I have NO IDEA!

The worry is so acute when they have no words and all the other children seem to be talking. Then, if you're lucky, you see progress when therapy begins and the feeling of relief is so profound. Sounds are better than silence. Single syllable words are even better than sounds. Two-syllable words or two-word utterances are even better than that. And then you get sentences, and lots of new words and you start to think it will all be okay.

Then there's a long plateau. Her immediate family understands her most of the time. I get a lot of practice, and at her age (2 1/2) she's almost always talking about something where I get some context clues. Being able to understand her most of the time gives me a false sense of security as well.

Lately, Ava is singing. It's adorable and a sign of great language development. Now, when I say singing, I don't mean the ABC song or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I mean just making up songs out of the blue.

She learned it from me. I make up songs about what we're doing all the time. If we're getting dressed I'll make up a silly song about putting on shirts and socks. If we're eating breakfast I'll make up a song about how our food tastes good to our mouth and then travels to our tummy to give us energy for the day. If the kids are running circles in the house I'll make up a song about how many laps they've managed to do. (I know, I'm a dork.)

A few days ago I noticed Ava starting to do the same thing. She made up a song about her baby and feeding her. Then she made up a song about going to the grocery store. I caught about one word in ten of those songs and only because I had some context to help with the guessing.

She's also making up songs about random thoughts in her mind. I can tell she's singing "words" and is super excited about whatever story she's telling. I can tell she wants an audience and wants to talk to me about her song. She's just bursting with pride at making up her own songs. I can see all of that clear as day.

And I have NO IDEA what the songs are about. None. It's killing me. It also makes me realize how unintelligible she is out of context and how very unintelligible she probably is to strangers. So sad. I must find more time for therapy.

Speaking of therapy, my new froot loop therapy reinforcer is working beautifully. She's bringing it over and asking to do speech just so she can have a froot loop snack. Whatever works! Being able to sit down with her regularly and get in sessions of a decent length is letting me get a better feel for her current skills and needs in terms of motor processing. Once I get things better sorted out I'll do a post on the topic.

Science on the Light Box: Baking Soda and Colored Vinegar

Light Box Science: Baking Soda and Colored Vinegar

I grabbed one light box and the translucent tray to go on top. I also got out some baking soda, food coloring, and four 2 oz squeeze bottles filled about halfway with vinegar and gathered the children around the light box on the kitchen floor.

We reviewed what happened when we mixed water and oil on the light box (they stay separate). I explained that this time we were going to put colored vinegar on baking soda. I let them taste the vinegar and the baking soda. They claimed they liked both. I had them make a guess about what would happen when we dripped colored vinegar on the baking soda (their guess was that the baking soda would get wet and turn colored).

We chose four colors of food coloring and colored the vinegar in the squeeze bottles. I also used some leftover colored water for contrast. I sprinkled a rather thick layer of baking soda in the translucent tray and began by dripping some colored water on the baking soda and asking them to tell me what happened. They decided that the baking soda was wet and colored just like they guessed.

Then we tried the colored vinegar and got colored bubbles. We decided that when vinegar combines with baking soda we get a different reaction than when water mixes with baking soda. Vinegar makes bubbles and water does not. That was as complex as we got.

They were quite impressed and couldn't wait to play themselves. I handed them squirt bottles and let them begin.

Ava discovered that if she mixed yellow and blue she could make green bubbles. That was a lot of fun. The next time I try this activity I think I'll give each child three bottles with red, blue, and yellow and encourage them to mix colors as they go.

At one point the first tray of baking soda was completely saturated and I quickly rinsed it out dried it. We distributed a much thinner layer the second time and tried to make actual designs.

Cleanup was as easy as rinsing the tray out and drying it with a cloth.

Simple Homemade Therapy Reinforcer

Ava has an expressive speech delay (definitely a strong motor speech component and a significant phonological processing component). She sees an early intervention therapist weekly and we also see a local apraxia expert a little less often (once or twice a month on average).

(I'm getting to the therapy reinforcer, I promise.)

Even though I'm a certified speech therapist myself we don't do enough therapy at home. The therapist/client dynamic is hard between mother and daughter and I find her difficult to positively reinforce. Ava does respond well to froot loops. Froot loops aren't great for therapy rhythm though. It seems to take forever to chew one and she can't talk while chewing. Kind of counterproductive don't you think?

Then I had a great idea. It just popped into my head. The brilliant idea came as I was lying in bed. Working out the details in my mind stole at least half an hour of sleep, but it was worth it. So, the next day I made this:

I call it the Froot Loop Therapy Reinforcer. :-)

I pull a random froot loop from a bag after several repetitions (5-10 on an easy item, 1-2 on a harder one). She threads the froot loop on the matching color pipe cleaner. When she gets three of any one color she gets to eat them. It worked beautifully. It only takes a moment to pull one out of the bag and thread it but she likes that part so it is motivating. Then, every so often she ends up with three and gets to eat them (very motivating) and I can use those moments to mentally review what I want to do next or take a few notes.

It also has the benefit of working on color identification, color matching, and fine motor skills.

An alternative to froot loops would be threading color coordinated pony beads onto the pipe cleaners, but you just wouldn't eat them when the pipe cleaner was full. You'd need some other higher level reward (perhaps you could then thread three at a time onto yarn to make a bracelet for them to take with them at the end of the session).

Another advantage is that it is lightweight and can be folded flat for storage so if you travel for private practice or early intervention therapy, you could take it with you in a bag easily.

Here's how I made it.

1. Gather materials.
• Piece of cardboard.
• Piece of cardstock.
• Glue.
• Colored duct tape (optional).
• Pipe cleaners (red, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple).
• Tool to poke small holes in cardboard (I used a sewing pin).
2. Poke holes about one inch apart in a line across cardboard.

3. Cut pipe cleaners to about 2-3 inches long and feed them halfway through holes in cardboard.
   
   
4. Twist them together on bottom to hold them to the right length.
   
   
   
5. Cut cardstock to the same size as cardboard and glue cardstock to bottom of cardboard to hide the pipecleaners.
6. (Optional) Put colored duct tape along sides to make a pretty border and help prevent your edges from separating.