start off with, he'll want to scatter the cubes rather than patiently find the letters he wants. Well, I'll have to be creative & go with the flow. (reading, fine motor)

Spill & spell

Similar concept to Boggle, except, you shake it out of a tube onto an open floor. The cubes are smaller than Boggle, so I'm not expecting much from it until he's older. (reading, fine motor)

Pop up mini Tent

Useful for our day trips to the beach. In the past we made do with just black plastic bin bags to sit on!

Beach toys

Medium sized beach ball (gross motor) and a set of various tools for building sand castles, scoop & pour, etc (fine motor, wrist movement)

McDonald's Happy Meal toys

Lots of these. Vehicles. I think I'll use them to teach him concepts of first, second, third in a pretend race to the finish line. He knows his numbers (1,2,3) but not in terms of 1st, 2nd, 3rd. (maths)

Books

Variety ranging from those for a 7 year old to pre-teens. Nursery rhyme types to Enid Blyton. Will be some years yet before it'll be utilised!

Skittles & ball

Plastic bowling set. A friend lent a set to him last year, but he preferred to use his hands to knock the skittles down! Will try it this year, perhaps he'll play with it the way it was meant. Good for gross motor, hand eye co-ordination.

Visit to a friend's kindergarten

Visit to a friend's kindergarten
(1) He could insert the montessori gradiated wooden blocks into the correct places, which surprised me. At home, we have plastic stacking beakers & he has trouble getting them into the correct order. (fine motor)

(2) A younger kid kept on distrubing him while he was playing with the montessori items. Finally, he got angry. He said "I pengsan" (& promptly fell down on his back). Asked why, he said "I'm angry" (& displayed the angry boday language) and pointed to the younger boy & then to himself & then to his toys. He was explaining that he was angry with the other boy for distrubing him while playing with the toys.

Later on, that boy was playing with wooden blocks. My son was next to him playing duplo blocks. When he saw the other boy built a tower, he promptly knocked it down! So much for teaching him to share! Guess that's somewhat a normal reaction. Actually, he wasn't seeking revenge. My son simply loves to knock down wooden blocks, even at home. I read that kids learn what happens when it gets knocked down (sound, reaction etc)...and I think it's more common in boys than girls. (social skills)

(3) I visited the place on my friends invitation to show me the resources she has in teaching the kids phonics/reading. I saw some of the Jolly Phonics material & montessori reading material. Hoping she'll be able to find & loan me her "Morris word book" so it'll be easier for me to prepare material for the Blue & Green series Montessori reading. (phonics, reading)

Monday, 20 July 09

Tesco
(1) The trolley I happen to get had stiff wheels, which turns out to be good as it gives him the resistance & he has to push much harder than normal. He loves pushing the trolley, btw. I tell him to hold both left & right ends of the trolley, so he gets to stretch his arms wider a little bit. He pushed for almost an hour. (gross muscles, resistance, stretch wide)

(2) I was reading the label on an item & he came up to say he wanted to help! I was surprised. So I asked him to put some tinned food into the trolley. Since he's too short compared to the trolley height (stretched his arms up!), he was dropping it in rather than placing it in. So I only gave him tinned & plastic bottle items & put in the segregated front part of trolley to avoid bruising fruits & veg. (social skills, stretch up)


Speech
He's beginning to say slightly longer sentences. My helper reported that when he saw the picture card of a curled up millipede, he said "millipede scared of me...at park". I made the picture card some months back to get him to practice 3 syllable words (instead of just 1 or 2 syllable words, to improve his breath stream). So now that he's putting more words together, it shows he's progressing...and he said it without prompting! (speech, memory)

Btw, his "sentence" was referring to walks at the neighbourhood park where we often see milipedes, either walking or curled up dead. I had also showed him that if I poked the milipede, it'd curl up & explained that it does that when it's scared. When he saw another picture card of a straightened out milipede, he repeatedly poked at it! I guess he was reflecting what we did at the park!

Car seat
I carried him out of the car when we arrived home from Tesco. He didn't like that. He wanted to do it himself. Great! So, I put him back in his car seat & he worked his way out of the car. (gross motor, independence)

Cranial sacral therapy
Therapist said both his knees are ok. Last week, she noted that one of it was a bit rotated out. In the past 2 weeks or so, I noticed he reverted to sitting leaning back a bit. But the therapist & I both noted that after the sessions, he tends to sit nicely, at a 90 degree angle.

