His Drawings

He has a variety of drawing instruments: short pencils, long pencils, chunky pencil, colour pencils, chunky colour pencils, crayons, chunky crayons, Crayola's Ta-Doodles, chunky marker pens, paint brushes, glitter glue pens, chalk, normal pens, chunky pens & whiteboard markers.




He also has a variety of drawing surfaces: small whiteboard, large whiteboard, small chalkboard, paper of different sizes, Aqua Doodle & Aqua Draw. Some of them are mountable on a stand at an angle. Some are just laid on the floor or table. I sometimes stick large pieces of paper on the door.



Apart from finger painting, I also let him draw with his fingers in a salt tray. I prefer using salt instead of sand cos I dont know how to sterilise sand!



I give him this much variety for him to practice using various muscles & of course to keep up the interest.



In an earlier post (3 Aug 09) I had mentioned 2 of his drawings but didn't get round to upload them. So, here they are. This is one on a chalkboard & the other below is on a whiteboard.


He says this is a forest of "botak trees". If translated directly, it means a forest of bald trees.


That's his depiction of the sun. Prior to this, he never drew the sun. He never added lines to a circle. Most of the time it'd be scribbles or 2 eyes & a mouth.


He drew this on chalkboard on 30 Aug 09. I was seated with him when he drew the outline of the face. Started off looking something like a heart shape. I then suggested he draw some eyes, to make it a 'smiley heart'. Then I went out of the room to attend to something. When I returned, this was what I saw. Whoa! Looks like a panda's face to me. I certainly didnt expect to see that.

When he draws eyes, it's usually just dots. When he draws a nose, it's usually just a dot too (see photo below of his drawing of faces. It was taken in March 09).

Drive

I was getting a little frustrated at home with my helper. I am truly grateful to have her & she has been of tremendous help, but no one's perfect. I'm certainly not. Living together, you'd see the good, the bad and the ugly of anyone. Over the past few months, such tiny frustrations (seemingly stemming from her) have been cropping with a little more frequency. I had to get out, away from the house, without her tagging along.

Taking a quote from a Focus on The Family tape I was listening to, perhaps my "frustration storage tank" was getting full from various life stressors. If not dealt with, frustrations would turn to anger.

Since it was a public holiday, I suggested to my husband that we take a drive, with my son & my sis. It would have been better if it was without my sis so that I could freely voice my thoughts to my husband, but I know my sis needed to get out of the house too (with H1N1 raging on, we've minimised going out).

My sis has a moderate to serious learning disability. She stays with us as she can't live independently & will need someone to care for her all her life. But that's a story for another time.

Where we were driving to wasn't that important. It felt good to be out with my husband when he's in a relaxed mood, not hurrying to complete an errand, not stressed by his job worries, not being stuck in a traffic jam, not tired from a day at the office.

The topic of the conversation was something light, which made the drive relaxing. I miss hearing my husband's voice when he's relaxed. I put aside my focus on my son & focused on my husband. It felt good. It's been a long time since I gave my husband the same amount of attention that I have been giving my son since he started his therapies.

On the one hand, time is the enemy for my son. Each day he's getting older and his peers are learning more new skills, absorbing new knowledge. It's like fighting time to try to avoid the developmental gap from getting bigger. After more than a year of therapies & giving all I got, I feel burnt out. (I'm not ready to write about the time before I started blogging. It's too painful, too confusing, too much energy needed to sort out my thoughts).

I am learning to strike a better balance now between being a mother and a wife. It's hard. I'm making a conscious effort. By God's grace, I'm hoping it all works out.

Hates Brushing Teeth

He absolutely hates having his teeth brushed.

He had his first tooth rather early, I think at 4 or 5 mths. I dont remember exactly when it was that I started cleaning his teeth. When we had a confinement lady with us, she cleaned his mouth & tongue with a clean wet hanky. When he was a bit older, I cleaned it with a finger brush & flouride-free toothpaste but I know I wasn't consistent.

Back then, it was a bit easier, although a lot more painful as he'd bite down on my finger. As he grew older, it was harder. I cleaned it when he was in his bathtub, distracted playing with his bath toys. Even then I had to brush real quick as he hated it.

He hasn't been using his bathtub since the end of last year/early this year. Instead, we's sit him on the sink counter top, in front of the mirror & get his teeth brushed. On good days, he'd play with the tap, turning it on & off; putting his hand or foot under the faucet, splashing water all over; re-arranging the toiletries etc. Other tactics were to distract him with singing (worked when he was younger), tell him stories (worked for a while), using an egg timer, giving stickers as reward etc. He even had his teeth brushed while watching TV and while in bed with the lights off.

At times, I'd leave it to my helper as I'd have other things to attend to (e.g. late night grocery shopping). Truth be told, it was also because she's a lot more patient with him than I was. For a while, she was very good, diligently brushing his teeth. Then I noticed she started skipping a few. And it's been getting more frequent even though I reminded her several times.

Last night I took over the task. I was searching for some files (for a pattern activity) on my laptop, when it was time to put him to bed. I was already tired & had little patience left. But brushing his teeth had to be done. I quickly brought up some colourful pictures on screen to keep him happy. It worked for some 10 seconds! The rest of the time I was holding him down, keeping him still enough for me to get in there & trying to ignore the crying, wailing, protests.

He has oral defensiveness. A big term to describe sensory issues relating to the mouth & mouth regions. We had a very difficult time feeding him when young. He was delayed in eating solids. He very often vomitted his feeds. Perhaps this is related to him hating to have his teeth brushed.

What I plan to do is to completely take over brushing his teeth. And take a positive & relaxed approach. And be consistently doing it.

Merdeka Day (Independence Day)

He watched the broadcast of the National Day celebrations on TV, while having his breakfast & so was excited at seeing all the flags. In the run up to today's celebrations, there were lots of flags up on streetlamp poles, on buildings, on the fencing surrounding Parliment etc.

He was in his suit but didnt want to go to the park this morning. I think he was also a little tired playing at the car porch, pushing his Little Tikes car, while waiting for me to have my breakfast & get ready (I had my herbal drink first thing this morning, so had to wait 30-45mins before eating).

He was whining a lot as I was buckling him up (I didnt transition him well from playing with his car). I asked him where he wanted to go - Titiwangsa Park or the neighbourhood park (cos it was already mid-morning). He wouldnt say. He just wanted me to start the engine & drive out of the house. He couldn't wait. Out of the house, he chose the other option offered which was to go for a car ride.

Since it's Merdeka Day & he liked to see so many flags, I drove to Padang Merdeka (Merdeka Square) as it'd be a sure bet. He was very happy as we approached the city. Upon seeing the rows & rows of flag, he repeatedly said "flag flag flag flag flag flag flag flag". There were very few cars but was was tricky getting parking near the Sultan Abdul Building, by the river cos the irritating touts were manning the public car park spaces. So drove around for a bit searching for a spot. But he didnt mind one bit, lapping up the view.

The only bit of real exercise done this morning at the Square was walking up & down the steps to the giant flag pole. It was too bright for him to look up even though it as cloudy, so had to go down the stairs again to retrieve his sunglasses from the car. That's ok cos it's exercise.He hates wearing his sunglasses. Managed to distract him by pointing out the giant flag atop the pole. He's begining to understand the benefits of wearing his sunnies, so he left them on the whole time until we returned to the car.

Apart from the rows of flags, there were giant ones drapping a few office blocks near the Square.

