Wordless Wednesday...

Spring Fling

Last weekend was the big Easter egg hunt for one of our local Down syndrome groups. When we arrived, the music was very loud with people running all over, dancing, playing, etc. It was a little overwhelming at first for Noah. He choose to sit back and observe everyone for a while.
There was a group egg hunt which was so much fun - Pictures with the easter bunny (which he decided was a little too scary) - and lots of bubbles floating around just waiting to be popped!
Once he realized that the bunny ears everyone was wearing were to celebrate Easter, he was ok, and had a lot of fun.
By the end of the event, he was dancing with the best of them!!!

Seeing the Light...

The last week or so has been such a struggle with Noah. He has transformed into that wonderful, challenging, terrible three's!

He is refusing to cooperate with just about everything, and I find myself truly struggling and wondering if I am doing enough, doing the right work, etc.

It's at times like this I have to look for that light, the light that is Noah and not surround myself in the tunnel of darkness of "what isn't".

Light- He is trying to talk more. Now, when I say something that begins with a "B", he will try to say it to with the "B" at the beginning. We have found our phrase of "all done" again (that phrase was on vacation for the past couple of months).
Dark - I just want him to talk!!!! I lose sight of the progress, small progress, but yet we are moving forward.

Light -He is doing well at school with the extended time. He stays focused for at least 30 of the 45 minute circle time. Some days he lasts the entire 45 minutes, other days he needs to go outside and stretch his long little legs.
He is eating snack with his peers at school, getting his placemat out, setting his snack in his bowl, sitting and eating properly and drinking from an open cup. After snack he has to wash his dishes, clean his placemat and put his lunch box away.
He is kind to his peers and curious, always taking his work to his table or mat to try something new.
Dark - He isn't wanting to learn new lessons right now. When he brings his work to his space, often he immediately brings it right back to the shelf. When he is done wanting to work, he will go and just lay down, refusing to get up.

Light - We are working on our program from NACD on a regular basis, trying to accomplish as much as we can each day.
Dark - This is so difficult to implement sometimes. Especially to complete all the tasks, 39 this quarter, multiple times a day! Then I beat myself up for not being a "good enough" mom to finish the program, judging myself each day based on Noah's progress.

Light - Noah is following multiple step directions throughout the house now. Going to his room to get something that I ask for. Delivering a message to daddy in his office, etc.
Dark - At the same time, when he doesn't want to do something, he drops to the floor, refusing to get up, yelling at me as he signs "no". This has happened this past week, not only in the privacy of our own home, but in Wallgreens and Whole Foods - lovely!!!

Light vs Dark - the eternal struggle. We are on a path, and I tend to lose sight of that during a week like this. If I stay focused on the light, it really isn't that dark after all. Noah is light, pure light, and this I must always remember.

Wordless Wednesday...

"Feed the intellect, nurture the spirit, love the child"

This has been an exciting week for Noah. He began attending his school from 9-12, M-F. The most exciting part is when he arrives in the morning for the first hour, he is like every other typical kid at school, he's there without a nanny. I am so proud of him!

He arrives in the morning sometime between 8:50-9:00, they play and ride bikes and scooters on the front playground until the bell rings.

All the kids line up, and walk into class, putting their lunch boxes on the shelf.

In the Montessori Classroom, the day begins with morning circle time. This is a time for the kids to come together and to greet one another. It's also a time where the teacher might review concepts such as calendar, time, and weather or introduce a new work or group lesson. Most lessons include some songs and movement for interaction and focus. This week they began their studies on Australia and New Zealand. They focused on bugs, and the differences between insects and arachnids. (I knew this when I was 3 - not)! They also studied the virtue lesson on Integrity.
The morning circle time lasts for 45 minutes. Thats a long time for Noah to stay focused on an auditory lesson, yet he is doing fantastic! If he, or any other child, gets restless during circle time, one of the teachers will take the children outside to begin working in the outdoor environment. Two days last week Noah went outside after 30 - 35 minutes of circle time, but the rest of the week, he stayed focused for the entire 45 minutes.

After circle time, the children begin their work. There is the indoor environment for intense studies, the outdoor environment, snack table and the "sound lesson" table. There is a language teacher, Lilly, who works with all of the kids on expanding their language and writing skills. Every day Noah works with Lilly on his speech. The school has been so accommodating to work with Noah. What I have been doing is updating the director of the school and her staff each week as to what we are currently working on with Noah, so they will mirror that at school. I will make up extra flash cards, etc, so the school will be on the same page. The director is an amazingly compassionate person who is doing everything to help Noah succeed!

