Big Boy has started speech therapy!
The focus on right now is to encourage him to use phrases and sounds, and later on to correct the sounds. For example- E, his speech therapist at Yale's Pediatric Outpatient Rehabilitation Center in New Haven, started the session with a Mr. Potato Head toy. To put Mr. Potato Head together she would offer him to pieces and give him the option of which he wanted. The goal was to make him say "I want ____" instead of just "hat...ear...eyes...etc."
I used this technique in just about all of our play...actually, with just about all of our interactions... with pretty good results.
Big Boy tends to drop the end sound of his words. A normal process in language development, but he needs to move past that now, so his "homework" for the week focused on this. I was given a fish bowl coloring sheet to take home so he could practice some words: book, pop, boot, boat, toot, peep, mop, beam, boom, pom. The instructions were to have him say the words several times, then color the fish... say the words, then cut the fish... say the words and paste them in their fishbowl. Not all at once, but spread out through out a few days.
We didn't even get through coloring the fish. The kid doesn't sit still. Any more than the three fish I pressured him to do would have ended in a meltdown. I never want to FORCE him to work on anything (although I am definitely seeing a need to enforce some restrictions on jumping from activity to activity), so I was upset with the idea that I was MAKING him do this. Learning under duress just isn't learning. But speech therapy is different than our totschool art projects... so maybe I should force him? I gave in and stopped for the day...I needed to think about it.
Thank the Heavens for Pinterest! I found THIS POST and decided to give it a shot. I printed out rocket ship clip art, laminated them and put a piece of velcro on the back, tacked a piece of black felt to the wall, and added some felt stars and a moon. Using a dry erase marker I wrote Big Boy's words for the week on each rocket.
For our first attempt I tried to do just what Linda from Little Family Fun did with her son. But my Big Boy just can't focus. I liked this activity because it requires movement, and my kid just can's be still. But he was spinning in circles and throwing himself on the floor and just didn't care to play with me. Somehow we pushed through. I wouldn't let him play instruments or trains until he finished his rockets. He finished, no tears, no tantrum... but I couldn't say he enjoyed it.
We tried again in the evening with daddy. He did a little better. I had been giving him a choice between rockets- "do you want pom, or boot?" Interest was lost about halfway through. Then I had him make the choice for OTHER people- "Which does mommy want?" or "Which one do you think Maureen would like?" and it renewed his willingness to play.
The next day he wanted to do puzzles. So I let him choose which puzzle he would do. Then I held onto all the pieces. Gave him a rocket word, THEN after each rocket I would give him a few pieces of his puzzle. We must have gone through his words 3 or 4 times!
I propped up my camera to catch some video. I have to apologize though, this is the camera I use for stills. It is not a video camera, though it has that feature. For whatever reason, whenever I capture video on it there is always a weird whirring and clicking sound, and it always goes in and out of focus. But still, I love this video.
The focus on right now is to encourage him to use phrases and sounds, and later on to correct the sounds. For example- E, his speech therapist at Yale's Pediatric Outpatient Rehabilitation Center in New Haven, started the session with a Mr. Potato Head toy. To put Mr. Potato Head together she would offer him to pieces and give him the option of which he wanted. The goal was to make him say "I want ____" instead of just "hat...ear...eyes...etc."
I used this technique in just about all of our play...actually, with just about all of our interactions... with pretty good results.
Big Boy tends to drop the end sound of his words. A normal process in language development, but he needs to move past that now, so his "homework" for the week focused on this. I was given a fish bowl coloring sheet to take home so he could practice some words: book, pop, boot, boat, toot, peep, mop, beam, boom, pom. The instructions were to have him say the words several times, then color the fish... say the words, then cut the fish... say the words and paste them in their fishbowl. Not all at once, but spread out through out a few days.
We didn't even get through coloring the fish. The kid doesn't sit still. Any more than the three fish I pressured him to do would have ended in a meltdown. I never want to FORCE him to work on anything (although I am definitely seeing a need to enforce some restrictions on jumping from activity to activity), so I was upset with the idea that I was MAKING him do this. Learning under duress just isn't learning. But speech therapy is different than our totschool art projects... so maybe I should force him? I gave in and stopped for the day...I needed to think about it.
Thank the Heavens for Pinterest! I found THIS POST and decided to give it a shot. I printed out rocket ship clip art, laminated them and put a piece of velcro on the back, tacked a piece of black felt to the wall, and added some felt stars and a moon. Using a dry erase marker I wrote Big Boy's words for the week on each rocket.
For our first attempt I tried to do just what Linda from Little Family Fun did with her son. But my Big Boy just can't focus. I liked this activity because it requires movement, and my kid just can's be still. But he was spinning in circles and throwing himself on the floor and just didn't care to play with me. Somehow we pushed through. I wouldn't let him play instruments or trains until he finished his rockets. He finished, no tears, no tantrum... but I couldn't say he enjoyed it.
We tried again in the evening with daddy. He did a little better. I had been giving him a choice between rockets- "do you want pom, or boot?" Interest was lost about halfway through. Then I had him make the choice for OTHER people- "Which does mommy want?" or "Which one do you think Maureen would like?" and it renewed his willingness to play.
The next day he wanted to do puzzles. So I let him choose which puzzle he would do. Then I held onto all the pieces. Gave him a rocket word, THEN after each rocket I would give him a few pieces of his puzzle. We must have gone through his words 3 or 4 times!
I propped up my camera to catch some video. I have to apologize though, this is the camera I use for stills. It is not a video camera, though it has that feature. For whatever reason, whenever I capture video on it there is always a weird whirring and clicking sound, and it always goes in and out of focus. But still, I love this video.
I'm so proud of him.
And since then he is more willing to do the rockets with or without the puzzles.
Yesterday he said, "Mommy! I want more cereal," and I nearly cried. Today he said, "Me piece fall down," when he some of his puzzle fell on the floor... and I nearly cried. Then I tripped over a toy and he said "Mommy...careful," and I'm pretty sure my eyes welled up. (I would like to mention that I've only been called Mommy for a little over a month now...it still gets me).
I am very excited for his continued progress. My boy can do ANYTHING!
No comments:
Post a Comment