(ok, this is getting wierd. I swear I published this this earlier this morning.)
Ella's been continuing with more challenging motor tasks. This evening she climbed up a low slide by herself (on the slide part, not the stairs).
In the speech department we're still mostly vowel sounds, "du" "ga" and "tooka", with the occasional "ba" "pa" or "ma" tossed in. However, she's getting more free about echoing sounds back to you.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
More motor progress
This was supposed to be published back on the evening of Sunday the 19th, but for some reason I hit save instead of publish. Ooops.
Well, part motor, part self confidence. Regardless, this weekend we managed to get Ella to do several new gross-motor and balance things we've been trying to get her to do for a while.
First, she stepped over the timbers surrounding the mulch at the nearby tot-lot. The timbers are small, onlt 4" wide, and only sticking up 2" from the ground. However, up until yesterday we'd been unable to get her to take a step over them without holding an adults hand (often making a grossly over-large step and unbalancing herself). Both yesterday and today she stepped over without any help, and kept her balance, with only slight hesitation.
We also got her to run around in our yard without help. Our yard slopes gently, and while we could get her to go across the slope, or up it, she would not even walk down it without holding hands. We had a grilling party yesterday, and towards the end we went and played in the yard. We were mostly playing a game where I'd run away, then sit down and wait for Ella to come tackle us. We had her running all over the yard, uphill, downhill, in circles, whatever, without any problem or hesitation.
I also took her to the "big playground" yesterday, and she actually completed several circuits using the low slide of the gym without any help. She climbed up the steps, across a platform, got on the slide, slid herself down, got off, and ran over to the steps and repeated it all.
I was also impressed with one of her feats of fine motor skill. One of our friends brought over a stomp rocket (link has best picture I could find) and she was readily able to thread the rocket onto the black launch tube (these fit fairly snug), and she was doing it holding the rocket at the middle and the pad was just sitting on the ground. We might have to get one of those (or a jr version) as the stomping part may improve her ballance.
Anyway, hope you're all well.
Well, part motor, part self confidence. Regardless, this weekend we managed to get Ella to do several new gross-motor and balance things we've been trying to get her to do for a while.
First, she stepped over the timbers surrounding the mulch at the nearby tot-lot. The timbers are small, onlt 4" wide, and only sticking up 2" from the ground. However, up until yesterday we'd been unable to get her to take a step over them without holding an adults hand (often making a grossly over-large step and unbalancing herself). Both yesterday and today she stepped over without any help, and kept her balance, with only slight hesitation.
We also got her to run around in our yard without help. Our yard slopes gently, and while we could get her to go across the slope, or up it, she would not even walk down it without holding hands. We had a grilling party yesterday, and towards the end we went and played in the yard. We were mostly playing a game where I'd run away, then sit down and wait for Ella to come tackle us. We had her running all over the yard, uphill, downhill, in circles, whatever, without any problem or hesitation.
I also took her to the "big playground" yesterday, and she actually completed several circuits using the low slide of the gym without any help. She climbed up the steps, across a platform, got on the slide, slid herself down, got off, and ran over to the steps and repeated it all.
I was also impressed with one of her feats of fine motor skill. One of our friends brought over a stomp rocket (link has best picture I could find) and she was readily able to thread the rocket onto the black launch tube (these fit fairly snug), and she was doing it holding the rocket at the middle and the pad was just sitting on the ground. We might have to get one of those (or a jr version) as the stomping part may improve her ballance.
Anyway, hope you're all well.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Back to school, and sign list..
Well, Ella's back to school following spring break, and she seems quite happy to be back at school. Today she even showed us a new sign related to school. We were at dinner and she signed "learn", and when asked about it she signed "learn - school". I guess our semi-recent addition of signing time vol 13 has a lot to do with that.
In general Ella continues to become more and more sociable, and communicative, and she continues to babble a lot and will repeatedly make specific babble sounds when prompted (Da, Hu, Gu, tooka, dooga). That's good because it demonstrates she has the idea of making specific sounds for a specific purpose. While she does a few other babbles (bu, and rarely pu), the odds of her echoing them back at your request is pretty low (15%?)
I've also converted my list of Ella's signs to a google doc, and I've added a link to it in the links section on the right, or you can just jump from here. I figure that will be useful for anyone interacting with Ella and wanting to know which signs she knows. It also has notes about some of her modifications to various signs.
In general Ella continues to become more and more sociable, and communicative, and she continues to babble a lot and will repeatedly make specific babble sounds when prompted (Da, Hu, Gu, tooka, dooga). That's good because it demonstrates she has the idea of making specific sounds for a specific purpose. While she does a few other babbles (bu, and rarely pu), the odds of her echoing them back at your request is pretty low (15%?)