Noah now has snack time with his peers too. He has to get his snack out of his lunch box and set up his space at the table. After snack, he brings his dishes to the outside sink and washes his dishes before storing them back in his lunch box. He is doing so well!

Jenny, the nanny we hired to work with him at school, arrives during his snack time, and is there to help him, when needed, while he does his independent work. After about an hour and a half of work, snack and sound lessons, the kids line up for a second circle time. This circle time consists of songs and dancing for about 10 minutes, then they are dismissed to the playground.

Noah is playing on the playground for about 10-15 minutes before I pick him up at 12:00. He is so cute, when he see's me he comes running up, "Maaaa" and gives me a big hug. Nothing is better than the love from a child, especially from my little man!

Wordless Wednesday...

The Latest Program

This has been a long month, and we're only 3/4 of the way through it! For the past two+ weeks, I have been very ill. Noah was sick last week too with a bronchial virus, but fortunately, he recovered very quickly. I, on the other hand, ended up with a walking pneumonia!

So, what better way to spend my time in bed recovering than working on organizing Noah's new program this quarter from the NACD. As he gets older, the program continues to expand with more and more tasks. This quarter, there are 39 activities to be completed each day, multiple times. That doesn't include the Listening Program, which I'll have to describe in another post.

So, I need to organize these 39 activities to be completed sometime between Noah going to school, going to horseback riding (hippo therapy), attending music class and my work schedule. Notice I didn't mention speech therapy? The NACD has a speech Pathologist that has reviewed videos of Noah's current abilities and set up a speech and oral motor program specifically for him.
We are very grateful for this!

Speech has always been one of our greatest concern regarding Noah. We began taking him to Tucson when he was four months old to see an oral-motor therapist at Talk Tools with Sara Rosenfeld Johnson. Oral-motor therapy addresses the physical movements of speech and feeding. A strong oral motor is the foundation to proper speech acquisition and this is used in conjunction with speech therapy. Over the past three years, we have seen three different speech pathologist's in town. This can be very expensive, but to acquire the tools for verbal language is priceless!

So, for the first time we are going to implement the speech activities from NACD and are excited about future results.

It has been suggested by two different speech pathologists that Noah may have verbal apraxia. This is a motor planning issue where the person has a difficult time saying what they want correctly and consistently. So, to help Noah to overcome this it will take a lot of repetition of very basic sounds. NACD will help Noah to progress by increasing his auditory skills along with verbal cues and sounds.

On his new program, there are 11 activities dedicated specifically for speech enhancement. There are a couple of different facial massages, and mouth stimulation activities along with chewing exercises. (This is reinforcing the oral-motor activity).
He has an activity of sound effects: verbalizing actions throughout the day, "weeee!" and "uh-oh" as examples.
We need to work on predictable phrases... mom and dad, up and down, ect. The point is to then leave the last word of the phrase out so he will say it. After many repetitions of the phrase, the goal is to test him by saying "mom and ..." hoping he will verbally say "dad".
We need to read books that rhyme a lot so he is very familiar with them for lots of input. Then we will begin to leave words out and hope he will fill them in verbally with the proper response. Ex: "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you ..." then Noah will say "see".
A lot of face to face verbal activity. I say a word and then Noah will repeat it. We also do this with the alphabet.

The last activity is one using flash cards, which Noah loves to work with. This is called syllable repetition. Right now we are on Step #1. We are working with the "B" sound. I made up flash cards of both a sheep and a ghost. The goal is to have him look at the sheep and say "baa" and look at the ghost and say "boo". We are to set up 5 flash cards of the same image to reinforce the repetition. The goal is to work with the same consonant but changing up the vowels until he is consistent with the sounds.



Well, I'm excited for the beginning of next week, as I have hopes of accomplishing and conquering many expectations!

First and foremost, I hope to be healthy and back to the world of the living!
I am hoping to hire the nanny that is right for Noah, as I have two interviews next week that I am very excited about.
Last but not least, Noah's new program begins!!! I have it all organized and ready for our days; hopefully we are able to implement it in real life to mirror the written sheet of paper!

Someday I will have to get back to work, but today I am going to smile and give blessings for all the joy in my life!