Lions, Tigers, and AIR's, Oh My!

We have started a new communication log with Chelsea's teachers and I couldn't help but share.  I read about this from another blogger and loved the idea, so I took it and ran.  That's what we do as teachers - our best ideas are stolen!

There have been many nights Chelsea has come home singing a song to me, or trying to tell me a story or a sign, and I just don't understand her.  It's been frustrating for both of us, but her frustration has really been shining through lately.  She really truly wants to communicate!  I want nothing more than to be able to ask my baby girl what games she played at school, what she ate for lunch, or what book her teacher read that day.  Sometimes I'll guess what she's saying (even if I know it's not right) and she'll smile, nod her head, and agree with me.  Lately, she's been telling me no more often.

I'll ask, "you read a book?"
"No.  Mon. Nes."
"What?  You played on the monkey bars?"
"No, zeeeeelow."
?????

That can go on for quite some time at our house.  Eventually, I just move on and ask her about the train I hear in the distance, or the dark clouds in the sky.  Fortunately she still falls for that distraction method pretty well. 

In order to help alleviate some of the communication stress, we decided to use an innovative little piece of technology.  I have a love hate relationship with technology, but when it's used as an educational tool, I say go for it.  We purchased a refurbished 5th generation ipod nano.  It's got all kind of fancy features, but the most amazing is the little video camera.  See where I'm going with this?  Honestly I wondered at first how her teachers would feel about it - I can't say I would LOVE the idea of videotaping myself, or my voice throughout the day.  I'm sure I would do it though if I had a child who couldn't talk. Chelsea's teachers welcomed the idea with open arms!  They didn't even hesitate and even seemed excited to try something new.  We have been extremely lucky, both kids have had nothing but FABULOUS teachers.  (By the way, next week is teacher appreciation week, don't forgot to tell your child's teacher how special he or she is!)

Today was our third day exchanging this tiny device between home and school and I'm thrilled to report a huge success.  The last two nights have been chaotic, and I'll admit we didn't get to watch the videos until Chelsea was in bed.  Ideally we want to watch them with her, so we can talk about her day and actually have a conversation with her.  Today when Grandma dropped her off at my school, I immediately looked in her backpack and viewed her day on the 2 inch screen.  First up?  Miss P. - "Going on a Bear Hunt" ... hmmm, good to know, I've heard that song before. 

On the way home Chelsea was watching out her window when suddenly she started shouting, "oooh!  oooh!" while covering her cheeks as if she was surprised!  "Air, Air!"  ???  Then it clicked.  In just seconds, I realized exactly what she was telling me.  She saw a bear outside her window!  Before I could say anymore, she began patting her lap and dove into ... "I'm going on a bear hunt ..."  Okay, so it actually sounded more like, "go air un ..."  But who cares?!  I knew what she was telling me, I could ask her about it, and even sing along with her!  I think she was quite shocked that I understood her and knew the song myself. 

Priceless.  Kind of gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, doesn't it?  I think I'm going to like this little ipod nano experiment.  Now if only we could find someone to follow Logan around with a video camera at school all day ...

Chelsea Update!!!

Dear Chelsea,

I am so proud of you, my very special little girl. While reading your first IEP last winter was difficult for me, putting you in preschool was the best thing we could have done! Daddy and I left your parent teacher conference tonight beaming with pride.

Your teacher says you've begun to socially play with your friends (you weren't even parallel playing last January!) They say you're quite the social butterfly - you pull a little boy over to play quite often - a little boy who does not naturally seek out friends to play with. They say you're persistent though and this little buddy gives in and plays ring around the rosie with you. When other girls try - he turns them down!

The speech therapist was proud of your progress and all of your new words!!! A big change from the nonverbal three year old they met in January. She said you are trying to drop your sign - but she agreed with mommy - you MUST continue signing. It's frustrating for you when we don't understand your words and you've worked so hard to learn all of those signs, keep using them!!!