We didnt spend too long there as it was getting hot & the suit is rather thick. He also has a bad habit of not wanting to drink water unless there's distraction in the form of cars passing by or TV, so I've to be careful of dehydration & heat stroke when I'm out exercising with him

My little reporter

A long standing worry over my son is that he is can't tell us if something bad (or good, but the worry was over the bad events) had happened to him while he was not in our care. I was specifically thinking of him being bullied or being upset due to a fight with classmate for e.g.

Being disabled tends to be an obvious target for bullies. Schools in this country do not address the issue of bullying as seriously as they would in more developed countries, but that's fodder for another story. The level of awareness and acceptance of being disabled is also very low in this country, but again, that's another story.

Yes, I know that for some kids, even if they do not have a speech disorder disability, they might not tell their parents if they were bullied. To me, there are several steps that he needs to have progressed through before I can address whether he wants to tell or not.

1. He needs to be verbal. He wasn't verbal at age 2, but he is now.

2. He needs to have the vocabulary related to such incidents. For a long time, I've been giving him the words (i.e. labelling the emotions as and when it happens). E.g. angry, scared, hurt, pain. He has been able to use those words appropriately.

3. He has to be able to understand why he felt that way. For e.g. I'm scared because it's spooky. He is still learning to explain why he's angry/what made him angry.

4. He needs to be able to remember & 'report' back. For e.g. when asked who made him angry, he should be able to correctly identify the person. Then when asked why he's angry, he should be able to give the reason.

Over the past 2 days, I've been pleasantly surprised to hear that he's become a little "reporter". My helper didn't accompany us to Thursday's Titiwangsa Park outing, Friday's evening walk & Saturday's music class. Upon arriving home, she asked him what he did. His 'reports' to her were accurate!

Titiwangsa Park report:
He told her that we fed the fishes at Titiwangsa; that it was mama & not he who fed the fishes; that there were lots of fishes; that there was a fish stuck (that fish was either sleeping or full cos he didnt budge while the other fishes gobbled the bread around him).

Friday's evening walk report:
He told her that he played with his friend Aarvin; that Aarvin had his bicycle; that he was scared (he's scared of being chased by others); that he took a ride in their car (cos it started to rain & my car was further uphill).

Saturday's music class report:
He told her after music class mama went to buy lunch back.

I didn't brief him on or talk about what we did at the end of those activities. So, those reports are purely his.

In the past I had tried to develop his recollection skill, where while getting ready to sleep, I'd talk about what we did in the day. Perhaps, that helped him.

He still doesnt speak in sentences. The things he says are in phrases, but is enough for us to understand him. It would still be difficult for others to understand him.

For now, I'm happy enough as this is progress, although it is just a small bit of progress.

Homemade Sequencing Activity

Over the past few days I've been thinking up new homemade games/activities for my son. Most were related to teaching him phonics. But as I happened to look at this series of photos I took a few days ago, I thought they would be great for a sequencing activity.

I thought these photos would be good because it's something he had experienced himself. I had twice played a sequencing activity based on 2 series of photos, obtained from the internet, but I didn't think he quite got it. So, with this being something he can relate to, hopefully he'll understand the idea of sequence.

Sequencing is an important pre-math skill and also related to literacy. Here's what I understand about sequencing in terms of literacy skills: after having been read a story, the child should be able to tell you what was at the beginning, middle and end of the story.

I got these photos printed out, cut & pasted on pieces of cardboard. I then told him the story using the photos. He was indeed happy to see the photos, remembering his ride & said "horse carriage".

Photo 1: The carriage is brought out

Photo 2: The horse is led to the carriage.

Photo 3: The carriage is mounted on to the horse.

Photo 4: The driver gets on to the front of the carriage. (I lack the vocabulary, so called him the driver)

Photo 5: The passangers get on.

Pre-writing skills - 27 Aug 09

Over the past few weeks, I've taken photos of some of his work from his pre-writing (fine motor) skills activities.



The photo's a bit small & I dont have PhotoShop to make it easy to indicate what I want to highlight. On the left of the mat, there's an outline of his left hand. It was taken on 12 Aug 09. That was the second time he could trace the outline of his hand by himself. The 1st time was a few days prior to this, on the whiteboard. I was so happy! It's progress for him cos in the past I had to hold his right to show him how to trace the outline of the left hand.


I think the inventor of this Aqua Doodle is simply great! It's a fabric mat & comes with a marker child-sized pen. The pen doesnt contain ink. Instead, you uncap it & fill up with plain tap water. When the water from the pen touches the mat, the mat gets wet & that becomes your markings. The blue colour of the markings on the mat comes from the backing sheet of the mat which is blue. The white top sheet absorbs the water temporarily & when it dries off, the markings disappear. You can't erase it yourself. You just let the water dry.



You can leave him to scribble away without worrying about him getting ink on the floor, on the walls etc. It's just plain water, not ink. You can see why I think it's great! It's also a fun & pleasant change to paper & pen for writing skills practice. It has the alphabets on the border of the mat, which allows kids to learn to write by tracing over. I've seen it at Carefour & Jusco for just under RM50 (cheaper during sales at Jusco).



This photo was taken on 16 Aug 09. He was seated on the floor & I was holding the book. But when I took the photo, the book was on his lap. I didnt help him adjust his tripod grip/mature pencil grip lower towards the nib.

'Wipe clean' books are fun too. This version has thick chunky pages which will withstand a toddler's rough handling. It doesn't contain the typical pages of alphabet writing for practice. Instead, it's has pictures, supposedly for kids to learn to draw. Uhm, I'm not sure if that's a good way to teach kids drawing (especially after what I learnt at SEGi Appreciation Day workshops). When I bought the book, my purpose was for him to practice his pre writing skills in a fun way (ie. in a way that he doesnt even realise it's for writing practice).

From my recent weeks of "Project Clear Out", I realise I've collected various bits & bops of 'trash'. Amongst the things I rediscovered were old milk tin/tin container covers of different sizes & colours & material (plastic & metal). It's fun & cheap & it's "green" (reuse part of the reuse/reduce/recycle).

Since I recently read up about the use of insets in the Montessori syllabus, I showed him how to 'play' with the covers. Basically it's helping him trace the outline of the tin/plastic covers. It's similar in concept to tracing the outline of his left hand. To make this fun, I arranged the covers to resemble Mickey Mouse/the Playhouse Disney Channel logo. I then asked him to fill in with eyes, nose & mouth. At the end, to get in practice in writing letters, I had him trace over the word "MICKEY" at the bottom right of the page. Photo was taken on 22 Aug 09.

Notice how the outline in purple can be easily seen. That's cos I was helping him trace & I applied pressure on the colour pencil. When he drew the eyes, nose, mouth & traced over the name, it's barely visible. That's cos he has difficulty in controlling the amount of pressure he puts on the pencil. If he were to use a marker pen, it would be very easily seen, as illustrated below. It's a result of his CP.

A few months ago introduced letter writing sheets for practice. It was in preparation for school (nursery). I don't force him. I stopped doing it with him a while back, for reasons that I forgot (perhaps when he was sick). I brought out this sheet about 3-4 days ago. He wasnt interested in filling it up. So just left it lying around on his table. Today, (27 Aug 09) he willingly did it by himself under the supervision of my helper to make sure he got his strokes right. When he completed it (using a marker pen), he happily ran & showed me.



He needs to work on capital 'M' but I suspect the paper might have been too far away from him as this might explain the untidy writing on the first 2 rows & the decent looking M at the last row. I was very surprised with the neatness of his lower case 'm'. I think I was happier than he was!





This was taken on 25 Aug 09. It not only requires him to trace over the outline, but to follow the sequence of the alphabets. It's a variation of the common 'join the dots' using numbers. He gets to practice several skills at one go (hand eye co-ordination, tripod grip, visual, reinforce his alphabets).