Sunday, 19 July 09

Morning exercise at neighbourhood park

Gross motor
15 mins only this morning at the neighbourhood park. Parked at bottom of row of houses which are on a slope - we walked up & back down. That housing area was designed differently - the inclination of the slope alternates...it is a bit of a short steep walk up a slope up then flatten out at the next 2 houses, then the slope again etc. So he gets the "steep bit" to stretch his achilles, gastroc muscles etc.

Speech
He'd name all the brands of cars parked outside the houses e.g. Honda, Alfa Romeo, Toyota, Ford, BMW. Noted his pronounciation of "B" is better (when he says "BMW"). It used to sound like "bern". Now its "bee". Hooray! I use whatever interests him as opportunities for therapy activities, so he's been naming cars for a long time now.

Maths
In future, I can introduce him to counting 2 by 2. Since the houses on one side are even numbered & the other odd, I'll use this opportunity to further his maths (addition).

Garden
- He picked up dried leaves from the grass (bend down, squat, fine motor, hand eye)
- He also plucked all the tiny red flowers from one of the plants (fine motor, hand eye, both hands)
- He ran along the drain cover (visual) which he likes cos it makes a loud sound

Oral Motor
He can now suck up his Yakult using a normal sized bendy straw which has been cut in half, with the straw maintaining it's shape. Straw was placed past his teeth but he didnt bite down on it hard. Only faint teeth mark was visible on the straw. Hooray! We see progress resulting from activities using the various sized & shaped straws!

Kitten
He did quite a bit of squatting & "squat to stand" at the restaurant tonight because he was playing with a kitten.

Ball play
Why?
I wanted him to stretch up high.

How?
- Balls & a basketball hoop. The hoop was given 2nd hand from a friend (easily found in hypermarkets, Jusco). Very useful as it's adjustable as he grows taller - it has suction caps. Actually, it was more like he dropped them through the hoop rather than throw, but it's ok cos he did stretch. But he did only a few balls, so did a variation....

We went upstairs & he dropped the balls over the banister (banister high enough to still require stretching). He wised up after just a few throws & rolled them down instead. So changed the game again...

Helper & I held up an old towel & got him to throw over. Perhaps this was something new so he did quite a few throws. Actual throwing, good strong throws (not dropping), which is good.

Resuming activities after illness

It's been 2 weeks of reduced activities due to his illness (& me being sick too). He completed his course of antibiotics on Friday. His last round of nebuliser was on Thursday night.


Butterfly hill
Yesterday we resumed his gross motor activity. Just had about 10min of outdoor activity in the morning at the neighbourhood park. We climbed the small hill (I named it butterfly hill) to look for butterflies but didnt find any this time. Instead we were counting wild mushrooms. Introduced addition of bigger numbers. E.g 4+3 = 7. He knows how to add one more, but not add 2 or more than 2.

I chose this form of exercise because after 2 weeks without such exercise, he began to walk on tip toe more often & his walk was getting broadbased. So, climbing hills (the steeper the better, within limits of course) would stretch his achilles, gastroc muscles etc.

The grassy gently undulating terrain there was also good for him - balance! Since he loves to run in wide open spaces, it was perfect. No need to persuade him, or think of ways to trick him into it.

Crash mattress

What is it?
It's basically a large sack (with side zip) containing chunky pieces of foam in uneven sizes. The sack is about the size of a single mattress. It's on loan from his therapist - many thanks!

Why?
Lately, he seems keen on walking & running on slightly uneven surface (his normal mattress with blankets, cushions scattered!) & he's getting better at it. So I repositioned his "obstacle course" to incorporate the crash mattress.

Benefits?
It's for his balance. To walk on it, he still needs to hold my hand. Its too tricky - pieces are never in the same place.

Homemade picture cards

I've been making my own picture cards ever since he was 1+ years old and he does love them. I try to use real pictures as much as possible especially when he was younger as it'd be easier for him to relate to. I also realised that he's very much a visual learner.

Why picture cards?
- When I started off back then, the objective was to increase his cognitive skills (colours, shapes etc) & vocabulary.
- When he started speech therapy, I used it to get him to verbalise.
- Then moved on to numbers & alphabets.
- Now that I'm embarking on the montessori reading method, I'll use it to teach him reading too.