Your occupational therapist reported you have made HUGE gains. You don't need spring scissors anymore, and the large square they asked you to cut out, you were able to do it (with less than a 1/4 inch around the edge)!!! That's pretty amazing! She also boasted about your three tier finger grasp when writing and coloring. She pointed out that you are able to move these three fingers independently of your wrist when "writing" - many children (typical children) aren't able to do this at your age! Your teacher says you're actually one of the few in the class that can do this. Some of the peer models in class haven't even mastered the fine art of holding a crayon yet! Way to go girlie!!!

Lastly, the part that made your teacher tear up yesterday, you are now able to draw a person! Your drawing from last January when you started school was scribbles - all over the paper. Yesterday when your teacher asked you to draw somebody in your family (you chose Daddy), you drew a circle with two legs, two arms and hair!!! What a difference my dear. And your teacher said thanks for getting up and bringing her a kleenex when she teared up in class over it.

Love you pretty girl,
Mommy

Through a mother's eyes

I'm a teacher right, I can handle this?! Well I just got done reading my first IEP through a mother's eyes. I've been a part of IEP's before, not often as I used to teach kiddos with limited English and you can't identify delays when they don't speak any English. I digress. Anyways, wow!!!!! I've finally dried my eyes and I'm ready to share. I think my favorite part are the sentences that read: she's doing .... such and such 0% ... thank you. Thank you for pointing that out.

So here's where we're at, just before turning three:

gross motor: 18-24 months, she's not: jumping, jumping off of a step, standing on one foot well (she can do it but only for a second), catching a ball

fine motor: 14-23 months, needs to work on button/unbuttoning and cutting/using scissors. She also didn't make horizontal or vertical lines for them, but she did it for her parent educator yesterday.

social/emotional: here's what really broke me down: During center time, Chelsea is unable to independently engage in parallel play (0 minutes). Chelsea's peers are engaging in imaginative and cooperative play. As per classroom observation this is an area of concern which will be addressed.

I'm completely shocked here, all she does at home is imaginary play. She would play "house" all day if I'd let her. She spends all of her free time taking care of her babies. She's constantly undressing them, covering them up, rocking them, loving them. I guess the way it was phrased just broke my heart and made me just melt.

Then under academic and functional performance and general intelligence: Chelsea's peers are able to sort by color, shape and category. Chelsea sorts by color and category with 0% accuracy. It talks about the importance of knowing her colors b/c they do so much w/ colors in preschool. There have been days though when I have asked Chelsea to point to the blue, the red, the orange, when we're looking at a group of colored shapes and she has, in the past, correctly pointed to all the correct colors. It's impossible for me to know if she really knows it or not.

Oh, and communication, well everyone knows where we stand there. That is the one area I was expecting the worst on. I think this is the key to everything else. Until she can talk, it's going to be hard for anyone to really accurately assess her.

So I'm just sick. The meeting is tomorrow morning at 8am. I guess I just go in and sign, right? I mean, that's how their eval's turned out. Had she performed better she may receive less services. She'll get 20 minutes of speech everyday at preschool (which is 4 days/week), PT is only 15 minutes one day a week, and same w/ OT. That doesn't seem like much for a kid that is so delayed. I may ask about increasing these times.

I'm not mad at anyone. I don't think any person at the school has done anything wrong, bad, or inappropriately. They've done nothing but help us and work with us to make sure Chelsea gets what she needs. It just breaks my heart to see these details in writing. For the past three years we have gotten wonderful reports about Chelsea, compliments on her progress, even details of her excelling in areas. Then I read all of the written report and it makes me feel like I could have done more, I should have done more.

I've had three years, and I didn't get it done. When your child is born with Down syndrome, you have the highest hopes. If I work hard enough, if I teach her more, maybe, just maybe she can keep up. That's what I've always wanted for her. I want her to be able to keep up with her peers, to fit in. I realize she won't be the smartest, or even average, but does it have to be like this? At three years old she's already an entire year behind, even further behind in her speech. When she's six will she be like a four year old and when she's in third grade will she be delayed to a Kindergarten level? It's awful, this feeling that you didn't do enough, that you need to do more. I don't like reading IEP's through these tired and teary mother's eyes.