These worksheets are available for free at http://www.learningpage.com/. Very useful site containing creatively designed sheets & ideas for activities with kids from preschool upwards. Each page states the skill set targetted (e.g. shape recognition, recognising numbers 1-5), level targetted (e.g. preschool, K1). It's also presented by themes (e.g. there are 50 odd pages for Preschool kids under the ocean kingdom theme).

Titiwangsa Park - 27 Aug 09

It was crisp & cool this morning, from the heavy downpour last night. Great for exercising in his Neurosuit in the park. He's been quite bored stuck at home, as I'm minimising his going out due to the H1N1. Brought a bun along to feed the fish as I expected him to be less active in the suit given that we stopped suit therapy for a while.

We were greeted by a friendly elderly couple when I was fixing his arm bungee cords at the park. Turns out the wife is a retired midwife trained in UK, who loves kids. We chatted briefly as they were curious about the suit.

It's always nice to encounter strangers who encourage you & give you a 'pat on the shoulders' rather than those who fire away a million questions a second on what's wrong with my son, can't he walk, have you seen a doctor, what did the doctor say, is he going to school, he should go to school, and then proceed to draw unrelated parallels to their grand-kids or so-and-so's kid who upon starting school began talking a lot, or on how a certain nutritional supplement did them good.

Sure, they might mean well, but I'm too tired with everything else going on that I've stopped trying to explain things about my son to them. I used to try explaining, which was for me, a form of coming to terms with my son's condition. Nowadays, I'll let other parties raise their awareness of disabilities and therapies. These days, if I do encounter such strangers, I just gently excuse myself & walk away if I can, or appear busy & make a phone call.

As expected, he was very quick to ask to be carried, saying that he's tired. So I went slow. Started by feeding the fish at the bridge. Being the school holidays, there was a family with several kids at the playground. So that got him interested & he managed to do the monkey bar slide 5-6 times & sit on the swing before leaving. It was a bit tricky on the swing with the suit on. He seemed to be leaned too far back & just couldn't get the positioning right. He coped with it for a while then wanted to sit with me on the same swing.

Surprisingly he asked for the horse carriage ride when I asked if he wanted to go home (as it was getting hot). I thought he was still afraid of horses. I was really tired by then from carrying him in the suit. He seems to add on 5kg with the suit on! I felt faint carrying him part of the way back to the car for the drive to the horse track. I was so tired that I almost drove the car up the kerb at the corner. I must remember to either bring his bubbles along or my helper.

Sleep - 26 Aug 09

He woke in the middle of the night, coughing. He must have kicked off his blanket again. I usually stay up till past 12 to make sure the temperature of the room is neither too hot or too cold.

When it's a little too hot, he'll sweat & wake up crying, which then requires me to carry & walk him around the room. Then, it's very easy for him to catch a chill because his pyjamas is wet with the sweat & the room is cool (not cold). He seems to be able to tolerate a very small temperature range for his night sleep.

Last night, I was too tired & fell asleep with him. I didnt check that he was covered under his blanket. He usually tosses & turns & crawls around before he falls asleep so he doesnt stay covered up for long. Thankfully, it was a very cool night and we didn't need to turn on the air-conditioner. So even though he has a little bit sweaty, his shirt was a little damp. He was uncomfortable, perhaps from a bad dream of a stuffy nose, to need a little more consolation than usual. Quickly started his sleeping CD & in a half panicky manner, rocked him back to sleep. Panicky because he might cough so hard to dislodge his phelgm that he vomits. Panicky because if it was a very bad dream, he'll cry so hard that he vomits.

He's odd when it comes to music for his sleep. From a young age, he didnt like slow melancholy, instrumental ones, the type that was purposefully designed to promote sleep. Nope! For over a year, he's favourite CDs for falling asleep to were: Lighthouse Family's Postcards From Heaven & Texas' White on Blond. Then the Postcards from Heaven album got scratched, and he moved on to Shania Twain. Now, he's added Enya to his repertoire. Sigh, no Mozarts for this little one.

We found him a new blanket which seems just right. Not too thick, not too hot, not too heavy, not too big. Placed it just right so that if he rolls either way, it'll still cover his torso, but not his legs. He hates having his legs covered. Maybe he feels trapped that way as it'll be harder for him to move around given his already impaired gross motor skills.

Thankfully, he slept peacefully the rest of the night & so did I. We both woke feeling fresh & ready to start the day. Perhaps I should switch to blogging during his naptime & get a longer stretch of sleep at night.

Tantrums

My son has been noticeably "less co-operative" about 2-4 weeks ago. Nothing violent. No public meltdowns. Just harder to get him to do the activities I want him to do, to get him into the shower, to brush his teeth, to stop his playing & have his meals etc. Thankfully he's more settle this week.

About 2-4 weeks ago, there was more wailing, more expressions of his anger, flailing, throwing his toys... I read up about temper tantrums of preschoolers to understand him more & to be better able to handle it. I've subscribed to http://www.babycentre.com/ ever since I was pregnant with him & it's been a great resource.

Here's a summary of what I've learnt from their articles on tantrums:

Why throw tantrums?

- Tantrums aren't confined to the terrible twos. It's a fact of life with a preschooler. Their sense of identity is burgeoning, encouraging them to test their limits & define their wants.
Phew. So it's part of normal development!

- Most tantrums are due to frustration (e.g. lacking the skills to do what he wants to)
Yes, so true & even more so given his gross motor, fine motor & speech impairment.

- Tantrums are also due to disappointment e.g. has little control over any of the decisions about his day.
Yes, often happens when it's time for meals, for shower, brush his teeth etc.

- Tantrums are more likely when he's tired or hungry.
Definitely! Noticed it often happens near nap time/bedtime or mealtimes.

- It could also be a reaction to new demands being made on him (e.g. jealously from having a new sibling).
No new sibling here, but when he sees me on my laptop, he certainly acts jealous!

- Tantrums could be linked to his heightened anxiety earlier in the day.
Always a possibility but haven't noticed this to be a frequent cause.

How should I respond?

- Stay calm. When he's having a tantrum, he's unable to listen to reason, but will respond more negatively to your yelling, stomping out, or impatience. Stomping out of the room can make him feel abandoned. The storm of emotions can be frightening to him & he needs to know you're nearby, so go to him, pick him up & hold him.
I don't yell at him but I have walked out when I'm about to lose my cool!

- Encourage him to put his feelings into words. If he can't or won't, be patient.
Yeah, read about that some time back & been trying that for many months. He is able to say "I'm angry" which is important when he goes to preschool, but when his tantrums are a notch more intense, he's just not able to use his words.

- Try avoiding the tantrum triggers. Don't let him be too hungry. Alerting him that there'll be a change in activity may give him the chance to adjust instead of just react.
I often forget to give him the heads-up to expect a change in activity. When I do remember, I give him a 5 minutes countdown, which often is more like 20 minutes in the end!

- He faces new demands from school, teachers, peers, parents, so offer him choices when possible. No one likes being told what to do all the time. He'll have a sense of control if he's offered carrots or broccoli, instead of instructing him to eat carrots. Ease up & choose your battles.
A friend recently commented that my son seems like a happy boy (as have other friends). I think it's partly because I do choose my battles. Most are just not worth getting into a power struggle over. I'm hoping it doesnt mean that he'll turn out to be a spoilt brat. So far, I'm able to reason with him & he does use his manners etc...

Dream a little dream

Yesterday's gorgeous weather made me wish for little dreams to come true. Just little dreams, not the big ticket ones like my son graduating from uni (those would be on my prayer list).

