No problem.

Last night at dinner Ava was wandering the kitchen with one of her Daddy's wrenches. She walked up to him and said, "Look Dada! Look." He replied, "Yes baby. Could you put that on the table for me?" Ava walked over to the kitchen table and plopped the wrench right down on the edge of the table. She said, "No problem Dada!"

It completely cracked us up. I'm not sure she knew why we thought it was so funny. Did she get that from me?

Poll #3 results

Nine people responded to April's poll. The question was: Would you consider your child's Childhood Apraxia to be mild, moderate, severe, or not sure yet? Two people responded mild. One person responded moderate. Three people responded severe. Three people were not sure yet.

I think I'm going to take a break from polls during the month of May. If you have suggestions for a poll topic for June, please leave a comment.

Tall People Can Reach High Locks

Ava and I were in a public restroom. Now, this is how the experience usually goes. Ava uses the potty first. Then I try to get my business done while begging her not to open the door just yet. The sounds of muffled laughter from other stalls are always helpful.

Well, this time, the door lock was too high for her to reach. It was wonderful. In fact, I'll admit it, I kind of enjoyed watching her fruitlessly try to reach the door lock secure in my knowledge that she couldn't reach it.

Ava stepped back, frustrated and said to me, "door high." I replied, "Yes, sweetheart. The lock is really high." She looked up at the lock again, and then back at me. Then she said, "Mama tall." I was astounded. I didn't even know she knew what tall meant, much less that she would make the connection to how the concept applied in this particular situation. And then she used it in a sentence well enough that I completely understood what she was saying.

All in all, a very nice trip to the restroom.

Free kindergarten.com iPhone/iPad apps

If you search kindergarten.com in the app store, you will find 24 programs that are flash card style programs. All of them are free in April in honor of Autism Awareness Month. That gives you a few more days to check them out if you are interested. I haven't tried them all yet, but there are three main kinds: flash cards, receptive identification, and problem solving. The pictures are very nice and you might be able to use the flash card programs to try to get your little ones to say some words. Michael enjoyed the one problem solving program I let him try, so if you have older children the more advanced programs might be nice too.

Thanks for the Positive Reinforcement

I've gotten a couple of nice emails this week and a few thoughtful comments. I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of the readers that take the time to say something. I really enjoy hearing from you. I read every email and comment and make the time to reply. It encourages me to keep working on this website and lets me know that people are out there who enjoy reading the posts and find useful information here. So, thank you!

Toe?

Today we were getting ready to go outside. It was an amazing spring day. The temperature was about 65 degrees with a light breeze. The sun was shining brightly. When playing in the sun short sleeves felt wonderful. We had just finished putting on shoes and socks and were heading out the door to play when Ava said, “toe” and looked at me expectantly.

I had no idea what she meant. She repeated herself politely once or twice in response to the apparently blank look on my face. When I responded with, “I have no idea what you want sweetheart, can you show me?” she started to get frantic chanting over and over, “Toe! Toe! Toe! Toe! Toe!” It was obvious that she wasn’t going outside until I figured out what she wanted. I felt terrible and as she got more and more frustrated and anxious so did I. Finally, when she started heading for the coat closet I realized that she was asking for her coat.

I wasn’t expecting the request because it was so nice outside so I didn’t have any context to guess until she gave me a clue. In retrospect, “toe” for “coat” makes perfect sense. She leaves off the /t/ at the ends of words and she can’t make a /k/ sound so she used a /t/ at the beginning instead. That turns coat into toe. The whole exchange couldn’t have taken more than 60 seconds, but it was a pretty intense 60 seconds and we were both relieved when we finally figured it out.

Perfection

I had this game when I was little and I grabbed it during the holidays for the kids. Then I forgot about it in the closet for four months. I pulled it out a few days ago to pass some time on a rainy morning. The children loved it. The funny part is how they play the game. They set the timer but stop the timer from running while they work together to fill in all the pieces. (Sometimes they work together nicely, sometimes lots of mediation from Mama is necessary to keep the peace.) Then they push the start button and run around excitedly shrieking until the timer finally goes off and the pieces pop out. Then they rush back over to the game to start all over again.

Conversations

Michael and Ava are starting to have actual conversations. He’ll say something to her, she’ll reply, he’ll respond, etc. They aren’t long, or complex, but there’s actual turn taking going on. I love it.

Here’s a conversation I listened to as I pushed them on the swing today. We have a tire swing that is square rather than round. They like it because they can sit on it together. (Obviously the tire isn’t real, it’s plastic but still fun.) Michael told Ava the tire was square. Ava said, “Circle.” Michael replied, “No, it’s a square.” Ava insisted, “Circle!” Michael explained, “No, it’s a square Ava! See, it has corners. And see the straight parts? It’s a square.” Without even considering his argument, Ava simply replied, “Circle.” At that point they got distracted with something else.

I loved overhearing the conversation. I also thought Michael did a pretty good job of identifying the key differences between a square and a circle. I was pretty impressed.

