I have been thinking about how to post this for awhile. I get frustrated with the evaluation systems that they use with Nate, I don't feel that they capture either his abilities or his progress. So much of it is in this "gray" area that really can't be evaluated. It's annoying. This week has been another good one in terms of progress- and I made sure that his teacher saw some of it, even though I had to send contraband food in to school in order to make that happen.
I sent Natey's "pops" in to school for snack time, and THAT he will say for anyone, anytime, anywhere- very very motivated for sugar after a year of basically none. He has 2 board books about "duck and goose" and he points to the duck picture on each page, even points to one, two, three of them on one page. The first time he did this (last Sunday) John and I both almost cried. Who would have ever thought we would consider that so miraculous. But it was. I sent the book to school- apparently he sat there like he had no idea what they were talking about. Luckily his home visit was this week and he did it for the educator then. So they know I wasn't making it up. Those are two tangible areas of progress. But here is what else I have observed:
1. Today Nathan pulled on Annie's hand and said "come". He then proceeded to lead her up the stairs to get his duck book and then carried it back downstairs and handed it to her to read to him.
2. When I came out to visit him at lunch time he was clinging to my leg, obviously trying to keep me from going back into the office. When that wasn't working, he invented a new game- hug my legs, climb through them, run back around in front of me and laugh like a little ninny. It was a great distraction technique- I would much rather watch this than work.
3. We have these videos for him called "Baby Babble". They are created by two speech pathologists and aimed at children with speech delays, but specifically kids on the spectrum. They include a multitude of spinning toys, crazy lights, bubbles and balloons- all things that kids on the spectrum are generally fascinated by. Nate is completely mesmerized by these videos- but in the past week he has started repeating the sounds that the women are making as well. Any repetition of sounds or actions is huge for him.
4. he said bye bye to daddy at bedtime tonight, twice (we will work on night night later, right now the consistency of saying the same thing when someone is leaving is what is important). Believe it or not, my almost 3 year old has only just recently started saying bye bye, and it is inconsistent to say the least.
5. This evening for the first time, he expressed to me that he was not ready for bed. I sing 4 songs to him every night after we read, and rock him. When I finished the last song tonight he popped his thumb out of his mouth and said "more". I said "more what?" expecting him to say cup (which is something else he won't say at school and says regularly at home). He didn't know what to say, he didn't say cup, he didn't say pop, but he rocked his head back and forth and touched my mouth. He wanted me to sing and rock some more!!!! (is he NUTS??) I have to say it....holy shit!!!!! I tested this several times- I would sing one song, stop and say "night night?", and he would say more again and again until I started singing.
Tomorrow we go back to "More Than Words". It's performance time. They are going to videotape Nathan and I playing. We have specific types of "play" that we are supposed to focus on. I really don't care about being taped at this point, my only issue is that I don't want to be in the room when they play it for the whole class to critique and "learn from". Oh well, at least we are all in the same boat. One of the instructors is Nate's school speech pathologist, so at least we are both comfortable around her. I just hope that Nate doesn't refuse to do all of the great things he's been doing at home. But even if he does, I am sure they are used to that too. Either way, tomorrow Nate and hit the small screen- I so didn't sign up for this. Oh wait, crap, I did.
I sent Natey's "pops" in to school for snack time, and THAT he will say for anyone, anytime, anywhere- very very motivated for sugar after a year of basically none. He has 2 board books about "duck and goose" and he points to the duck picture on each page, even points to one, two, three of them on one page. The first time he did this (last Sunday) John and I both almost cried. Who would have ever thought we would consider that so miraculous. But it was. I sent the book to school- apparently he sat there like he had no idea what they were talking about. Luckily his home visit was this week and he did it for the educator then. So they know I wasn't making it up. Those are two tangible areas of progress. But here is what else I have observed:
1. Today Nathan pulled on Annie's hand and said "come". He then proceeded to lead her up the stairs to get his duck book and then carried it back downstairs and handed it to her to read to him.
2. When I came out to visit him at lunch time he was clinging to my leg, obviously trying to keep me from going back into the office. When that wasn't working, he invented a new game- hug my legs, climb through them, run back around in front of me and laugh like a little ninny. It was a great distraction technique- I would much rather watch this than work.
3. We have these videos for him called "Baby Babble". They are created by two speech pathologists and aimed at children with speech delays, but specifically kids on the spectrum. They include a multitude of spinning toys, crazy lights, bubbles and balloons- all things that kids on the spectrum are generally fascinated by. Nate is completely mesmerized by these videos- but in the past week he has started repeating the sounds that the women are making as well. Any repetition of sounds or actions is huge for him.
4. he said bye bye to daddy at bedtime tonight, twice (we will work on night night later, right now the consistency of saying the same thing when someone is leaving is what is important). Believe it or not, my almost 3 year old has only just recently started saying bye bye, and it is inconsistent to say the least.
5. This evening for the first time, he expressed to me that he was not ready for bed. I sing 4 songs to him every night after we read, and rock him. When I finished the last song tonight he popped his thumb out of his mouth and said "more". I said "more what?" expecting him to say cup (which is something else he won't say at school and says regularly at home). He didn't know what to say, he didn't say cup, he didn't say pop, but he rocked his head back and forth and touched my mouth. He wanted me to sing and rock some more!!!! (is he NUTS??) I have to say it....holy shit!!!!! I tested this several times- I would sing one song, stop and say "night night?", and he would say more again and again until I started singing.
Tomorrow we go back to "More Than Words". It's performance time. They are going to videotape Nathan and I playing. We have specific types of "play" that we are supposed to focus on. I really don't care about being taped at this point, my only issue is that I don't want to be in the room when they play it for the whole class to critique and "learn from". Oh well, at least we are all in the same boat. One of the instructors is Nate's school speech pathologist, so at least we are both comfortable around her. I just hope that Nate doesn't refuse to do all of the great things he's been doing at home. But even if he does, I am sure they are used to that too. Either way, tomorrow Nate and hit the small screen- I so didn't sign up for this. Oh wait, crap, I did.
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