It'll be nice if one day...

- If we could go on holiday as a family, just the 3 of us, to places I dreamed of before my son came along. It'd be great to share the beauty of those places with my son, for him to experience them first hand.

In the years before my son came along, we had done a lot of planning for a holiday to New Zealand. We did our research on the internet & drew up a detailed itinerary for a 2 week self-drive holiday on the North & South Islands of New Zealand. Somehow we never got round to going - my husband's work schedule clashed with the best time to visit NZ.

Santorini from the photos is simply beautiful. Love the blue skies, blue sea, blue roof tops contrasting against the whitewashed walls. This dream remains a dream since our uni days. A few weeks ago, my husband showed me photos of his friend's trip to Santorini. One day, we will go as a family to Santorini. But he doesnt think we ever will as my son falls sick easily. Well, I want to be positive. It may be a 10 years from now, when my son's more independent & stronger, but we will, my dear husband, we will.

Japan is another vacation we had researched & planned in detail. Never quite made it there either. Love the food, love the scenery, love the unique culture.

- If we could enjoy diving as a family whether to local dive spots (e.g. Perhentian) or overseas ones (e.g. Great Barrier Reef). We both love diving. He's recently completed his Padi certification (previously it was with SSI). I got my Padi cert about 10 yrs ago & never got to dive since. Diving as a family would pose a bigger challenge. Anything requiring muscle co-ordination is a big challenge for my son due to his CP. I think he doesn't breathe properly now let alone requiring him to breathe with a regulator. But I shall still hope and dream...

- If we could have couple time, just my husband & myself. To enjoy good food, good surroundings, good company, or a good movie, or a short getaway. To "date" each other again.

- If I could have some alone time. To quiten my mind. To let down my guard. To not feel like I should be using the time to develop my son instead. To pick up my brush & paint again. To take a walk by myself. Am I selfish? Others watch their favourite TV shows, their chinese serials and what have you. I havent watched TV for a long time (excluding that one TV dinner I had last week).

My alone time now...an occasional facial/massage, which I truly appreciate (tq 4 d gift my dear husband)....and blogging at midnight when everyone else is asleep! Hmm, the former isn't on a regular basis (and I'm not wishing it is) while the latter is still (mostly) related to my son.

Well, that's my top 4 little dreams. Sounds like escapism? Yes, perhaps. Everyone benefits from getting away from it all once a while... even if it's through dreaming!

Beautiful day!

Had an early start. He woke before 7am! He was all bright and sparkly eyed, moving around the room while mama was hoping for a few more minutes of sleep. I had to get up when he found his bouncy glow-in-the-dark ball and wanted to throw it down the stairs. Ooo, greeted by unpleasant strong smoke, probably some forest fire again.

Anyway, we then ended up reading yesterday's paper downstairs. I find that reading the newspaper is a good way to get in the practice for his sight words.

I thought it'd be one of those hazy smog filled days again. It's turned out to be such a truly beautiful day today! Just take a look at the photo above. These days it's rare to have sunny clear blue skies. Even rarer to have it accompanied by a breezy wind to take the edge off the heat. It's perfect! Reminds me of carefree relaxing Sundays back when I was a student overseas with few worries. If the temperature was lower, it'd be perfect for a picnic under a tree. I'm so blessed to be able to enjoy it (because I've to care for him), whilst other mums are stuck in an office.

He was upset over an incident, so to distract him, we wandered to a bedroom upstairs. The curtains were closed. The wind was getting quite gusty, making a beautiful sound from the rustling of the leaves. Decided to focus on his auditory sense.

Earlier, he heard the sound of noisy construction vehicles in the distance & said "digger" but I didnt understand him with his poor pronounciation. "Bulldozer" he said, trying to make himself understood. Ah! Then, I understood him. From a young age, I played simple games with him so he'd be aware of his surroundings, using his auditory sense. So nowadays he points out noises made by a fire engine, police car, ambulance (based on the sirens), long truck (heavy vehicles passing by), old Proton (cars with modified exhaust pipes, revving it up). He's crazy about cars, so that's what he focuses on!

I digress. This time round, we listened to the wind. I asked him what he thought was making that sound. He said "I dont know". I offered some suggestions - waterfall, water gushing down the drain. He thought for a moment, then said "buush...buush...buush" accompanied by his hand gesturing from left to right. He was referring to the fire hydrant incident the other day, when the water company was washing its pipes (see earlier post).Then I got him to say "fire hydrant". I took the chance to point out the difference. The fire hydrant incident did indeed sound like "buuush, buuush, buuush" but this sound now was more like "buuuuuuuuuusssssshhhhh", with hand gesturing the difference (staccato versus a note on hold).

I opened the curtains & showed him that the sound was the wind making the leaves rustle. Then I shared with him why I thought it was such a beautiful day. While lying in bed, we gazed at the blue sky, the lush foliage & listened to the wind (and the tick tock made by the clock as he pointed out!) I took this chance to introduce new vocabulary - rustling leaves, gusty wind, wind picking up etc. Beautiful day indeed. Shame my husband couldn't get off work to enjoy it with us.

Botak Tree

He wore his NeuroSuit today as he's getting recovering well. But since he is still not fully well yet, we didnt want to him to exert himself. So we didnt focus on endurance. Instead, we got him to do stairs walking and simple movements (gross motor) just to ease him into suit therapy again. This is also the first time he's doing fine motor while in the suit.

Brought the mega bloks downstairs. He had difficulty unzipping the bag - will need more practice while in the suit. (fine motor)

He picked a piece and promptly threw it on the floor (kinda nice sound when it hits the ground)...and repeated it until all 80 pieces were strewn around. Yes, it was messy. But in the process, he had to bend to reach into the bag; he used his left hand when I prompted him; and bend at various inclines as he went lower & lower to get the remaining pieces. (gross motor, fine motor, hand eye co-ordination)

Once he got that "throwing" out of his system, it was time I directed the play, but with limited freedom still accorded to him. Asked him what he wanted to build. No answer. Floated some ideas...bus, car, train, house, tree.

"Tree" he liked that idea."Green and red...green and red tree" he laughed! Is it my imagination or is his volume a bit louder when he was in his suit today?

Here's where I sneaked in the stairs activity. Pieces were at the bottom of the stairs. We were going to build on the staircase landing, which is about 5 steps up. Each time we needed more pieces, he'd have to go down for more. I think its better start by going up & down just a few steps, but many times, rather than the entire flight & be so tired.

To challenge him more, I varied it by sometimes getting him to walk up without holding on to the banister, by placing a piece of blok in each hand. Of course, I had to help him a little by supporting his back. I was pleasantly surprised that he didnt put much of his body weight onto me, unlike when he's not in his suit & walking up.

Initially I let him walk up '2 feet on one step'. Later, I helped moved his legs to '1 foot on one step'. Then he was trying it himself. I'm happy cos it's so much harder when in the suit due to the resistance from the bungee cords.

He is more confident going down the stairs when he's in the suit - he walked faster.

When we were building together, I got him to place the pieces by himself & push down. He still doesnt really push it down well. He still sometimes uses his pointer finger to secure the piece down, instead of using the palm for bigger pieces.

He didnt want leaves on the tree. He explained "burned" (fire burnt the tree, so it explains why there are no leaves).

"But if the tree was burnt, it'd be black, not green & red" I was testing him.

He paused a second. "botak...botak tree" he reasoned. 'Botak tree' to him means a tree without leaves, referring to the tree we saw at the park which was tall & thin without a single leave. Hey, he's using his brain! Ahh, that made my day!

