Fine Motor Activity - One

I came across this webpage on handwriting. The entire site has been fun to browse. I don’t even remember how I ended up at the site, but I'm glad I found it. The page has a great list of fun fine motor activities. Since I’m looking for fine motor activities to do with Michael, and fun activities to do with the children in general, I was pretty excited.

I decided to do the eye dropper art. I gathered eye droppers (something I had gotten months ago for art projects and never used), paper towels, cookie trays, food coloring, a cup of water, and ice cube trays before I called the kids over to the kitchen table. (Please excuse the blurriness of the picture. I didn't realize it was so bad, but at least it gives you an idea of what the prep looked like.)

I did a sanity check and decided propping the eye droppers in ice cube trays wouldn’t work and switched them out for empty baby food jars: two for Michael, two for Ava, and two for me. I brought the kids in and we talked about how water is clear but when we add the food coloring to it we can make it pretty colors. I let them choose the colors to make. Ava chose pink and green. Michael chose pink and yellow. I chose purple and blue. They loved watching the food coloring drop into the water and combine as we swirled.

Then I stuck an eye dropper in each jar and let them start. I quickly realized neither child knew how to use an eye dropper. Michael picked it up pretty quickly. Ava took a little more time but eventually got it. Michael didn’t have the patience (or fine motor control) to do only one drop at a time even when I encouraged him and showed him with my picture that you could do things like make flowers using one drop at a time.

He did stay engaged in the activity for nearly twenty minutes though which is a major accomplishment. Usually he’ll only do an art activity for a few minutes before getting bored/frustrated and wanting to quit. Ava loved it too. She actually remained at the table another ten minutes or so after Michael left to do another one.

I think the finished products are rather pretty. Mine is the one that looks vaguely like flowers. Ava’s are the small ones and Michael’s is the other large one.

I’m going to do this project again. We all enjoyed it and it’s good fine motor practice. Perhaps if I demonstrate how to make a train track or road or something like that he’ll be motivated to fine tune a little more?

Nutriiveda for Apraxia?

So I was doing a bit of reading at the CHERAB website. This non-profit organization was founded by Lisa Geng who is one of the authors of The Late Talker book. I came across a page I linked to through their site with glowing anecdotal reviews about a new (to me) nutritional supplement. This site has been collecting testimonials and surveys from parents who have tried Nutriiveda and most have been positive.

I had never heard of it before, so I did a little web searching and discovered that this product is being primarily marketed as a meal replacement / weight loss product. That fact alone initially turned me off. I kept researching though. I came across this testimonial on a personal blog by another mom with a child who has apraxia. I re-read the description of the product and the information on the CHERAB website.

My decision about whether or not to try the product came down to two main points. First, just like with Omega-3 fish oils, there seems to be no downside and the possibility of hope. I hate to not try something that might help. Second, Ava is going through a terrible picky eater stage. She won’t eat any meat other than an occasional chicken nugget or fish stick and any veggie other than a carrot stick with dip. Supplementing her with something that has a great nutritional supplement aspect is appealing. One serving has 3 grams of fiber, 20 grams of protein, 100% of many vitamins and minerals, and only 5 grams of sugar.

So I ordered some. I’ll let you know what I think when I get it, and if and how it works over time.

Songs and Rhymes – Therapy Techniques

Songs and nursery rhymes can be powerful tools for getting little ones with apraxia to verbalize. The singing activates different areas in the brain than those typically used in speech production and that often helps children successfully produce words.

I’ve been singing to my children since before they were born. I love singing. I enjoy it. I happen to like kids’ songs. What can I say? I’m an educator. So I usually sing kids’ songs to my children. I sing nursery rhymes like “Jack and Jill” and “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.” I sing lullabies like, “Rock-a-Bye Baby,” and “Hush Little Baby.” I sing classic kids songs like, “Sing a Song of Sixpence” and “This Old Man.” We do preschool fingerplays like “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” The beautiful things about these songs are that they are predictable. They fascinate children. Rarely do I encounter a child that does not enjoy participating in a performance of kids’ songs. Ava knows almost all of these songs.

For the past few weeks I’ve been using the cloze technique (reading, or in this case singing, the first part of the sentence and then pausing to let the child fill in the next word) when singing songs with Ava and she has been filling in the missing words. So when we do, “Baa, Baa Black Sheep,” she fills in the words I’ve bolded.

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full.

One for the master,

One for the dame,

And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

And so in the 30-45 seconds it takes to sing this little song, she’s produced eight words. If you spend ten minutes singing songs from a nursery rhymes book (as we do every time we have an extended visit to the potty), you can get productions of 70-100 words. And they’re having fun the entire time. They don’t even know it’s therapy. You can incorporate this into reading time before nap and bedtime. You can do it any time really, just for fun. During car rides is another fun time to do this activity.

This activity isn’t about how perfect the production is. Obviously you’re not expecting to get perfect production of such a wide variety of words. It’s about making talking fun. It’s about them getting to participate in a fun verbal activity in a way they can be successful. It’s about just getting them to try. For example, Ava’s “lane” is pretty much just a long /a/ with no /l/ or /n/. But that isn’t the point. The point is the participation, attempts, and fun.