God is Good

Yesterday we traveled to Chapel Hill for another audiology exam. We first met with Tom who did come vocabulary and cognitive tests with Brooke. She did a great job during the 2 hours of testing and, as I watched, was performing as I knew she could. Tom did quite a few vocabulary test such as showing her 4 pictures and asking Brooke to point to the picture "that shows the ball outside the circle". These tests progressively get harder to find exactly where her threshold is located. When questions got to hard, Brooke would slide off her chair and go under the table or climb behind my back - a clear sign that she didn't know the answer. Tom will be sending me the results but said she was performing as she should for a 4 year old. Since Brooke didn't recieve her hearing aids until age 2.5, we have had a lot of time to make up. My goal is to have Brooke "at age level" by the time she enters Kindergarten in Fall 2011. I am excitingly awaiting the results to see just how well she is doing.
We then saw our audiologist for the hearing test. Results showed that there has been no loss of hearing since our appointment 3 months ago. This is fabulous news since she has shown a decrease at every appointment over the last 2 years - it was the first time her hearing remained stable. Each day we have with heairng allows Brooke more opportunities to learn language, vocabulary, and speech sounds. It is our continued prayer that her hearing remains stable for as long as God allows. She has the wonderful advantage of being able to hear with her hearing aids right now and we want that to last!
So....good news all around! Thanks to my wonderful friends who so willingly help with Jake and Kate during these trips to Brooke's appointments; I appreciate it more than I could ever express.

Letter Activities

Letter Activities to try

We have done a few of these but there are some great ideas for having fun while learning letters.

1. Write letters in Kool Aid powder
2. Write the same letter on some 2" circles or squares, and punch 2 holes in each. Child strings with yarn to make a necklace or belt.
3. Cut out some headlines from a newspaper or magazine. The child points out, circles or Xs a particular letter (or punctuation mark, or word).
4. Hide 12 to 15 letters (printed on paper) around the room (house). Have a treasure hunt.
5. Try to make a letter shape with your body, lying on the floor - use action ABC cards
6. Tape a large written letter to the bottom of a laundry basket, and toss beanbags, balls or rolled up socks from a distance.
7. Sculpt a letter with playdoh, clay, bread dough, or sugar cookie dough. Bake and eat if appropriate.
8. Help the child form letters with thick chenilles, and hang from the ceiling.
9. Sing a well-known song, not with the usual words, but with only the sound of a particular letter. So Old MacDonald becomes: na na na na na na na, na na na na naa (remember to keep the sounds short). Have the written letter visible while singing.
10. Copy the shape of a letter using blocks on the floor.
11. Large dot-to-dot letter shape.
12. Make a 1.5' wide strip of paper with the same letter written in a line. The children cut between the letters and say the name as they cut each one.
13. Crayon rubbing over a cardboard shape letter. Use different sizes and colors for an interesting design.
14. Teacher or child writes letters with white crayon, children wash over with watercolors and watch the letters appear.
15. Write large letters outdoors with chalk. Children hop, skip etc around them, chanting the name or the sound.
16. Play Concentration with pairs of letters.
17. Have a handful of foam or paper letters – throw them into the air! Find all the A's…etc.
18. Draw a letter with finger in cream cheese or peanut butter on an English muffin. Line it with raisins, cereal rings, choc chips etc.
19. "Sing, sing, sing an F, sing it loud and clear! Tell the children everywhere the letter F is here!" Tune is Row Your Boat. Hold your F cards up and wave them. Use any letter.
20. Make mini puzzles with index cards. Cut them in half, mix up the pieces. Don't use too many at once.
21. Search for foam, plastic, paper letters in sensory box (sand, cornmeal, etc).
22. Chanting and clapping words and sounds; e.g. Dog, donkey, duck! Dog, donkey, duck! De de de, Dog, donkey duck! (Clap, clap, slap knees). Adult holds up letter being chanted.
23. Salt and sand trays: have a letter printed on paper under the sand. Trace it with a finger, or a stick object.
24. Some letters can be created with craft/skill sticks. Place sticks over a large letter on paper, or make it freehand on a table or floor. It can be glued together.
25. Trace letters in finger-paint; in pudding; in shave cream.
26. Put some items that begin with a particular letter in a bag. Children feel and guess e.g. marker, mouse, mint, marble
27. Letter finger puppets: "2 little letters sitting on a (tree), 1 named A and 1 named B. Fly away A, fly away B, come back A, come back B."
28. Sprinkle baby powder on a table, and trace letters in it. Baby theme? Letter B?
29. Stepping stone letters – tape the paper "stones" with letters written on them to the floor, children jump from one to the next. Or be frogs jumping on lily pads.
30. Make paper airplanes with a letter written on the side. Fly them, race them
31. Cut out a group of items, perhaps relating to the current theme or holiday e.g. balloons, shamrocks, cars. Write the letter being studied on some of them, and other letters on the others. Children find the directed letter.
32. "Oh do you know the letter (B), the letter (B) the letter (B), of do you know the letter B, that's the letter (B)!" Tune is Muffin Man. Children point to the letter being sung about.
33. Trace a written letter with a squeezable pointed glue container. Sprinkle with colored sand from paper bowls. Shake excess sand back into bowl
34. "If you see a letter (any letter), then clap your hands (clap clap)". Tune is "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands".
35. Make letters on a window or glass door with window markers or finger paint with liquid soap added.
36. Make a caterpillar with paper circles with a letter written on each circle. It could be the same letter, letters in the child's name, the full alphabet (that's a long caterpillar!)
37. Take a flashlight into a darkened room, and "write" a letter on the wall or the ceiling with the light beam. Can you guess which letter I am writing?
38. Give children their own envelope with name written on it, containing paper, foam or magnetic letters. Empty them out, and find the directed letter, letters in name, 3-letter word etc.
39. Tape 3 or 4 learned letters to the wall. Jump to the A. Crawl to the B. Tippy toe to the C etc.
40. Gather together a set of products, packages and cans. Hold up a letter, or name one. Can you find this letter anywhere on the packages and cans?
41. Blending sounds – say the first sound of a word and then the rest of the word e.g. d-og. Children try to blend the sounds and discover the word.
42. Say the letters of the alphabet in sequence around a circle. Each child says the next letter in the sequence.
43. Go on a "letter walk" in the house/school or neighborhood. Every 10 ft. or so, put a letter on the ground. Go back the same way, looking for the letters, naming them and picking them up as you find them.
44. Eat a Cheerio (or similar). Teacher/leader holds up a letter and says its name (or sound). If the statement is true, children eat a Cheerio. If it is false, they do nothing.
45. Use a timer with a ring. Find all the as you can before the timer goes off. Use a pile of paper, foam or magnetic letters.
46. Fishing for letters – a magnet on the end of a string tied to a dowel. Letters written on paper fish with a paper clip on nose or tail.
47. Make letter puppets with craft sticks, and play games with them 48. Designate a letter doll or teddy. Tell a story about it, and give it a personality. Have the children give the named letter (or letter matching a sound) to the teddy. 49. Everyone wears a letter headband, or badge, or stamp on the back of the hand for part of the day. 50. Playdoh activities: make letters by drawing with sticks; use letter cookie cutters; press magnetic letter shapes.
51. Make a collage design with round colored stickers (from drugstore) on which teacher has written a letter. 52. Dab circles along the lines of a large printed letter with colorful paint dabbers. 53. Magic Writing - color the bottom of a cardboard box with bright markers; allow it to dry completely. Pour in a box or 2 of cornstarch and spead evenly….use finger to make letters
54. Cut letters out of cardboard…punch holes…use as lacing cards
55. Letter sheets http://www.beginningreading.com/Alphabet%20Set%202.htm or http://tolchin.blogspot.com/p/printables.html
56. Flashcards
57. Foam letter stickers
58. Make letters out of pretzel sticks
59. Alphabet Lacing Beads
60. Cut out a large letter shape; child decorates with stickers, stamps, markers or collage materials. These could be related to the letter sound, such as glitter for G, sequins for S, pompoms for P.
61. Paint with water…in the summer, paint letters on the driveway with water and brushes

