Thankful Thursday

It is Thursday and am very thankful for a wonderful visit from Grandma. Grandma came to visit last week and leaves today. It has been such a joy to have her company and help around the house especailly with a new puppy. She will be missed! Thanks for coming to visit!

Grandma Brooke and Kate read an apple book to Tex:

Following Directions

Objectives:
a) to listen and follow directions containing two nouns and one "location word"
b) to demonstrate an understanding of "above, below, in front of, beside, behind, top and bottom"


Points to Remember:
1. Make sure the child know all of the vocabulary before you begin, such as girl, boy, beach ball, pool, cloud, tree, ladder, sun, kite, etc.
2. Use the same predictable sentence structure so the child can learn what to listen for in the sentence. "Place the cloud above the pool." and "Place the flip flops below the tree." The 3 critical elements the child will listen for is cloud, above, pool and then flip flops, below, tree



Lesson:
Listening to directions given orally is always an auditory/verbal skill that Brooke needs to practice. She needs to be able to listen to directions and follow them once she gets to school. Practice at home is very important. We found these fun worksheet to practice.

1. I cut out the images of the cloud, flip-flops, boy, beach ball, kite, sun and girl. I gave Brooke the paper with the pool and sky and laid the images above the picture.

2. I asked her to
a. Put the sun above the pool
b. Put the flip flops below the tree
c. Put the beach ball in front of the pool
d. Put the girl beside the pool
e. Put the kite behind the tree
f. Put the boy on top of the ladder
g. Put the cloud on the bottom of the sun


3. Once she put the pictures where I asked her to put them, I allowed her to glue on the pieces anywhere she wanted.

Modifications:
1. There are lots of these types of sticker sheets available from Oriental Trading Company. The only problem is you get 12 of one type in a package. Maybe if you have 12 friends that will work!2. Look for coloring books with stickers...they just might work for this activity.
3. You can always use miniatures...Polly Pocket and all her stuff with a dollhouse would be a great manipulative to use. Such as, "Put the Polly Pocket on her bed." or "Put the shoes in the trunk of the car." and many other options with fewer or more critical elements.

Apples

Objectives:
a) using apple-scented playdough, develop fine motor skills by forming balls (apples)
b) listen and follow directions in a song
c) counting 1-5 and basic subtraction by taking one away
d) learn more about apples

Points to Remember:
1. Make your playdough a few hours before you begin the lesson so it has time to cool
2. You do not have to make your own playdough, use store-bought playdough and add some spices if you'd like
3. Songs may be hard for a hearing impaired child, sing slowly!

Lesson:
1. Read a book about apples. We have a scholastic book called, Apples. It has very simple sentences that discuss how apples grow and the different ways we can enjoy apples.

2. Make apples from apple-scented playdough. I purchased some silk leaves to stick into the tops of the apples.

3. Sing an apple song such as:

"Five little apples lying on the floor, Brooke takes one and that leaves 4

Four little apples hanging on the tree, Brooke takes one and that leaves 3

Three little apples, I know what to do! Brooke puts on in her pocket and that leaves 2

Two little apples sitting in the sun, Brooke picks one and that leaves 1

One little apple waiting all alone, Brooke will pick it up and take it home."

Below is a video of the first time Brooke heard the song. I wanted to see if she could follow the directions in a song. She did great.

4. Spend the week, singing the apple song. Soon your child will be singing with you! You do not need to use the playdough each time you sing; try using real apples, plastic apples, or just your 5 fingers.

Modifications:

1. Try other apple songs. Do an internet search and you are sure to find some.

2. We used our foam apples to do some counting. Label 6 cups with the numbers 1-6. Show your child how to put one apple in the cup with the #1 on it; put 2 apples in the #2 cup, put 3 apples in the #3 cup, etc. This helps with one-to-one number correspondence.

3. Use this song with acorns, pinecones or other Fall-realted items.

Playdough

Homemade Playdough Recipe

1 c. flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water

Food coloring of your choice

Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)

Measure ingredients into the saucepan you will be using to cook the dough, but mix them well before heating up the pan. Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. When it starts to pull away from the sides somewhat and clump together and most of the "wet-looking" parts look dry, it's ready to remove from the pan. Put the dough onto the counter top and knead until very smooth. It will be warm! If it feels sticky, you can add a little more flour into it. Cool. Store in a covered plastic container OR in a sealed Ziploc bag.

When I add spices, I just shake in the spices as I am kneading the dough. Keep adding until you get the desired level of scent. If you are adding an extract like vanilla or peppermint, for example, probably just a teaspoon will be enough, but you can experiment with a little more than that. Also add gradually if you are doing glitter. I would still start with only about a teaspoon and go from there.