Why make my own?
- I make it myself because I can personalise them. I choose words that he can relate to in his daily setting. I'm a practical person, so I dont see how it'd be useful for him, for e.g. to learn the national flags of the world. If knowledge is not used, it'll be lost. Our brains trim unused neurons.
- Also, commercially available ones are great, but limited & often does not have local flavour to it.
- Saves money too

Where to get pictures?
I use 2 websites, both are subscription based. I dont subscribe & I'm still able to download them (for personal use) but will have the company's "watermark" on the image. That doesnt seem to bother my son though, so I continue using their photos.

(1) http://www.corbis.com/

(2) http://www.clipart.com/

Corbis has beautiful professionally taken real life photos. They've got art work & illustrations too but mostly photos. They recently revamped their site & collection, so there's more available now.
Clipart...we all know la. I use it when the word is not in his daily vocabulary & therefore I need the picture be just that word & no other object in the frame. Or whenever, I cant find it on Corbis.

How to make them?
- I use powerpoint to create the frame & simply insert the image into the powerpoint. Powerpoint has its advantage as it allows me to easily resize the image, put in an arrow, circle an area etc. Useful for certain words which would otherwise be hard to depict. E.g. the word "hips", or "lap"
- When he was younger, I made the pictures quite large. About half of an A4 page.
- Depending on the purpose, I may or may not add the word below it.
- After printing them, I cut & paste (the manual way!) on to cardboard. When he was younger, I used those cardboard boxes which the photocopier paper comes in. Those boxes are thick & hard enough to withstand his then habit of crushing paper. I asked my hubby, ex-colleagues etc to save them for me. Cheap & saves the environment.
- As he got older & as I ran out of storage space, I stuck it to cut out pieces of manila cardboard.
- Depending on the objective, I used different layouts in the powerpoint. I do not prescribe to rigid rules prescribed by the likes of Glen Doman etc in terms of the size, font type etc. I'm very sure they have their research to back up those rules, but it's just that I didnt follow them.

Seminar on Introduction of Neurosuit

Those interested in the Neurosuit but are hesistant to commit a purchase may wish to attend the seminar on Saturday 25 July 2009. It gives the history of the suit, the benefits, who it's meant for (includes adult stroke patients) & a demo too.

For more details on registration, location etc, click on the link below:
http://my.88db.com/my/Services/Post_Detail.page/Health_Medical/Disabled_Care/?PostID=262733

SEGi Appreciation Day 2009

I'm looking forward to the SEGi Appreciation Day For Early Childhood Professionals next Sat, 25 July 2009.

I'm not a professional teacher, but I do teach my son (homeschooling) & early childhood education is an area I'm keenly interested in. There'll be workshops/seminars on 4 areas: art, music & movement, sand & water play, creative teaching on that day. It's not specific for special needs kids, but I'm sure I'll find it useful. It also offered free attendance to one class of your choosing from their list of classes from 1-18 July. I chose & attended the one for Montessori reading - phonograms.

For those interested, you can find more details here:
http://my.88db.com/MY/Views/postDetails.aspx?PostID=261149&languageid=1

Broadband & montessori reading

Thanks to my hubby, I'm now on mobile broadband! Would you believe I was using dial up Jaring, at max speeds of 37kb all this while? I'm now zooming at 10-20x that speed with broadband! Welcome to the 21st century!

I've been making the most of this great speed by downloading stuff for making my own material to teach my son to read based on the montessori reading method. I've been very keen on moving him up to the next level in the path to reading ever since he learnt the basic phonic sounds of the alphabets & could match pictures or spoken words to their beginning sounds. But I didnt know how to do move forward...until I went for a sneak peak class teaching Montessori's reading method (that session was on the Green series) at SEGi recently. That method agrees with my way of thinking & made sense.

It will require lots of work in preparing the materials. It's achieveable for the pink series stage...but will require lots of time. Beyond that level, at the blue & green series, I think I need the "Morris book of words" to help me as digraphs, dipthongs & phonograms are way above my head! Will ask around...or if you, the reader, has that book (or montessori pink series materials), please do let me know!

Bronchitis

I spent the past hour typing about his this episode of bronchitis, only to end up losing it...Google pages appears with message "bad request" "error".