Sight words

He is able to "read" these words by sight:

no
on
to
go
of
it
is
the
cat
dog
bus
for
stop
star

I've cut & paste (the manual way) several groups of words in the pink series, where the middle vowel isn't "a". E.g. rimes like "-et", "-ot" but have yet to introduce them to him. He is more accepting of the rime "-ab" group of cards now that I've introduced them for the 4th time. I will intersperse "matching picture & word" activities with more "matching word to object" activities.

I've been wondering if I should attend a Phonics Workshop on 5 Sept. I had signed up for it over a week ago but not paid the fees yet. It's meant for preschool teachers...well, I consider myself a homeschool teacher (half baked one!). I'm very keen to learn more games & activities to improve his word recognition skills, stated in the brochure as one of the objectives. I'm hesitating cos of the H1N1. He's only just getting well now. I wouldn't want to bring back germs even if it's not the H1N1 virus.

NeuroSuit progress - end of Week 3

He probably wore the NeuroSuit for only one or two days this week. He was sick for most of this week. He's recovering well now, but his dr had advised to continue the nebuliser, with lesser frequency until Tuesday.

I've been observing his movements more this week, as I've done a lot less activities with him. Here's what I noted:

He's a lot more flexible in his movements.
He's been squatting more & for longer periods each time. He's able to lift up his leg with it at 90 degrees at the hip, or 90 degrees at the knee. He no longer lifts up his leg with both arms stretched outward for balance, looking like he's about to do a cartwheel! He's faster at getting out of the car by himself.

He can finally step over gaps by himself. He's been happily walking by himself on the steps I made using the foam alphabets puzzle pieces. In the past, he'd always want to hold an adults hand while stepping up and crossing over to the next stack. This was an objective set by his HUKM physiotherapist many months ago which we had a hard time achieving.

He is going up the 2 steps to his bedroom at one foot for each step, without needing to hold the wall. He cant do it coming down one foot on each step yet. But he can come down two feet on each step without holding the wall if both his hands are occupied (e.g. holding onto a toy).

He's walking & running gait is getting odd
In the past even though his gait was not normal, you could see a certain rhytm to it. Now, his gait is not smooth anymore. It seems like the placing of his leg/foot is not as automatic. He's getting into toe-walking again especially his problematic right foot. He seems to be losing his balance & tripping up more. We will start him on the suit later this week, when he's recovered more.

Speech
He's far more chatty. I love it! He'll never be a chatterbox, but he's come far in terms of expressive speech. He has his frustrations when I dont understand what he's trying to say - we're still working on pronounciation. Great to get peeks into what's going on in his mind. Wish I could remember the stuff he says so I could document them here.

Count your blessings!

Following on from yesterday's post, here are my Top 10 Blessings:

1. Husband
I love him. And he loves both me & our son, despite his disability. He's been the provider for this family. Marriage is hard work. Parenting comes without a manual. Having a special child adds a different dimension to the challenges of marriage and parenting. Divorce rates are higher amongst families that have special needs children. My husband is still around caring for us & loving us. He's not shirked his responsibilities. He's loyal & faithful. Isn't that great?

2. God
God loves me (& us) far more than I will ever be able to fanthom. God has been real in my life. He knows our needs & have provided. With God, nothing is impossible. He continues to work in mysterious ways. May He be merciful & continue to shower his blessings upon us.

3. Helper
We have such a reliable helper. A fast learner, she has picked up many therapy techniques & intricacies of handling my son. With her around, I can rest when I desparately need to. I can prepare teaching materials while she feeds him, plays with him. She does have a genuine concern for my son, ever so patient, seeing to his needs.

4. Financial resources
My husband has been excellent in taking care of the financial planning aspect. Through his abilities he has ensured that we are comfortable. We are able to afford the therapies & medical support that my son needs. I am able to take on the full time job of being the primary caregiver & teacher to my son.

5. Mobility
I can drive. My husband has provided me with a car. I can freely take my son for his therapy sessions, to the park, to the shops, to hospital, to visit friends & at a later stage, to his kindergarten.

6. My son
There is nothing more satisfying than seeing him progress & grow. His laughter is an instant pick-me-up. I love to smell his hair. I still remember how I thought he was the cutest baby amongst the other newborns. He challenges me to be a better person.

7. Home
We have a beautiful home. We're surrounded by trees. We've squirrels, monkeys, the odd iguana, kingfishers, woodpecker & jungle fowl visiting. Fireflies add a certain magic to the evenings. It's peaceful. I'm so grateful to my dad.

8. Support network
His speech therapist & cranial sacral therapist are so understanding, so loving & been instrumental in his progress. His music teacher sees beyond his disabilities, adapts his technique to accommodate, teaches more than just music. I've learnt much from the seminars organised by FGA Parent Support Group. My prayer support circle being FGA Parent support group, FBC friends, Bee, have upheld us uncountable number of times in their regular prayers (& in response to my panicky smses when my son's sick). My tiny group of friends (Ren, LSH, Elly) who have given me hope, encouragement & a listening ear.

9. Determination
It's been a steep learning curve since his diagnosis. There're the medical terms to get my head around. Much to learn from the therapists. So much to learn in terms of early childhood development - gross motor, fine motor, oral motor, social skills, speech (expressive, receptive), cognitive (maths, reading), creativity (art, music), character building (self esteem, resiliance), sensory integration...it's endless. How do I find out more? Where should I start? How do I apply it? How to prioritise? Often feel that I'm unsure of what I'm doing as a mother. Then there are the other roles of wife, sister, daughter... Thankfully for my son, I've not given up.

10. Opportunities for change
I've had no choice but to change. Change is hard. Change is painful. It's a slow process. Life lessons often repeated. My priorities & focus are different now. I'm surprised I've been so patient with my son. I'm better able to empathise. I've been humbled. I'm learning to let go. I'm still a "work-in-progress"!

I've been so richly blessed & grateful, that I've a desire to be able to bless others in more ways than that which I have received.

Why so downcast?

Every so often I go through periods where I feel unease, not at peace. I am often unable to identify the root cause of the unease. It's hard for me to find the words to describe what I feel during those times ("unease" was the closest but doesnt begin to really describe it) let alone share those feelings with anyone else. Not with my husband, not my friends, not my family. So it swims around in my head, never quite going away, waiting for the next trigger point to swirl it with intensity, up to the surface.

Today those feelings surfaced yet again, triggered by my son falling ill again just shortly after his wheezing bronchitis episode in July. After a day of being drowned by those negative feelings, I finally manage to find peace. I realise that I had been worried, frustrated, punishing myself for "not being a good mother", over analysing my own actions & emotions. It doesnt help at all when others close to me add comments like "you took him out too often", which gets translated as "It's your fault that he's sick. You don't know how to take care of him."

I struggled to get out of the downward cycle. Negativity just feeds on itself and grows and grows. I learnt from past episodes of depression how to, in the first place acknowledge those feelings. Self awareness is the first step isn't it? I had attended a stress management talk (organised by a parent support group for parents with special needs kids), just a few months ago which enlightened me on my personality type, it's triggers of stress & tips on how to manage. So, I'm learning to put a stop to the downward vicious cycle.

A more experienced parent shared how he manages by asking himself what's the worst that can happen & then from there ask yourself "and then what?". That helped me today. I'm learning to let go & let God. Once I did that, I felt peace. And when that happened, I could start counting my blessings.

My personality type which I had identified the strongest with, is that of the "analytical owl". The description of the "analytical owl" matched me to the dot! I plan. I'm into details. I analyse. I look for facts before making a decision. I'm a do-er. It's bad if things dont go according to plan. I thrive on completing things I set out to do. I set high standards & expectations on myself. I also identified strongly with another personality type, the "openess swan". The biggest revelation that hit me then was that I'm in both of the personality types most at risk of ... dare I say it, suicide. No one wants to talk or listen about negativity or suicide. So I'll stop on that subject.

