Little bits of progress

Cranial Sacral Therapy

He had his session today & therapist noted that his neck muscles were not as tight compared to a week ago. ...perhaps due to the NeuroSuit? He wont have any sessions until Sept as the therapist will be away for courses. Let's see what happens!


Speech

He is speaking more often. He is also speaking more words each time he does speak. I want to write down but have difficulty remembering the things he says! Some are funny, some give an insight to what's in his head, some just show he's progressing in thought & ability to express. I still have much work to do on his articulation.

Examples while at the park this evening:
- described the clouds as "fluffy clouds". Later, the formation changed & he said "straight clouds" (they appeared as vertical strips of cloud)
- aeroplane flew across the sky & happened to have a flock of birds flying past too. He said "aeroplane and birds go home" (that's 7 syllables all at once without me needing to prompt him!)


Assertiveness

When he started therapy early last year, I was glad that he was then quite a compliant boy. The therapists found it relatively easy to work with him. But I had a tiny concern back then that he wasn't assertive enough. I didnt want him to grow up and have him be a dog's body for other people.

Well, I can put that worry to rest now! It's harder now but still fairly easy to get him to do things...I do have to be more creative & just go along with where he leads the play/activity initially and then guide the play to a direction or learning outcome I want.

I certainly do have more difficult times now with him wanting his own way. Explaining why he can't do what he wants at that time doesn't seem to work anymore. E.g. he has to wait for the TV advertisement to finish before resuming the show he was watching.

Expressing his emotions

For a long time, I have been trying to give him words to label the emotions he was feeling (read that some where in babycentre website I think). It involves catching him feeling that emotion & using the word to label it. For e.g. if he was obviously happy, I'd say "you look so happy". So, words that he first started using to describe how he was feeling were, in rough chronological order: happy, scared, tired, angry. Recently, he said on 3 different occasions: "No more! I'm angry now!" with fists clenched & raised slightly. I try not to show that I'm laughing inside of me when he says that : )


Other languages

He is picking up little bits of Bahasa (spoken by helper) & Mandarin (taught by hubby). I was surprised. I didnt have any intention of teaching him other languages, as I already have so much to do. So it's great that he has incidentally picked up Bahasa from my conversions with my helper. E.g. when asked whether he "nak tak?" (do you want it?), he responded "tak nak" (ie no). He can count up to 7 in Bahasa. He can count to 5 in Mandarin.


Art/Drawing

- at the beach 2 Saturdays ago, he drew in the sand, some kinda wavy lines that resembled a pond. When asked what it was, he didnt reply. When asked if it was the river or mangrove that we had just crossed, he said yes. That was the first time he drew something other than straight lines, or zigzag lines or circle to make a smiley face. (photo on hubby's phone...hasnt uploaded up)

- last Saturday, he was playing with my hubby, drawing on his whiteboard. For the first time, he drew a sun (circle with lines outwards from the circle). Will try to take a photo of it & upload.

- last Sunday, he was drawing on his mini blackboard. Started with a circle for his smiley face, then hair, ears. Well, he's done that in the past. Then came many vertical lines. When asked what it was, he said "trees..botak". He most likely remembered the single tall thin tree in the park which had absolutely no leaves & hardly any branches, amongst other trees with leaves. We were in the park on Friday night (2 days beforehand). He had pointed to that tree & said "botak tree" and laughed. Oh, he's going through a phase where if he sees a bald man, he'll say "botak" and laugh. I know, it's not nice. I'm trying to correct that.