I really liked this basic information page on CAS. It gives a decent overview of the disorder and a description of how an SLP works with a child with CAS. I particularly like the section at the end that gives suggestions for how a parent can help / work with their child at home. There are some excellent suggestions there.
Check it out.
A Speech Pathologist Mother and Her Daughter Diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Very Nice Basic FAQ Page on Childhood Apraxia of Speech
| Reactions: |
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Proper Appreciation of Daycare
I don't think I fully appreciated my daycare until Michael moved "up" to preschool.
1. Our daycare (Ava still attends daycare) does not have random days off.
2. Our daycare's hours are convenient to us. We are signed up for half days. That means I could drop her off as early as 6:30 in the morning and pick her up as late as 1:00 in the afternoon.
3. Our daycare tuition includes a hot breakfast and lunch.
4. Our daycare is flexible. If we have a doctor's appointment, or if Ava is sick on a "school" day they let us switch her day to another day of the week.
5. Now this one is going to sound terrible, but I'm just going to put it out there. Our daycare doesn't have many expectations. They aren't sending home activities, asking for supplies, wanting us to participate in school fundraisers, or expecting attendance at school functions.
The week before winter break, our daycare was open Monday through Friday. The school was open only through Wednesday. This past week our daycare was open all week again. The school didn't open until Wednesday. I actually decided to keep both children home Tuesday and let them play together rather than have Michael home alone and drag him out to drop Ava off and pick Ava up from school.
It isn't that I don't appreciate pre-school. Michael loves it. His teachers are amazing. The facilities are beautiful. The learning activities and structure are a much better transition to formal schooling than his daycare was. I just chafe a little at the way that the schedule of school dictates our lives compared to the way a daycare works around the schedule of families.
1. Our daycare (Ava still attends daycare) does not have random days off.
2. Our daycare's hours are convenient to us. We are signed up for half days. That means I could drop her off as early as 6:30 in the morning and pick her up as late as 1:00 in the afternoon.
3. Our daycare tuition includes a hot breakfast and lunch.
4. Our daycare is flexible. If we have a doctor's appointment, or if Ava is sick on a "school" day they let us switch her day to another day of the week.
5. Now this one is going to sound terrible, but I'm just going to put it out there. Our daycare doesn't have many expectations. They aren't sending home activities, asking for supplies, wanting us to participate in school fundraisers, or expecting attendance at school functions.
The week before winter break, our daycare was open Monday through Friday. The school was open only through Wednesday. This past week our daycare was open all week again. The school didn't open until Wednesday. I actually decided to keep both children home Tuesday and let them play together rather than have Michael home alone and drag him out to drop Ava off and pick Ava up from school.
It isn't that I don't appreciate pre-school. Michael loves it. His teachers are amazing. The facilities are beautiful. The learning activities and structure are a much better transition to formal schooling than his daycare was. I just chafe a little at the way that the schedule of school dictates our lives compared to the way a daycare works around the schedule of families.
Friday, January 6, 2012
The Weekly Review: Week 42
Blog Post of the Week
There's conversation points - "Oh, I got my haircut today."There's news - "Our son brought home his first ever report card today."
There's big news - "We're getting married."
Then there's really, really big news - "By the way dear, I'm carrying triplets."
Check out this blog post. Surrogacy, in my opinion, is a beautiful, generous gift. My congratulations and best wishes go out to Jen, her family, and the family she is helping.
Weekly IEP Preparation
1. Think about what I want to advocate for.2. Do appropriate preparation by setting up appointment to do a classroom visit in our school's special education preschool room.
3. Have all previous preparation rendered insignificant by call to set up IEP meeting in an entirely different district than expected (don't ask - it is complicated).
4. Review new potential placement options. Discuss pros and cons of new placement options with family members and friends. Reassess what I want to advocate for.
5. Set up IEP meeting for next week.
Ava and Michael this Week
Ava loves to mimic her brother right now. Here are a few examples.
Michael: I like orange.
Ava: And I like orange.
Michael: I like candy.
Ava: And I like candy.
Michael: My favorite animal is a kitty.
Ava: And my favorite animal is a kitty.
A few days ago I told Michael that the TV show I had just started was going to be the last one. These were the comments that followed:
Michael: I'm not happy with you! (accompanied by a stomp of the foot)
Ava: And I'm not happy... Oh, I am happy!
Ava's Weekly Home Therapy Focus
This week we've been continuing to work on initial and final /k/ at the single word level. Ava has learned her cards well enough that I can simply provide a carrier phrase and she fills in the blank. For example, I say, "When you go to school you put on your _______." and she fills in "pack." She's at about 80% accuracy on a good night.We're also working with initial and final /s, sh, and f/. I've already put up our initial and final /sh/ card sets and I'm working on /s/ and /f/ card sets now. Every few days I pull out a card set like the /p/ simple sentence/phrase set and focus on final consonants in short phrases and sentences as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