I usually talk of activities with my son, his progress, stuff related to early childhood development which I love. Tonight, I decided to take a different path on my posting. Why? Because I'm slowly coming to understand my own feelings & what it means to be a mum of a disabled child.

Also, it's because tonight, I came across this blog: http://scatteringbright.blogspot.com/2009/08/labyrinth.html
Although he was writing about anger over a specific matter, I could easily relate as it's about negative emotions. He & the lady who commented are much better at identifying & verbalising their emotions.

He wrote: "When it exhibits its darker tendencies, I think of anger as a kind of emotional gateway drug - it opens the door to more dangerous feelings if you overly indulge it." So well put.

She had said "Another thing that helped was that someone suggested I think of the image of floating -- the idea that so much pain comes when we are resisting and fighting something that simply "is."" Yup, I can relate! I've to learn to let go!

She also said "And I also gained a new perspective on how miraculous typical development is, how effortless, and how much I had taken for granted everything I had been given and never recognized. And how, when I really thought about it, I was humbled by my son,". This is so true! If my son was not with special needs (which led me on a steep learning curve about development of gross motor skills, fine motor, oral motor, feeding skills, behaviour, etc) it's unlikely I'd ever realise how remarkable & amazing the human body & mind is.

My son had his sleep interrupted at midnight tonight, with his coughing to clear the phlegm built up (& the eventual vomit). So after I had brought my son to the hospital for his nebuliser, I decided to stay up by blogging, to keep a closer watch over him (his fever started this evening). I must get some rest now. It's 5am & he has thankfully slept well after his nebuliser.

Chilli padi, monkeys, moth & blasting water

He slept relatively well last night. Didn't vomit. Hooray! He's getting better faster than when he was sick in July. Such a big relief.

Put him into the Neurosuit, but not for long cos he's still recovering. He hadn't worn it for 3 days in a row. Today, he initially couldn't stand up in it. His legs were like jelly. Helper took him out to walk in front of the house while I rushed through breakfast.

Chilli Padi

Helper showed him the little edible garden in front of the neighbour's house. He was tickled by the different coloured chilli padi. You've got the green & reds & the shades in between. But he laughed at the black chilli padi. Currently, anything in black is burnt! For e.g. a black car is burnt. So, the black chilli padi is...burnt.

Ah, but I explained a few days ago that if it's a fruit, which has turned black, then it's rotten, not burnt. I illustrated by showing him the blackened banana we had. So, when he came back into the house & my helper related the chilli padi story, I asked him whether the chilli padi was black because it was burnt by being out in the sun, or whether it was rotten. He replied "rotten".

Moth

I went to turn off the main stop-cock in front of the house & he followed me. Then a brown

moth flew past & settled on the grass. I didnt notice as my back was turned. He pointed & said "moth". Ah, so he knows the difference between butterfly & moth. Good boy. Looks like the stuff I'm teaching him is being remembered. I had some months back explained the difference between a moth & butterfly when we were reading the Pooh bear encyclopedia.

Monkey

As we were about to go in, 3 monkeys jumped from the trees fronting our house, unto the electric cables. He observed them & said "be careful monekys!". We continued observing while I gave some commentary about monkeys. Asked him if he thought the monkeys were out in search for food or if they were out for their morning exercise. He said "morning exercise". So, that was his bit of lesson on nature for today.

He seemed tired this morning, so didnt want to exert him further. Got the suit off, gave water & into the car for some errands. H1N1 raging now & I didnt want to expose him unnecessarily so we sat in the car while my helper went into the shops.

Water blasting from fire hydrant

Came home & saw a powerful gush of water from the fire hydrant. He knows what a fire hydrant is/looks like but probably doesnt know of its use. So walked with him to take a closer look. He was scared - held my hand very tightly. Syabas was cleaning the pipes by forcing powerful jets of water down the pipes & the fire hydrant was opened as an outlet for the water & dirt. It was so powerful that it probably blasted paint off my neighbour's wall!

By coincidence, when I walked in to the house, I saw the front page of today's Star which showed a rescue boat blasting a jet of water towards the burning tanker off the Straits. So, took the opportunity to relate what we just saw to the photo.

This post is a lot more detailed for the benefit of my husband who's away on a diving trip.

Playdough

Having spent the entire morning at the hospital today, there wasn't that much time left for other activities after his lunch, nap, snack time, toilet training etc.


Brought out the playdough as we havent played with that for a while & I needed to work towards improving his pre-writing skills. In the past, he would not play with playdough. Based on recipes from internet, I made some in the past but he didnt like them. Too sticky or too oily. He hated the bits that stuck to his hands. He couldn't manipulate it like his peers. Showed him what he could do & make with it, but that would have only caught his attention for a very short while.

Earlier this year, bought some commercially sold ones at Jusco (half price). Smells yummy & came with a few moulds. Doesn't stick to the hands. Not too oily. Thankfully, he begun to take an interest to it. Slowly. Later, bought other colours from Tesco which are cheaper. I got some different coloured Play-Doh brand ones which were offer. All of them state "non-toxic" but who knows.


Started off by asking him what object he'd want made. To gain his interest, I suggested police car, ambulance, fire engine...not that I know how to make them! He wanted helicopter. And he wanted it "flat like a pancake" (as opposed to 3 dimensional) - it's one of his current favourite sayings!


I let him choose the colour. Restricted the choice to just 2 colours otherwise based on past experience, he'll merely want to remove the wrapper from all the coloured playdoughs. This time, he wanted both pink & orange. So much for "or".


He's not at the stage to be able to create his own models. He's not even at the stage of being able to roll it into a sausage shape or ball. So, I place my hands over his & show him how. At least he now allows me to do that. In the past, he'd pull his hands away & I'd show him how using my own hands.

Fine Motor

This activity is good for developing his fine motor. It works those hand muscles. Important for a lot of daily life skills like writing. So we rolled it into a ball, flattened it (body of helicopter). Rolled into a sausage & curled it (tail of helicopter). Pinched it, rolled it into smaller cylinderical shapes for the rotor blades.


He's still not good at pinching larger pieces. He pinches tiny pieces smaller than the size of his little fingernail. When flattening it, instead of using the palm, he still uses the fingers part of the hand. Slowly. Just need more practice.

Drawing/poking

I wanted to take this activity further by getting him to "draw" the pilot using a toothpick. He decided to poke his finger into it. I had in the past showed him how to poke. But instead of using the finger pad part of his finger, he uses his fingernail to dig into it. That's just like the way he controls the cursor on the touchpad of my laptop (it's like scratching). Will need to work on that (I think it impacts the way he holds the pen).


Photo shows what it looks like with the digging marks & that's him starting to poke with the toothpick.

I took the activity further by flipping the piece over for a smooth surface & showed him I could write the alphabets using the toothpick. He was not keen to try it. I wasn't going to force him if he's not ready. So I let him take the lead. Worked the dough into a smooth surface again & let him play.

Inscribing a face

He "drew" a smiley face. The eyes aren't aligned horizontally & nose wrong positioning cos he still has a problem controlling his hand muscles. He tends to jab at it from a distance rather than slowly approach it to ensure correct placement. Same technique when using marker pen on whiteboard.

The 2 eyes & nose are those 3 dots placed close together in the middle of the dough. The 2 lines at the top are the eyebrows. The ears are those lines on the left (horizontal line) & right (not so clear in the photo). The 2 dots nearer his toothpick - one's the chin, the other I dont know cos I didnt understand what he was trying to say.