A B C

I’m working on making my own alphabet border as a decoration for our playroom. I thought it would brighten the room a little. Michael knows his letters and is working on his letter/sound correspondences. This project is a good way to talk about that a little. I’m trying to choose a picture (or pictures) for each letter that is appealing to my kids. If the letter corresponds to one sound in some words and another sound in other words I’m trying to represent both sounds on the border. So, A has both acorn and apple and C has both cow and city. I’ll post more pictures as I get more of the border done.

Poll #2 results

Only 5 people responded to March's poll question. The question was: How old is your child with CAS? One person has a child under two years of age. One person has a two year old. The other three people who answered have a child who is three years old. No one answered four years or older.

Click in the sidebar to answer this month’s question.

Doing too well?

Just when I think I have a handle on things, something new hits me out of the blue. Apparently Ava is doing so well, that she’s in danger of “graduating” from early intervention services. I didn’t even know that was possible. It’s a good thing no one is keeping track of all the things I don’t know.

I thought that once she qualified for services that she would automatically continue to receive them until she turned three years old. Then we’d have to re-evaluate to see if she qualifies for school-age services at that time. Ms. A, our early intervention therapist, just mentioned this in passing during our therapy session Friday morning. At the time, I was busy trying to keep Ava engaged and Michael from interfering too much and I didn’t really process the significance of what she was saying. Later, it occurred to me that I really should have asked more questions. I guess I’ll ask her what she meant when we see her next week. I’ll try not to worry too much until then. Worrying doesn’t do me any good.

Lost

On a sad note, we realized a couple of nights ago that one of our kitties is lost. She must have slipped out of the house earlier in the week when the weather was nice and we were playing outside. We had left the door open. Things have been so crazy this week with the illnesses, hospitalizations, and surgeries that we didn’t even realize she was missing for a couple of days. I feel terrible. We’ve searched the house and the neighborhood, but there’s no sign of her. Our chances of finding her seem poor. She was a great kitty. I'll miss her.

Poll #1 results

So, 9 people responded to the last poll asking why they visited my blog. 8 of those people were here because they have a child with apraxia. So now I have a new poll up. I'm wondering how old your child with CAS is (or suspected CAS). Answer if you feel comfortable doing so. :-)

The sun's gift.

Last night we were heading out to the mall just as the sun was setting. There was a beautiful sunset. I explained what a sunset was and asked Michael what he thought of the sunset. He said, "I like the orange clouds the sun made for me." His favorite color is orange and the sunset was primarily orange. I just thought it was cute that he figured that the sunset was special ordered just for him.

Cribless

This past weekend we converted Ava's crib to a toddler bed. Our household is now officially cribless.

Compliment?

I was tucking Michael into bed tonight and told him in a rather sappy voice, "Goodnight, Little One. I love you." In a rather sappy voice, he returned, "Goodnight, Little One....I mean Big One. I love you too."

Poem speaks true

I came across this poem in a blog post at apraxia-kids called In Your Silence. Check it out. If you have a little one with apraxia this speaks true.

Bye, Bye!

Ava told me “bye, bye” for the first time last night as I was leaving her room after putting her to bed. I was ridiculously excited. And then she said it again completely unprompted as her daddy was taking her out the door for her hearing test. (SLP note: her /ai/ or long I sound is distorted and more like a cross between an /a/ as in the way a baby would say /ba/ /ba/ for bottle and a true diphthong /ai/ - but still!)

Also in the past 24 hours she pointed to me and called me “mama” clear as day and then pointed to her dad and called him “dada.” It was the first time and melted my heart.

Reluctant (Unable?) to Perform

Ava has learned some new sounds and some new words in the past week or so. We’re proud. She’s proud. She’s using them many times a day. One example is the /b/ sound which she uses in the word “book” (she doesn’t pronounce the final /k/). She always says the word while making the sign for book. When she went to my parents’ house this weekend they commented that she used the word/sign quite often there. So yesterday morning when our Parents as Teachers educator arrived and pulled out a book I prompted Ava to say/sign “book”. She grunted in protest and ran out of the room. Literally. She ran out of the room and didn’t come back for five minutes. I had to go get her. I have to watch out and try not to push her too hard, too quickly. I need to remember that increased performance demands make things harder for children with apraxia. It was nice that by the end of the meeting Ava had tried several vocalizations with her teacher and her teacher commented that she saw a lot of change in Ava since the last time she saw her (a couple of months ago).

Jealousy

I didn’t start reading blogs until I had children. Then I found several that I enjoy. I enjoy them because it’s nice to know that I’m not alone. And they’re often funny and well written. Now I’m experiencing something new – jealousy. A mother in a blog I follow just had her youngest turn two. Among many other things she mentioned that he’s talking in two to three word sentences. I want that for Ava too. More than I can say. I don’t like feeling jealous. It’s not an emotion I identify with myself. I think it’s something I’m going to have to make peace with though. It’s part of my future.