So, I'll keep it to one para this time....he's much better now. Avoided hospitalisation. I caught his bug & am on antibiotics myself. My helper is sick too (mild cold). Looking forward to resuming normal activities. He's been understandbly very grumpy stuck at home, with only visits to the hospital for nebuliser, to look forward to. Also, his begun to tiptoe more & walks funny again (terkangkang).

Both sick

This is an old posting which I had drafted last night (Wed, 8 July 2009) but didnt get to finish as my son woke up, coughed, vomitted badly several times....so, I'll just post it tonight, even though it's not completed.

8 July 2009

We're both sick. Started last night. Mild fever but was enough to cause a restless sleep for him, which meant I didnt sleep well either. But at least I had the luxury of sleeping in this morning.



So, we didnt go to Titiwangsa this morning, or do that much today. I'll instead write briefly about what he did yesterday (7 July).



7 July 2009


Titiwangsa


Played for a short while only as he said he was tired (probably wasnt so well already) & the sun came out. He did manage the following:

- 1 x on monkey bar slide

- 2 x walking up the stairs

- 3 x tunnel slides

- 1 x tunnel

- inclined ramp

- walked on the pebbled covered drain (uneven surface, good for balance)

- he did try the arched ladder, which he hasnt done for many months. It's a ladder but instead of it perfectly vertical, it is arched so the bottom of the ladder starts off vertical, and the top of the ladder ends up horizontal.



Gardening


Wasn't so sunny when we got home, so did a bit of gardening. He likes to help nowadays, so he picked up dried leaves & cuttings. Good for squat to stand, bending down, using left hand, hand eye.


He also said "thank you" many times, when i helped him gather smaller cuttings into a pile for him to pick up & carry to the bin bag. So, got in some speech there.



Car seat


I've been letting him try to climb up into the car & his car seat & get off too. Sometimes he's better than other times. He often needs help when he finally gets into the car seat but one leg gets stuck under him (he sat on his leg but cant pull his leg out). He's getting quite heavy for me to carry him into the car, so I better start letting him practice! It's good for balance, co-ordination, independence

NeuroSuit

Last week, the deposit for the NeuroSuit was paid. The American therapist/owner is coming end of the month & I'm looking forward to starting the suit therapy.


Lots of hard work for sure & I've to be patient, but I these are what I hope to see in my son, with the suit therapy...

- significantly less drool
- better speech in terms of volume & clarity
- running gait a lot more normalised
- hip more stable
- arms straighter, less "bat wing" like
- able to do more gross motor skills, like stepping up higher steps unaided, pedalling, jumping, walking on balance beam unaided
- improvement in fine motor


There was an article in NST on NeuroSuit:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Features/20090602093919/Article/index_html


Briefly, this is what I understand Neurosuit is meant to/has benefits of:
- correct the posture, through giving proprioceptive input back to the brain on what the correct posture is supposed to be. Cells & muscles have memory.
- intensify the benefits of any physio or therapies that he does while in the suit & so we'll see those benefits earlier.
- Since there are bungee like cords attached, it gives resistance & so strengthens muscles too.


This is the link to NeuroSuit's website, for more info:
http://www.neurosuit.com/


This is the link to some photos of a severe CP boy I know, who is sitting up unaided. He could only sit propped up in his wheelchair/stroller before the suit therapy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101893&id=607886440&l=ed984b5633

Is it Christmas?

My brother's back for summer hols & brought back quite a few things for him. A big thank you!!!
Magnetic words

- to help in teaching him to read. Got them off ebay (UK site). Several types being sold. I chose the "Top 100 words" & "phonics" ones cos these will go a long way.
- Phonics: so that I can move to the next level to teach him "combined letters" e.g. "oo", "an".
- Words: apart from reading the words, he can use them much later on, to create sentences. He might have difficulty with handwriting, so having magnets might work around that disability (to a slight extent).

Castanet
- to get him to exercise his palm (open/close movement loosens & streghtens hand muscles)
- to learn rhythm. Having a pair allows me to show him on mine & he follows on his own castanet.

- chose ladybird design cos he finds them cute. Also from ebay uk

Animal puzzle book
- good for hand eye, fine motor
- good for cognitive: book also aims to teach the sounds they make, the food they eat, the habitat they live in
- very few words on each page, so later, I can get him to sight simple words e.g. "it","is" (reading)

V-Smile (computer console game)
- for hand eye, faster reflexes, fine motor
- from ebay. Pre-loved consoles are much cheaper compared to brand new ones sold here.