Oral Motor (Blowing candles)

Decided to take it further again. This time, as an oral motor activity. Got this idea from speech therapy, but modified, and from a manual on oral motor exercises. He wasn't keen on blowing the paper butterflies on a stand, so had to think of new activity to achieve the same objective.

Started off with just one candle on a "birthday cake". Lighted it & sang a bit of "happy birthday" song. My objective is for him to blow. I remembered that he couldnt blow the candles of papa's birthday cake in June. Therefore, I was surprised that he blew it off in just a single blow!

Challenged him more. Got another candle. Lighted both. He blew the 1st easily. Couldn't blow off the 2nd. He was repeatedly taking shallow breaths, so it wasn't strong enough to put it out. Had to tell him to stop giving small blows & take deep breath & blow hard. He succeed. Yeay!

Repeated it by upping the challenge to 3 candles. Same problem with shallow breaths after the 1st. But succeeded easily after reminding him to take a big breath in. I'm happy enough. Next time, will challenge him by increasing the distance between him & candles. I can also increase the number of lit candles & see how many he can put out in a single breath.

He has a cold again!

Started with just a cough to clear his phlegm on Tuesday morning. I knew that might be an indication that he's caught a cold, but it was just once so maybe I was wrong.

Tuesday midnight, he woke trying to cough out the phlegm but was too difficult. He couldn't cough it out. Must have been scary for him to be unable to breathe from nose. Ended up repeatedly vomitting non-stop for a few minutes. Pacifying him by carrying & rocking him, putting on his sleeping music didnt work. His dinner & milk ended up on my pyjamas, bedroom floor, kitchen floor... Usually bringing him to the garden to see the moon or stars would stop him. But it didnt work this time. His vomitting was like going on auto-pilot.

The fail safe method was to take a drive. So we did. In the middle of the night. No particular destination in mind. Ended up in Sunway after 30mins. His eyes still wide open. Hmm...usually he'd be fast asleep within 30mins. Headed home. Still not asleep. Took wrong turn. Ended up on highway to Cheras. Turned off to Taman Desa, then to Old Klang Road, then home. Sigh. By then I was wide awake.

Got home after 1 hr driving. Put on his sleeping music & helper rocked him to sleep while I cleaned up a bit. Restless sleep the rest of the night. Decided must see his peaditrician.

This morning, waited TWO hours to see his Dr! Many patients, mostly already with appointments whereas I was a walk-in, so had to wait...and wait...and wait. Lots of young babies there waiting. Some new borns.

Dr says it's upper respiratory tract infection. Not wheezing like he was in July. Phew. I didnt want to take chances this time, so went early to start on nebuliser, cos fearful of H1N1 attack if turns into pneumonia. He's already in the high risk group, being under 5 yrs old. Dr gave anti-histamine & nose drops to dry up mucus. Started nebuliser, 2x daily. If worsen, 3x daily.

Praying it doesn't worsen. Praying for fast & complete recovery. Praying he doesnt catch new virus from hospital while there for nebuliser.

He didnt cry or fuss at A&E when doing the nebuliser. That's good la. His toy cars occupied him. We knew what to do based on experience, so had brought toy cars along.

Activities with SMA

Played with him using the SMA, this morning...

I brought out the sheet I made a few weeks ago. I made it with the aim of having him practice listening to the ending sound. He can identify the beginning sound of various words quite well (when I have time, I will have a separate posting on activities we played to hone that skill). Initially I didnt think it was important that he's able to identify ending or middle sounds in a c-v-c word (consonant-vowel-consonant). But I know better now.

This is the 3rd time I introduced this particular sheet. He needed help the first 2 times. Today he's able to choose the ending letters himself. But I think that's also cos I only brought out only 6 letters to choose from (3 other letters were at random but careful not to choose similar sounding phoneme). In the past he had to choose from the box (entire alphabet).

The letters I took out for him to choose from are seen in the photo below (except letter "o" which I brought out later).

After he completed that sheet, he seemed interested in playing with the letters. So I observed him. He took "g" and placed it against the letter "g" sandpaper alphabets that I stuck on his bedroom door (for photo, see earlier posting on sandpaper alphabet). He was very pleased with himself that they were the same!

Then he wanted letter "o". I was curious. Asked him why. He didnt say. Gave the SMA "o" to him anyway. He took it and did the same - placed it against the sandpaper "o". Then it struck me...I asked if he wanted to spell "go". He then placed "g" & "o" on the floor. But wrong sequence... it was "og" (read go if reading right to left). Sigh.

Looks like I've to continue reinforcing that it's "left to right". The problem of "right to left" reappeared after I pasted sandpaper numbers 0-10 on his cupboard about 3 days ago. He read them from right to left, like he was counting down for blast off.

So, showed him a few times "go" instead of "og". Then showed him other words that we could build with the letters already on the floor. I was surprised at the variety: no, on, to, for, or, on, frog...

He wanted to participate when I was building words but was making non-sense words. That's ok la for now. But eventually, he spelt "go" and grinned at me. : )

The last word he spelt? It was "gof". Uhm...did he mean golf? He doesnt pronounce his "l" so maybe to him that's how golf is spelt. Who knows eh?! Anyway, I explained "golf" has "l" in it but that the way he spelt is sounded similar. Give positive encouragement la. New skills being learnt here!

Homemade Small Moveable Alphabets

I finally made a set of small moveable alphabets (SMA) about 2 weeks ago.

Making the SMA

It's pretty expensive if a complete set is bought outside. So I improvised. Took me a while to think, shop, gather & put it all together. Probably took me 1 week to get all the materials ready for "production".

I drew the outline of the lower case alphabets (same method as how I made the sandpaper letters) on a piece of plastic corrugated board. I chose that material cos it's easier for my son to handle as it has thickness as opposed to just a plastic sheet . Chose plastic instead of cardboard cos his drool wont be absorbed into the plastic. (The plastic sheet idea was from a mother who blogged about the montessori pink method, so thanks Leah!)

The plastic corrugated board is cheap, available in various colours & can be bought at larger stationery shops (e.g. in Taman Tun, it's sold at Jasema, opposite Penang Village) and at Tesco Mutiara Damansara.

I said improvised cos I dont have a sharp or strong enough cutter to cut the holes for letters like o, p, b, d. Instead, I used a permanent marker & coloured in the holes. Doesn't seem to be a problem for him. Phew.

I only made one of each alphabet. Supposed to have several of each alphabet. Also supposed to have 2 different coloured sets, so that one colour is used for vowels & the other for consonants. Eh...when i have time, I'll do that. It was quite hard to cut the material. I needed 2 sittings cos hands were hurting.

This is done on the cheap, so no specially customised wooden box to keep the letters. Instead, I bought plastic hobby boxes with many compartments. Was lucky to get them on discount at Tesco & compartments were the perfect size for my letters!

The size of my alphabets are probably "medium" if compared to the Montessori Large Moveable Alphabets (LMA) and Small Moveable Alphabets (SMA). Improvised la. So I wont be differentiating activities between LMA & SMA.

Word of advice: I started out with the aim of teaching him to read via the phonics way, without going through a Montessori course.

So there are a lot of things that you should not follow if you're truly on the Montessori method. There is a lot of research & thought gone into why things are done the way they are (e.g. SMA in 2 colours, or the way the letters are not arranged in alphabetical order in the box) in the Montessori method. Montessorians will cringe (and/or laugh) at the way I'm doing things.

But, I do not have the time or resources to undergo the course. I just do what I can...and hope for the best.