Tonow

I have been working very consistently with Brooke on vocabulary of time: today, tomorrow, later, after, before, etc. We have created a calendar in her room to talk about what she and Kate are doing on each day. During everyday conversation, I am stressing the concepts. For example, FIRST, we are eating breakfast and THEN we will paint the Cinderella book." I do this all day by pausing before and after the word I am stressing. It sounds like, "Let's put on your shoes....before.....we go outside and .....then.....we will go to gymnastics.."

Today, Brooke created a new word. This really was a milestone as it shows she is beginning to understand the concepts of language and how vocabulary works by putting words together. We were driving and she saw kids playing in a fountain. She wanted to do it too. As we talked about doing it another day or doing it later, she says, "My daddy says I can do it tonow!" I love this new word: she took the concepts of tomorrow, today, tonight and created the word tonow.

I expect another huge jump in vocabulary now that she is understanding more about the concepts of spoken language and how word patterns often repeat in language.

See you later....tonow I must go!

What it Takes from Families in Order to Develop Spoken Language in Children with Hearing Loss

• Pursuit of Best Amplification
  This may mean more frequent trips to the audiologist than parents who choose a
  different approach.
  
• Weekly Parent/Caregiver Participation Sessions Taught by Trained Professional*
  Approximately 1 hour weekly. It is strongly recommended that the child’s primary
  caregiver participate in these sessions.
  
• Daily Individual Play Sessions with Child in a Quiet
  Minimum of 1 hour daily, preferably with the person participating in parent sessions.
  
