The Weekly Review: Week One

Blog Post I Enjoyed Most:  I loved this post by Swistle.  Technically, I’m cheating here because this post is over a week old, but I didn’t have a weekly review last week so I figure I get a pass on posting this one late.  I laughed out loud when reading this post.  Then I overheard my husband laughing out loud when I made him read it.  It’s such a human mistake and Swistle does a great job of telling the story. 

Therapy product I would buy if I weren’t on a budget:  Word Flips.  This is a great therapy product for apraxia.  Ms. J. loaned it to us to use for our homework for the current two weeks.  It’s great for apraxia, because you can work on the words individually, or mix them up to add complexity if your little one is ready for that.  The words are separated into sections by place of articulation.  You can combine individual words to make two syllable words or phrases (sew and pea make soapy). 

Interesting Apraxia Article:  Apraxia: Speech Therapy in Toddlers and Young Children by Sharon Gretz, M.Ed.   This is a nice article about apraxia diagnosis and therapy with very young children. 

Michael’s Mystery Question:  Did he really eat a blue crayon at school as his teacher claims?  Her evidence:  blue mouth surrounded by crayon crumbs and missing crayon.  He denies it, but the evidence seems pretty conclusive.  He’s never, not once, tried to eat a crayon at home.  In fact, he pretty much never eats anything that isn’t food.  So, who knows?  Maybe another child talked him into it?

Ava’s new favorite word:  Hide.  Whenever she can’t find something, she pauses and then says that it is hiding.  So I ask her to find her shoes, and instead of looking for them she’ll just look at me and say, “Shoe hide.”  So many things have been hiding this week.  It’s been pretty cute actually.

Something I’m proud of:  Coming up with the idea for Ava’s pillows and actually following the project all the way through.  I think they’re adorable and Ava loves the pink one (just because it’s pink).  She’s given the other one to Michael and so far they’ve had at least one pillow fight.  Watching them learn to play together is a joy.

To give credit where credit is due, I was inspired to do a weekly review by the one posted every Friday morning on this blog. (Hmm.  His webpage actually seems to be down at the moment, but it's the first time in the year or so I've been reading him that it's been down so I'm assuming it is temporary.)

Daylight savings miracle

My children wake up early.  They wake up with the light to be specific.  So, in the middle of winter, near the solstice, they are sleeping till 7:30 or so which is wonderful.  In the middle of the summer near the summer solstice they are waking around 5am!!  Ava is particularly susceptible to the light and over the last month she moved from 6:30 to 6:15 to 6:00 and then started waking in the 5:00 hour.  It’s driving me crazy.  I need sleep too!!  And she’s waking up cranky because she isn’t really getting enough sleep.  Well, the daylight savings switch was wonderful.  Saturday morning she was up at 5:45 am.  Sunday morning it was 6:45 am.  Just like that.  I’ll take it. 

Now, what can I do to manipulate things so that perhaps I won’t end up right back where I was a month from now?  I have to find a way to keep her room dark.  I tried it when she was little, but then even the slightest change was enough of a cue to get her up.  I couldn’t block enough of the light for it to work.  Maybe now that she's older, blocking most of the light will work?  Also, then I didn’t have a sewing machine to use to make some light blocking tools.

I have a plan.  Light gets into her room from two main sources:  the window and under the door.  I’m going to make one of those door draft stoppers to block the light from getting in under her door.  Then I’m going to put up light blocking curtain liners.  But instead of attaching them to her curtains I’m going to just cover the entire window opening.  Seriously.  If it works it’ll be worth it.  I don’t care if we can’t open the windows any more.  I’m thinking I’ll sew velcro to the light blocking liner and then glue velcro to the wall around the window and just stick it up there attached on all four sides.  Ugly, yes.  But it’ll be hidden by the curtains. 

So that’s the plan.  I’ll let you know if it works.

Screening Results - Always interesting

Each year, Missouri’s Parents as Teachers (PAT) program offers a free screening to each child enrolled in the program.  Michael’s screening was Monday.  This was the first year he got the “preschool” screening rather than the toddler developmental screening.  Our PAT educator, Ms. S., came to our house to do the screening.  She worked with Michael independently at the kitchen table while I kept Ava busy in the playroom.  The screening probably took about half an hour.  To be honest, I wasn’t paying close attention to the time so I’m not completely sure.  Ms. S. told me that they don’t switch over to the preschool screening until the child is at least 3 years, 3 months old so Michael just made the cutoff to use the higher level screening. 

The screening has three parts:  a language section, a concepts section, and a motor section.  This particular screening is used with 3, 4, 5, and 6 year old children.  In fact, they’ll use the exact same form for the next two years so we’ll be able to track his progress from year to year.  The language section covers personal data (do they know their name, etc.), a basic articulation screening, matching actions to objects, letters and sounds skills, rhyming, and simple problem solving.  The concepts section covers body parts, colors, counting, shapes, positions (under, beside, etc.), and concepts (longest, full, cold, etc.).  The motor section covers both gross motor skills (catching, jumping, hopping, etc.) and fine motor skills (building with small blocks, cutting, copying symbols, etc.).

So, Michael did an amazing job on the language and concepts sections.  He performed at the 4, 5, and even 6 year old level on the questions on these sections.  I am so proud of him.  I knew he was a smart kid, but wow!  It’s always nice to have independent confirmation. 

In the motor section we saw an entirely different picture.  He pretty much performed at the under three level or barely qualified at the three year old level for these skills.  It’s strange.  He can use a computer mouse completely independently.  He can double click, single click, and move it to exactly where he wants it.  He can build complex structures with duplos and the smaller legos.  He can string beads onto a pipe cleaner.  And yet he holds crayons and pencils in his fist like he’s trying to stab someone with them.  He still doesn’t show consistent hand dominance.  Sometimes he’ll use the right and other times the left.  He isn’t interested in coloring for more than 2-3 minutes at a time perhaps because he finds it difficult.  He does like to cut paper, but we don’t do it often and so he isn’t very precise.  Perhaps I need to work art into our weekly schedule a little more often.   And as far as gross motor is concerned I guess we need to work more on balance and catching.  Hopefully spring will provide more opportunity to get outdoors and play physically some more.  He also cannot pedal a tricycle yet.

I suppose, as I parent I do the things I like most.  So we do a lot of singing, reading, talking, and playing with toys like legos, marble runs, trains, and puzzles.  We don’t do as much art and physical play.  I need to branch out more so that my children will have a more balanced skill set.   

So, overall I thought the screening was great.  It showed me that Michael is a smart little boy who has definite areas of strength and I’m so proud of him.  It also showed me that I have an opportunity to focus on some new things that hopefully we will all enjoy while getting to practice some new skills.

Does anyone have suggestions of fun art activities that might work on some of those fine motor skills beyond simple coloring projects?