Titiwangsa Park - Tues, 18 Aug 2009

Titiwangsa Park

Must have rained heavily early this morning cos was greeted by cool weather & clear blue skies! He woke early too (before 7.30), so off we went to the park. He wanted Titiwangsa. Guess he does really miss it. Didnt put on the Neurosuit this time cos I suspect he might be coming down with a cold.

He didnt want to play with at the children's playgroung today. He wanted to see the horses! Told me yesterday that he's scared of the horses, but today, he still wants to see them!? So, we walked quite far to the horses stables/track. No horse riding today. It only operates on weekends & school holidays.

On the way there, I was observing his walking gait. He didnt run much today.

- He was definitely lifting up his leg from the hip much more, which is great.

- His right foot seemed to toe walk quite a bit initially, but not later.

- Weight on his right foot is not on the medial anymore, nor is the right foot turned out. Instead, it seemed to be the opposite now...turned in occasionally & weight on the outside of the foot (I dont know the terminology for it...my therapists is overseas!)

- He walked very nicely up a pebbly slope.

When we got to the stables, he was indeed scared. Held my hand so tightly. But not scared enough to want to be carried.

After we left the stables & grazing area, he wanted to be carried. His mood not right today. I think by then he was tired too.

I took the opportunity to introduce new vocabulary etc, related to what he saw around him today. E.g. grazing, pony, mane, swishing tail, hoof, hoof print, horse shoe, bathing the horse.

Titiwangsa Park - Sun, 16 Aug 2009

Heavy downpour in the afternoon. Great timing. Cool weather. Got him into his Neurosuit & headed off to Titiwangsa Park. Ended up there for almost 1.5 hrs. Haven't been there for sometime cos hot weather & haze. He misses that park!

Just a short post tonight cos my son is having a restless sleep tonight (blocked nose).

At Titiwangsa, he did a lot of walking. Followed the red brick road, walked on the wobbly short wooden bridge, climbed up & walked the long suspension bridge, walked all the way to the horse riding course.

Noted:

- if walk slowly, he's able to walk in a heel-toe motion.

- endurance definitely improved

- could hang on the monkey bar slide while in suit. Went on it just one time, but I'm happy enough!

- he's still scared of horses even though it was just a horse carriage ride & not on the horse's back

alphabets everywhere he looks!

This morning, I drew the curtains open & in came the sunshine....

Can you see what he saw? Do you see the letter "i"?

NeuroSuit progress - end of Week 2

He's been wearing the suit most days, once or twice in a day, for about an hour each time.

Haven't done most of the activities he's supposed to do in the suit cos he can only walk & run unaided in the suit. Slowly we will come round to doing them.

Changes noted while in the suit:

- able to stand in one spot, without his usual shuffling around the spot. I think it's to do with proprioceptive feedback from the suit

- takes slightly longer stride when running, rather than his trotting

- endurance improving slightly. Doesnt get tired in the suit as fast as before. Gagging, as an indication of being tired, is lesser.

- if we feed him while he's wearing the suit, he forgets to chew or swallow. This is not totally surprising cos the therapist says it's common that people forget to swallow their saliva when wearing the suit, at the initial stage cos there's so much information being fed back to the brain.

Changes noted while out of suit:

- bends his knee more easily when walking, running, stepping down. If asked to stand on one leg, the leg that is lifted up has its knee bent.

- he can walk up all the way up the stairs using alternate legs going up (hooray!)...that is if I'm on his left side & holding his left hand. If I'm on his right, he'll always use his right leg to go up ie. he has both feet on one step before moving up the next step. This is something I dont understand.

Changes regardless whether in or out of suit:

- speaking more. I think it's to do with better breathing resulting from the suit. Articulation still needs improving but that is not meant to be addressed by the suit therapy. For that, I'll have to do oral motor work with him.

- his drooling is lesser.

Matching object to word; pouring; tongs

Activities on 14 Aug 2009

Montessori Pink Series - matching object to word

Noticing that he wasn't so interested in matching picture to word card the last round, I decided to change the activity to match object to word instead. These words are used more frequently (compared to say cab, jab, lab) and the objects are familiar to him. Also, its good to vary the type of activity to keep lessons interesting & seem less like learning & more like fun games.

For this first set of words, he seemed confident. He looked at the words. He took the objects. But his co-ordination was a bit off. E.g. he saw "cup" then took the cup, but when his gaze returned back to the paper, he was looking at the word "bun" and for a moment was about to place the cup at the "bun" word but he eventually sorted himself out and placed the cup in the right place, without me intervening.

Point to note is that he did not need me to prompt him to say out the alphabets, then say out the phonic sound & then blend it. He did went through that process silently in his head (or at least I like to think so). This is the 2nd time I brought out this set of words, so either he has a fantastic memory (of where to place what), or he really is beginning to get the hang of early reading.

Being a new skill that he's still learning, he did place the bun & bib in the wrong place (the object bib, was placed on the word "bun" & vice versa). I merely said out loud the phonic sounds for the word bun while pointing to the printed words (which I normally do anyway as reinforcement at the end of an activity). I didnt drop hints (body language) that it was wrong. I chose to start with "bun" as opposed to "bib" as "bun" is the first item on the page (top left on page). He realised it was wrong & scanned the page & swapped the bib with the bun. So I hope you dont think I'm boasting about my son being so smart.

I thought I'd try another sheet with him, since he finished the 1st sheet faster than I expected & to see if it was a case of blind memorising. So, was it blind memorising? I dont think so. But as with any new skill, he still needs lots of practice....slowly. I'm not a kiasu mum. I also dont want to push and risk him rejecting learning to read & write. Learning should be fun at his age. It just means I've to be a lot more patient & creative.

Photo above shows the 2nd set. Those words are not used as frequently on a day to day basis, as the 1st set. Noticed that he was losing his enthusiasm with this set. Perhaps I should only do one set at a time. With this, it was difficult to draw his attention to the words. So, I let him play with what he wished for a few minutes & then drew his attention back. I helped him along by saying aloud the phonic sound of the alphabets & let him blend them together & place the objects.


Pouring

I picked up a tiny coffee stirrer stick from Subway, where I had my dinner the night before this activity. It's that thin white stick placed across the yellow container in the photo below.

I wanted to see how he'd do with this new challenge, in terms of using it to scoop & pour. He could get a few pieces (just 1-2, but then again, spoon is real tiny) of the tiny pink sago beads onto the spoon but couldn't adjust his arm/wrist to keep the spoon horizontal. So after a few tries on his own, I modelled it for him by placing my hand over his & scooping.

After a just a few tries of that, he flicked the spoon out of the container which sent the beads flying everywhere! I expected a mess based on past experience, so I had placed only a thin layer of beads into a shallow container. For him it was just too fun to resist doing the flicking again! Ended up with loads everywhere. Ah well, I turned it around into getting him to help in cleaning up (he used his pincer grip); practice for using a brush & dustpan (can't do it yet); and to learn that there are consequences to his action.

Tongs

Took out the "cotton ball & tongs" activity from the same "pouring activity" box while I proceeded to nicely pack away the containers used. He's supposed to use the tongs to pick up cotton balls from that rectangular container & place them in the smaller circular container. It helps develop the muscles in his hand. It's an important fine motor skill to learn now, in the build up to learning to use a pair of scissors. When I turned around, he was placing the last ball with his tongs, into the circular container! He did it all by himself! Hooray!

In future, I can vary this activity by placing the cotton balls into a narrower container, or a deeper container (to get his wrist going), or use a tighter pair of tongs, or tweezers, or a pair of trainer chopsticks, or slightly heavier objects....

All done mama!