LeapFrog Leadpad
- to teach reading

Mega Bloks

- for fine motor when putting together; also requires both hands for removing pieces; creativity

Rainbow Coloured Musical Handheld Bells

- I wanted to get the ones used by his music teacher, which are 3x larger & the child is able to "ring" the bell by pushing down on it & not just in the conventional way.

- these are still definitely useful. Since it is smaller, it challenges his fine motor. Noticed it's not "tuned" properly, but I can still use it to teach him the placement of do, re, mi, fa etc & can play the Old McDonald tune which he has learnt to sing at music class.

Titiwangsa & others

Titiwangsa

Slides:
- still keen which also means he himself will want to crawl/climb whatever obstacle to get to the slide. As a result, he climbed more steps today.
- He climbed up the wrong way to get to the top of the baby slides & shorter tunnel slides, which is good for his achilles tendon, gastroc muscles etc.
- He's a bit bolder now & went down a tunnel slide with 1 1/2 twists by himself, without prompting!

Swing: been sometime since he sat on the swing. I showed him how to pump himself to get the swing moving, but he didnt try it, just observed my legs.

Long suspension bridge
- still likes it! A tiny bit better in getting up & down each level of the platform, though I still have to help him - e.g. he bends his knee more readily when coming down & when going up, his leg is placed a bit more in front of him instead of slightly to the side.
- yesterday he walked backwards on the bridge (moonwalking tribute to MJ!?)

Short suspension bridge: I increased the challenge by bouncing up & down on it to get it more shaky (cos that's how it'd be like if there were kids running past him). Good that he didnt lose his balance.

Spinning tops: He was a bit better on it today. Phew. It's also good for strecthing his legs (to help in opening up his stride).

Monkey bar slide: he didnt want to do it today

Suspended balance beam: once or twice towards the end of the beam, he managed to place his foot one in front of the other instead of squeezing them side by side. Hope he does it more cos that'll help get a more narrow based gait instead of broad based now.

Rock climbing:
- surprised he wanted to do it ! 1st time ever! And not just on 1 set, but went up 2 sets! I had never asked/prompted him to try it. Helped him with his footing, but was otherwise able to get up.

Visit to great grandma's
- Had a bit of time before lunch, so squeezed in a short visit to his great grandma's.
- realised there that he poo poo, so washed him. Poor thing, he must have been at the playground all the time with that icky feeling cos he did smell a bit when we got there but just thought he passed wind.
- he spoke a few words (e.g. thank you, purple, don't want) that were audible & intelligible enough for grandaunt to understand. Hooray!

Smell
- I taught him the 'thumbs up' sign for good last week. 2 days ago, taught him the thumbs down for bad. Today, after he passed wind (kentut), he said: kentut...smell BAD (with thumbs down sign!) So funny!

Cranial Sacral Therapy
- his therapist noted the front of his skull was slowly opening up a little. Not so sharp looking.
- he played with some toys that helps with fine motor & hand eye (click clack & chunky foam animal puzzle)
- In preparation of the NeuroSuit therapy, I learnt to massage him: up & down the sides of his spine, shoulders, shoulder blades, arms, legs & hip. He was so ticklish esp arms & shoulder blade. He complained towards the end...but he was ok lah.

Hair cut
- hair getting long, weather so hot, scrathing his head more often ... time for hair cut!
- thankfully he can still fit in his small bathtub, while I cut his hair. Gave him beakers to fill & pour. It's good for wrist movement & crossing the midline (told him that if he wants to pour the water out of the bathtub, he has to pour it in the pail I placed on his left - he's right handed)
- handsome now!

Garden hose
- I had diarohea this evening, so didnt take him for evening exercise.
- he helped with watering the plants, using the garden hose. Good for hand eye, arm movements.