January--white dough with white glitter OR "snow dough" and a snowman or snowflake cutter; February--pink dough with red glitter and a heart cutter;
March--green dough with gold glitter and a shamrock cutter;
April--purple dough scented with lavender oil and an oval cutter;
May--yellow dough with lemon extract and a flower cutter;
June--blue dough with a boat cutter;
July--small balls of red, white and blue dough with a star cutter;
August--yellow dough with gold glitter and a sun cutter;
September--plain dough (no coloring) with apple pie spices and an apple cutter (or red dough with apple pie spices);
October--orange dough with pumpkin pie spices and a pumpkin cutter; or make balls of dough and using a plastic knife make the lines of a pumpkin - stick a small cinnamon stick as the stem.
November--orange or brown dough with pumpkin pie spices and a turkey cutter;
December--gingerbread dough (use lots of cinnamon, allspice, ground cloves) with a gingerbread cutter OR green dough with peppermint extract and gold glitter and a tree cutter OR red dough with peppermint extract and gold glitter and a candy cane cutter.

Thankful Thursday

Since Brooke's diagnosis of hearing impairment, I have had an internal struggle about prayer. There are times I boldly pray that God will heal her; there are times I question whether I have "the right" to ask for healing: is it God's will? is it praying against God's purpose for her? is it okay to pray for to be changed?

There are times I pray for God to use her and her hearing loss without asking for healing. I struggle and those of you that know me, have heard me talk about this before. I pray that God will help her to learn quickly, to keep her hearing levels stable, for her to speak clearly.

But can I pray with boldness that God will heal her?

My Bible study for today (Thursday, Sept 16) led me to Lysa Terkeurst's website where she writes about praying boldly! It was a lesson I am very thankful for today. Here is a little taste of her message today:

"I have to admit I’m sometimes scared to pray boldy
It’s not at all that I don’t believe God can do anything. I absolutely do.
I’m wild about Jesus. Wild in my willingness. Wild in my obedience.
Wild in my adventures with God.
So, my hesitation isn’t rooted in any kind of doubt about God.
It’s more rooted in a doubt about myself and my ability to absolutely discern the will of God. The reality is sometimes God chooses not to do things. And if His will is no- while I am boldly praying for a yes- it makes me feel out of step with God."

Objectives
a) to correctly produce the /f/ sound 90% of the time
b) to have repeated exposure to the /f/ sound
c) to build memory skills

Points to Remember
1. Make sure to talk about each item you are using....a great opportunity to get vocabulary and language into your child.
2. Use miniature objects that your child is familiar with and knows the vocabulary

Lesson
1. Choose a beginning sound or category of objects to target. Brooke will use her letter F sounds.

2. Choose 6 miniature toys that target the vocabulary you want to teach. Lay them out on the table and talk about each one. You should name the item and describe it (color, shape, parts, function, etc....)
3. Cover each item with a paper pyramid. Tell your child to try to remember where each object is located.

4. Start by having your child drop the die into the question mark pyramid. Look inside and see what shape is on the die.

5. Your child should then try to remember what object is hidden under the pyramid that matches the shape.
6. If your child can not remember, the parent can look into the top of the pyramid and give the child one clue about the object.
7. If your child still can not remember, look under the pyramid to remind him/her but keep the object there.
8. If your child guesses correctly, she gets to keep the object

9. Remove the pyramid from play and continue rolling the die.
10. Review the items your child found.

Modifications

1. Use more than 6 items. Once your child guesses an object correctly and keeps it, use the pyramid to cover another objects. You can use up to 13 objects for this game.
2. This activity can be adapted to many listening goals. Use objects that begin with a different letter or objects of a certain color, or a category such as fruits.
3. You can create a game by having two players and compete for gathering the most objects. Brooke gets very upset when she does not win a game, so we just played for fun.
4. You can use white foam cups with shapes drawn on them or download the pyramids here:
Pyramid Memory Game Ctivity

/f/

In therapy we have been working on listening and saying the /f/ sound. When doing formal instruction, Brooke uses /f/ about 80%-90% of the time; but in casual conversation, she uses the /f/ sound about 50% of the time. For example, she will say the word "fish" correctly but when we end up at the pet store and she is excited about all the aquariums, it becomes "pish" or "bish". So we need some more practice.

Objective:
a. to produce the /f/ correctly 100% of the time
b. to have repeated exposure to the /f/
c. to practice recognizing the intial sound in rhyming words

Points to Remember:
1. Make sure the instruction is a fun as possible for your child
2. Use vocabulary your child knows but feal free to introduce a few new words
3. Remember not to make the /f/ louder when you speak, instead "drag out" the sound and whisper.....kids with hearing aids often can hear a whisper easier than loud speech.