• Embellishing Auditory Elements of Normal Caregiving & Play Activities
  3 to 4 hours daily, preferably with the person participating in parent sessions.
• Consistent Use of Behavior Management
  Children with a hearing loss need to develop discipline in order to be able to listen
  Effectively.
  
• Enrollment of Child in an Inclusive Setting with Typically Developing Hearing Peers
  This should be done when parents and teachers determine the child will have success.
  
  
  If these factors are in place and the child does not possess any other delays, it is most favorable that the child will make a year’s amount of progress (as measured by developmental language charts) in a year’s amount of time. If all these factors are not in place, it is most likely that child’s progress will take place at a slower rate.

My thoughts:

Doing all these things results in a year's amount of progress in a year's amount of time. UUGH! We have 2.5 years to make up - Brooke went 2.5 years without her hearing aids. I often get discouraged with all the time, work, effort, responsibility and tears that go into Brooke's therapy. I often feel that I am sacrificing my other children to give her the things she needs to make progress. I often get overwhelmed and stressed out. I often think I do not have the strength to do it all and that I am not good enough to give her what she needs.

And then I remember the Truth: she is God's daughter and so am I, God will give us all the strength we need; God is holding her in his arms...the same arms that created the Earth, the same arms that healed the blind, the same arms that hung on the cross for her. God will take care of her, no matter my strengths or my weaknesses. God will bless her with all she needs to grow in her love for God. What do I need to do? I need to pray. Brooke can make up the gap in her development; we get closer everyday with God's grace filling us both.

Add a Little Bit

Language Expansion



This is a learning tool that I use a hundred times a day with Brooke. It is easy to do once you understand what you are doing.

When Brooke says something to me, I repeat it back to her in an expanded form. Let me give you a recent example.

Last year Brooke's vocabulary was pretty limited. She would say something like, "Where's my......." and then pat her head since the word "hat" was not quite fully in her vocabulary yet. I would wait about 5 seconds for her to think about it and come up with the word. If she couldn't think of it, I would say, "Where's my hard hat?" and then she repeated, "Where's my hat?"

The next level was when Brooke had more vocabulary to use. She would ask me, "Where's my hat?" It would be easy to say, "your helmet" back to her....but that is not giving her all the language she needs, so instead I would expand on her question and say, "Your helmet, that you wear when you roller skate, is in the basket?" Brooke would usually say, "Oh, my helmet is in the basket." I gave her a pronoun (you), more vocabulary (helmet, roller skate, basket), and the location word "in".

Today, Brooke asked, "Mommy, I can't find my Princess helmet." As her vocabulary and sentence structures grow, I continue to expand on her language saying, "Brooke, I think the pink Princess helmet that you use for roller skating is in the green basket." I continue to add to her vocabulary by using pronouns (I and you), adjectives (pink, green) verbs (that you use), prepositions (in the green basket).

Plus a Little More

I usually give her a little more vocabulary by adding another idea. So, after she finds her helmet, I might say, "Good job remembering to wear your helmet when you roller skate; the helmet will protect your head in case you fall down. What a smart girl!" Not only am I praising her, but I'm adding the reason we need the helmet to build her thinking skills and her language skills as well.

Auditory Sequencing Activity

Auditory Listening Skills

One of the areas that Brooke needs extra instruction is in listening to elements of a story and remembering them. It is called auditory recall. As a way to practice, we use sequence cards. The ones below were given to us by our therapist.

Step 1: I show Brooke the cards one at a time and lay them (in order) in front of her. Each card tells a part of the story. I try to make each sentence structure different so it is easier for her to identify.

The monkey JUMPS over the wall

"Hello there!" says the monkey

I wonder what is behind the door?

"Got You!"

The monkey is on his way back to the zoo
"Welcome Home Monkey"

Step 2: With the cards laying in front of her, I repeat one section of the story. For example, I will say, "The monkey JUMPS over the wall." and Brooke will point to the picture. I repeat this for all seven pictures and I do it in sequence.

Step 3: With the cards laying in front of Brooke, I say one part of the story NOT in sequence. She listens for key elements and points to the correct picture. This is teaching her to listen for key words in sentences, remember them, and match them to the picture.

The next step will be for Brooke to retell the story in sequence, but we are not there quite yet!

My thoughts

This activity is so easy for Kate. It is one of the times that I notice a real difference between them. It makes me sad when I see the areas where Brooke is lacking. This is a skill that kids just "pick up on " during daily life that Brooke can not just "pick up on" - I actually have to teach her and practice it. I am so thankful for therapists that can show and teach me these areas! By working on these activities now, the goal is that Brooke continues to learn to listen.

Gosh, I love this little girl

Enjoying fruit and Cool Whip after we finish

This week we are reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Matrin Jr. We try to read it every day and do an activity or craft based on the book. It is a great letter-learning time. Yesterday, we made our very own coconut trees out of green construction paper, paper towel tubes, tape, stickers and crayons. Brooke and Kate put alphabet stickers on the tree trunks and even wrote some of the letters with crayons.