Mega bloks
Didnt have time to build structures but played with it as follows:
- tried to unzip the bag, but couldnt. It's ok, it's the first time with this bag. Just needs more practice
- right hand took out individual pieces from the bag & placed it on the swing, while counting out loud & placing it in separate groups according to colour (speech, fine motor, sorting), I also got him to stretch by moving the swing a little further away each time.
- left hand put back all the pieces at the end (no counting)

music class today

Music Class
He started his weekly music class in Feb'09. He only became comfortable after 2 months there. Today, he was a lot more comfortable/confident – e.g. went forward to teacher when other students do the same without me prompting; he approached the teacher for the white board marker & wanted to draw even though not his turn yet

- Class starts with each child playing "Twinkle twinkle" with the teacher: he wanted to play it instead of being guided by teacher. He can’t as yet, so at times he played the wrong keys. It’s ok for now cos I do not practice that piece with him at home & it shows he’s becoming a bit more confident.
- he drew music notes but needed step by step instruction
- teacher gave him markers with different thickness to stretch his pincer grasp muscles a little
- he tried to clap according to rhythm (5, 6, se-ven, 8) but cant yet
- he "sang" simplified version of the minuette - teacher plays one note at a time & gets him to follow e.g. teacher plays the note "la" and asks him to sing "la"
- he played the chorus of "Old Mc Donald" (it's just the note "fa" repeated many times) on the mini keyboard & on the musical bell – he was better on keyboard than on bell. He could almost get the right timing with the keyboard
- he still grips the other children's hand too tightly during circle time - when he's excited, his muscles tighten.


Unlocking the door
- he needs to stretch up to reach up to the height of the keyhole;
- I've to place the key into the keyhole inside first, then he's able to push it in fully;
- he now knows the direction to turn the key when unlocking (anti-clockwise);
- he can now turn the key but needs help when actual unlocking (the "click" moment) because it's needs a bit more strength (wrist movement);
- after unlocking I've to pull the key out a little, then he can pull out the rest of the key;
- used his left hand to pull down the lever cos right hand holding key;
- balancing & co-ordination required (cos he’s on tip toe) when pulling down the lever & simultaneously pushing open the door

Painting
- He did hand printing, hand painting, painting with brushes of different thickness
- these help with hand eye, fine motor, grasping, creativity

Bananas in pyjamas
- today’s episode was all on nursery rhymes with action E.g. I’m a little teapot; Here we go round the Mulberry bush; Head & shoulders.
- we carried on that theme (action songs) in the restaurant while waiting for the bill

Dinner at restaurant
- I placed some ice chips on hands to stimulate senses
- He used both hands to grasp (palm grasp) the glass & raise it up & down. I allowed it cos it helps open up the palm & it wasnt a fancy restaurant
- We played games to get him to stretch arms wide open & high up E.g. when he spots aeroplane (it's outdoor dining), or sees a long bus pass by
- We made up games to get him to move his arms based on the cars passing by (we use his interest as much as possible)
- I tried to massage his muscles near his shoulder blade but he was too ticklish

2 July 2009

Went to Low Yat this morning cos I want to buy a netbook but ended up confused with the wide variety & might even consider getting a low end laptop instead!

What he did do today:

- Escalator: we’ve been teaching him to step on and off the escalator every time we’re at the shops. It involves balance, co-ordination, good reflexes. If he focuses, he's able to time his step on & off quite well. But he's often distracted by his surroundings. Since it’s quite dangerous, we hold both his right & left arms, for now.

- Running: he loves to run, so I usually bring along my helper to supervise him when I know I’d be busy

- Speech: he’ll say the names of the vehicles he sees on the road, while in the car & at the shops. E.g. Perodua, truck, Toyota jeep. He's crazy about vehicles, so no prompting needed here.

- Counting: he counts he number similar vehicles that he sees e.g. 3 Proton, 2 vans

- Alphabets: he’ll say the name of the alphabet in advertising signs that he sees in the shop E.g. A-c-e-r

- Learning to unlock: Just introduced it this week. I want him to eventually be able to unlock the door with a key. I detached the key from the key ring cos he grasps the key ring instead of the key. At this stage, I insert the key; I show him which direction to turn, with my hand over his & help him turn it when he's unable to. Good for wrist movement & for strengthening his hand muscles, hand eye & a practical activity.

- Play masak masak – pretend play; colour matching of spoons & forks to the plates; movement of both hands E.g. right hand was holding the kettle & I gave his left hand a spoon for him to match; fine motor E.g. he pulls apart the Velcro fruits (the type which you use a play knife to cut through the velcro joining the 2 halves)

He had speech therapy this afternoon. Spoke very softly except towards the end of the session. Not sure if it’s because we changed the timing of the therapy to the afternoon & he's therefore more tired compared to during a morning session, or because he was a bit uncertain what the therapist wanted of him.