Lesson:


1. We began by reviewing our letter Ff bag. We have used this before and Brooke is familiar with the objects. Inside we have a : fire, fox, fork, flamingo, french fries, flag, flashlight, flower, two fish and a frog.

2. Take one item out the bag at a time

3. I make a long /fffffffffffffff/ sound as Brooke reaches into the bag and then allow her to say the name of the object. Sometimes she will say another word for the object; such as call the frog a toad. I validate her answer and encourage her to think of another word for toad that begins with /f/.

4. I want to make sure she is hearing the /f/ sound in speech so we did a little rhyming activity with our /f/ objects

a. I started with only two objects and asked Brooke, without her seeing my mouth, "point to fish", then "point to dish". I didn't want Brooke to see the /f/ and /d/ sound on my lips so I covered my mouth from her view while being careful not to distrort the sound.
b.


We then worked with fox, box, rocks, blocks, and socks. I only put 3 objects out at a time. Brooke is capable of remembering 3 critical elements but using the rhyming objects was really, really hard for her. We really struggled with pointing to 2 objects. So....I would say one object at a time. Once she mastered pointing to one object at a time, I tried 2 objects. Often she would reverse the objects or just not realate them. For example, she would say "fox" while pointing to "socks". We finally got it in this video clip, but need lots more practice


We did some practice with tire, fire and wire from this set of rhyming objects


Here is a video that shows her frustration! Lessons are not always easy and I want you to see the good and the bad.



Here are a few other rhyming objects we used with /f/ objects


flashlight, kite, night, bite flag, bag and rag


Modifications
1. I began this lesson thinking Brooke could point and name 3 objects, then tried two and moved down to one object. It would have been much better for her frustration level to start with just one object and then move to 2 objects.
2. You can easily use any letter of the alphabet for this rhyming practive. Start with a letter sound, gather objects that start with the sound, then find things that rhyme.
3. Sing some funny songs to keep your child interested. For example,
"Have you ever seen a fish, a fish, a fish
Have you ever seen a fish eating from a dish."
or
"Have you ever seen a fox, a fox, a fox
Have you ever sen a fox wearing some socks."
Then let your child pick up the fish and make it eat from a dish or get the fox and put on the socks.
This helps to keep the lesson fun as you work on recognizind intital sounds with your child.

Thankful Thursday

Today, I am thankful for my husband. We have been married for 10 years and I am so grateful for the challenges, joys, arguments, and love we have shared! He is a talented professional, amazing father, and patient husband. Here are a few things I am thankful for today:

• he is a man of God and loves the LORD
• his family is always a priority
• he is respected in his profession
• he cleans the house whenever we have company over (maybe we need to invite more often)
• he loves his kids; is playful with them, teaches them, and disciples them
• he is a great kickball player
• God has gifted him with tremendous patience
• he is intelligent
• he is athletic
• he recognizes when I need a break (from my children, my home, my responsibilities) and offers me some time alone
• he takes great care of our home
• he makes me laugh
• he is generous and wise with our finances
• he never complains about the never-ending costs associated with Brooke's hearing loss
• he picks up dinner at Moe's when I am in need of some yummy nachos!
• he is a very handsome pirate

Brooke's goals at age 4

I have created a list of goals that I expect Brooke to complete this year. These are goals for children with a hearing impairment to master at the age of 4. Brooke is capable of reaching all these goals. As I create lessons to work on these goals, I will link back to this list.

• Pays attention to short stories and answers simple questions about them.
• Listens to long stories.
• Carries out, in order, a command of three parts such as "Pick up the ball, put it on the table, and bring me the book."
• Carries out four separate commands using different prepositions: in front of, beside, behind.
• Knows "between/above/below/top/bottom/next to/in/out"
• Follows a four-step command; a direction with four critical elements.
• Carries out more complex commands with 2-3 actions.
• Understands and replies appropriately with a word or gesture to questions such as "What do you do when you are sleepy?" "Which one is bigger?"
• Comprehends time phrases: all the time, all day, for two weeks.
• Understands irregular plurals, e.g., child/children.
• Understands possessives: dog’s.
• Understands approximately 1500 – 2500 words.
• Understands the number three, e.g., "Give me three"
• Imitates a 12-syllable, 9-word sentence, based on short-term recollection.
• Remembers four items of a story.
• Repeats two numbers backwards.
• Recalls four numbers, letters, or words.
• Identifies four colors.
• Understands dependent clause: if, because, when, why
• Hears and understands most of what is said at home and school.

Thankful Thursday - The Joy of the Lord in my heart

What am I thankful for today?
Proverbs 15:13 says:

A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face;
a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day.