Little Wins

This week has been somewhat difficult. For most of this week, Pod hasn't said a word, and I had a potentially serious Dr's appointment looming that I really didn't want to go to.

The umpteen flash cards I made her also became a focus, not for what was on them, but so she could order them and arrange them in lines. Of course, I didn't give them to her *all* at once, but they're now pretty controlled and I'm introducing them far slower than before.

On Wednesday we went to the storytime at the library again, and I picked up some books on ASL to increase my vocabulary. This time, she was happy to sit on me for the whole session as opposed to dancing or going on little missions to steal books from the storyteller. She didn't seem upset or disturbed, just contented to be where she was.

However this week hasn't been all filler and no killer, we've also had some little wins too.

Throughout the week, we've had some nice wins with the schedule, it does seem to be a nice stress reducer for her. She also clearly understands what each card means and the timeline, so that's a plus.

On Wednesday she started to knock back on the 'Knock Knock Box'. The 'Knock Knock Box' is this awesome activity that E brought around that's designed to increase her capacity for cooperative play. Basically, it's a box, with various items in it that are connected to sound. For example, there are toy horses inside (among lots of other things), and their sound (the sound I'm looking to get Pod emulating), is neighing. The box has a few rules, like I remain in control of the box, one item at a time, and each activity is initiated with me knocking on the box and saying 'Knock Knock'. Pod is then to knock back on the box, and then we sign/say "Open up", before opening up the box and getting one of the items out. Before, she didn't knock on the box, I had to get her hand and move it to knock, but on Wednesday, she actually knocked on the box. I then moved her hands to sign "open" and continued with the rest of the game. She still doesn't say any other things or make other noises in the game (except for shrieks of delight when I blow up a balloon and let it go), but still, it's a nice step in the cooperative area.

Last night she said the first word she's said in days, "TV".

Today, she came to me and signed 'want' at me, I don't know what she wanted, and she just patted me like I was a simpleton and then walked off.  We were working with flashcards earlier (telling today's story) and she said "TV" a few times, and "Teeth" (there are cards for 'watch TV' and 'Brush your teeth'), she also showed that she understood which one was which by pointing to the correct one when I asked her to show me (for example) 'go for a walk'. This makes me think that maybe down the line, I can use flashcards to teach her her alphabet. I'm also getting inklings of how to maybe teach her to read, but again, that's massively down the line, I think. I also laid them out in front of her and asked her what she wanted to do after she finished her lunch, and she pointed to the 'go to sleep' card.

She also gave me her 'more' flashcard when she wanted more food earlier, and I've introduced three more for her to carry with her for communication, 'Hello', 'I love you', and 'Follow me'. She pointed to each several times and I said them, then I used them to show her communicating 'Hello', and 'I love you'. She copied me, but we'll see if she understood what I was doing. When my husband gets home, I'll rope him into helping to model the purpose of these cards.

Earlier today, I was looking back at my memories from a year ago on Facebook, a year ago, Pod was saying words - in fact, a year ago today she Marco Polo'ed her dad! It's so easy to look back then and see the stuff she used to say, and compare her to younger children who are already forming sentences, and get so disheartened. That's really so easy to do. I mean, at the library a week ago, there was a little girl who was almost the same age as Pod who could read, like actually read. Now I know that there's no point in comparing children and that all kids are different and grow at different rates, but sometimes you can't help it, and sometimes you can't help but worry about it. All I ever seem to do now is worry.

But then Pod will do something.

Like come to me with two bottles, one that she likes and the other that she doesn't, and get me to transfer water from the one she dislikes into the one she likes.

Or she'll let me comb her hair without freaking out.

Or we'll have a cluster of those little wins.

And I'll feel a little less worried, a little more encouraged, and a little more like all of this could just work out in the end.

I think it's the little wins that keep us going.

Activities Round Up and Reaction

These are the suggestions from E and L (our specialists that come and help me learn how to help Pod) so far:

General

* Give a warning before finishing an activity she likes so as to give her fair warning and allow her time to put coping skills into play.

*Label emotions in a very concrete way. For example, when she's upset by something, include "Oh, you're sad/angry/upset." Then reset limits and explore options.

*Look up CSEFEL.vanderbilt.edu as they have great parent articles.

*Continue going to the library story time for social interaction and stimulation.

*Create picture cards in order to let her know what is going to happen before you do it so that she can be ready.

Speech

*Hold objects to mouth/point to mouth so that she can see how your mouth moves when making a sound.

*Continue to work on prompting the word "up" when she wants to get out of the high chair. Look where her eyes are looking and try to get a read on if a tantrum is brewing. Remove her before a tantrum.

*Use the 'Speech Box/Knock knock box' to work on cooperative speech skills.

*Sign when saying key words.


Sensory


* Incorporate daily water play. Start with a small bowl of water, a piece of paper, and a paintbrush. Have Pod dip the brush into the water and let her 'paint' on the paper with the water. Try to progress to dipping fingers in.

* Find other textures to play with: dried rice or beans, Play-Doh.

* Play with fingerpaint.

* Try and get Pod to brush her hair with your help.



This somehow seems less overwhelming when written down like this. I've found a simple "All done" while signing to be a very good way to end an activity. Sometimes Pod even hands me the stuff to help me clean up now. Labelling her emotions has also been good because now I can say "Sad choice" to her when she's doing something that will end badly and she's starting to get it, I think. I go to the library (weather permitting), and just made a picture board for her so that I can try giving her a kind of basic schedule to help avoid meltdowns.

Out of all of the areas to work on, I'm finding the speech the hardest. Probably because it's the area I'm the most stressed out about. But it's also the area that requires the most consistent reinforcement and the adoption of new habits. Things like remembering to sign key words while saying them, and pointing to my mouth to draw attention to the shape of my mouth when speaking are actually kind of difficult to sustain. I know it's just a matter of time before I get it. The Knock Knock box is perhaps the easiest out of all the activities to do.

As someone whose kid doesn't really play in a cooperative way, I love the sensory activities because it's becoming the nearest thing to play for us and I think Pod really enjoys them too.

Yet to do:

*Look up articles on CSEFEL.vanderbilt.edu
*Create sensory boxes with farm animals and dried goods.
* Continue working on the speech stuff.

Own ideas:

* Add two horses to the Knock Knock box with the associated animal sound.
* Create some little shakers and add them to the Knock Knock box. "Shake", "Shake"