It was good of the therapist to include activities to prepare him for kindy. E.g. getting him to practice saying “Teacher, I want to colour”, “Teacher, I want to drink”

We did one activity to improve his articulation of the letter “k”, which I think he did quite well. On and off we did do similar “k” sound activity in the past at speech therapy so I guess he’s progressed.

This evening, he got his dose of exercise, by running in the garden & playing with the helper. I think I’m down with the flu or something cos I’ve been very tired these few days & having bad headache now. There's much more I want to share on the stuff I did with my son last week, but it'll have to be postponed again...

Wooden clock

Wooden Clock

Why? to introduce him to telling time. Played with this clock previously but not progressed much. That’s ok cos at the moment, other objectives take a higher priority.

Past/current objectives in terms of introducing teaching time:
- Items you’d find on a clock – numbers & 2 hands, one long & one short
- Hands move clockwise (not anti clock wise)
- Placement/location of numerals – 12 always at the top, 6 directly opposite at the bottom, 3 to the right, 9 directly opposite on the left.
- Short hand indicates hour. Long hand shows minutes.

I bought this cos I can do more than just teach time with it. Fine motor - Clock's hands can be moved of course, but also the numbers can be removed & replaced (magnetic). Attractive without it being distracting in the sense that the design/colours draw your attention to the numbers & hands which should rightly be the focus. Background is kept plain. No fancy gadgets. Other products in the market tend to have distracting/loud cartoons.

You can also use it to reinforce colours, numbers, shapes & practice hand eye coordination.
Today (Sunday 28 June 2009) while playing with him, I found new uses – as stacking blocks & for teaching patterns/sequencing.

Pattern/sequencing is an important math skill. Previously he could do 2 item patterns being repeated. E.g. blue, red, blue, red…what comes next? blue, red. He didn’t get it with 3 item patterns. E.g. car, bus, train, car, bus, train…what comes next? Car, bus, train. Today, I tried teaching 3 item pattern using those blocks. But this time, I put each “group” close together before placing the next group….see photo (to be uploaded later, sorry)…and the result? He got it! Hooray!

Another way to play with it is to teach him the number line (early maths skill). E.g. remove & mix up the number pieces & have him arrange it numerically. You can also then remove a few pieces & ask him what numbers are missing.

The toy is a Tesco own brand item & given the quality & the many ways to play with it, it’s good value for money.

Other ideas if you want to take teaching time further:
- Ladybird book: First Skills series, "Telling the time"(Bought at warehouse sale)

- Start with “on the hour” times. E.g. one o’clock, three o’clock instead of say, 3.15

- Create awareness of time as measured by the clock & relate it to his activities. E.g. serve lunch at 12noon & point out the time on the clock or Evening walks at 7 o’clock. He learns faster if he is able to relate things or concepts to his environment.

- Later on, when introducing minutes, sneak in a lesson when you’re giving him 5 minutes more for playing before it’s time for his shower. Show where the long hand is & where it will be when 5 minutes is up.

Ta Doodles & spray bottle

Ta-Doodles

The "Ta-Doodles" are those 3 items (orange, green, purple) beside his leg. It's basically an all-in-one: paint brush & paint. Very handy for a quick painting session. I bought it to get him to open up his palm because his hands are usually in a closed fist & he uses pincer grip to get things. It's by Crayola & washable, but advisable to do it on a floor that's tiled or outdoor (just in case). Also, keep the plastic container that it comes in as it should be stored upright to avoid the paint leaking out. Bought from MPH.

During the painting session, I also got him to use his left hand, which he did, but only for a brief moment, even though I tried to "trick him into it" by giving one each for each hand. (His left arm is tighter than his right, so I've to come up with stuff to do with his left arm)

He wanted to help to clean up the paint on the floor - see the little bit of mess on the floor, in the photo. But I've been "training" him to clean up after playing with any toy. Took the opportunity to get him to use the kid sized spray bottle. He cant squeeze the trigger yet, so I hold my hand over his to help him. Squeezing the trigger helps to strengthen the muscles.

Whilst cleaning up, he used his left hand cos right hand was holding spary bottle. He also did some squatting cos he was wiping up the paint on floor.