I've also converted my list of Ella's signs to a google doc, and I've added a link to it in the links section on the right, or you can just jump from here. I figure that will be useful for anyone interacting with Ella and wanting to know which signs she knows. It also has notes about some of her modifications to various signs.
Monday, March 30, 2009
School..
Bad blogger, no biscuit!
I mentioned back earlier that Ella would be starting school on the 17th, and it's almost two weeks after that and I've not blogged about it. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. So, there's no a LOT to blog about, and I apologize in advance if this post is a bit long and desne.
In any event, Ella is taking well to school. During the first week there was definitely some crying, particularly while being dropped off, but she has now acclimated to school as a part of her regular routine. Of course, she's off 7 school days in a row for spring break starting Friday, so we'll see how she does after a longer break than just a weekend.
Ella's class consists of 8 children, a few of whom are typically developing and the rest are other children with delays from a variety of different situations. Being a toddler class, the classes are mostly learning play oriented. The staff consists of a teacher, a few teaching assistants, and 3 therapists. Generally speaking, the therapists rotate in and out of the class, while the rest of the staff is present more-or-less every day. The children spend most of their time in group activities, and some of their time one-on-one with a therapist.
As for communicating home, there are a couple of things that are used to keep us informed. Every day, there's a binder that she takes to school with her, and brings home when she's done. These binders contain a series of laminated pages with pictures of the other children, staff, foods and toys. Near the end of the day, one of the staff places stickers on the pictures of who and what she played with, and what she snacked on at snack time. The binder also allows us to pass notes and references to the school staff, such as the list of Ella's signs we've placed in there.
In addition, Ella's teacher comes to our house once a week. We've only had one of these sessions so far, but these visits mostly focus on passing information back and forth. Her teacher tells us what she's been doing in class, and we tell her about some of her recent developments at home. Of course, Ella participates in the meetings to. This gives her teacher a chance to see some of the things Ella does in a home environment, where she's more comfortable, that she won't do in school.
One thing I have noticed is that she's been *really* excited about babbling lately. Obviously I can't prove the extra social interaction is causing it, but it's certainly not hurting. Also, Mental Mother tells me she's been coming home rather tired and napping quite hard most days. That's also a good sign, as it means the class is successfully stimulating her.
Whew. That's quite a dense post. I'll (hopefully) post more in the next few days.
I mentioned back earlier that Ella would be starting school on the 17th, and it's almost two weeks after that and I've not blogged about it. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. So, there's no a LOT to blog about, and I apologize in advance if this post is a bit long and desne.
In any event, Ella is taking well to school. During the first week there was definitely some crying, particularly while being dropped off, but she has now acclimated to school as a part of her regular routine. Of course, she's off 7 school days in a row for spring break starting Friday, so we'll see how she does after a longer break than just a weekend.
Ella's class consists of 8 children, a few of whom are typically developing and the rest are other children with delays from a variety of different situations. Being a toddler class, the classes are mostly learning play oriented. The staff consists of a teacher, a few teaching assistants, and 3 therapists. Generally speaking, the therapists rotate in and out of the class, while the rest of the staff is present more-or-less every day. The children spend most of their time in group activities, and some of their time one-on-one with a therapist.
As for communicating home, there are a couple of things that are used to keep us informed. Every day, there's a binder that she takes to school with her, and brings home when she's done. These binders contain a series of laminated pages with pictures of the other children, staff, foods and toys. Near the end of the day, one of the staff places stickers on the pictures of who and what she played with, and what she snacked on at snack time. The binder also allows us to pass notes and references to the school staff, such as the list of Ella's signs we've placed in there.
In addition, Ella's teacher comes to our house once a week. We've only had one of these sessions so far, but these visits mostly focus on passing information back and forth. Her teacher tells us what she's been doing in class, and we tell her about some of her recent developments at home. Of course, Ella participates in the meetings to. This gives her teacher a chance to see some of the things Ella does in a home environment, where she's more comfortable, that she won't do in school.
One thing I have noticed is that she's been *really* excited about babbling lately. Obviously I can't prove the extra social interaction is causing it, but it's certainly not hurting. Also, Mental Mother tells me she's been coming home rather tired and napping quite hard most days. That's also a good sign, as it means the class is successfully stimulating her.
Whew. That's quite a dense post. I'll (hopefully) post more in the next few days.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Better, mostly..
Well, Ella's virus seems to have toned itself way down. On Friday, she went all day without any fever reducers and only had a mild temperature all day. Even at bedtime her temperature wasn't high enough to warrant a fever reducer under normal circumstances (although we did give her some as she would be only sparsely monitored overnight)
So, the worst seems to have passed for Ella, which is good.
So, the worst seems to have passed for Ella, which is good.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Sick..
Well, Ella's got some kind of stomach virus.
She had a 102.5+ fever on weds afternoon, and it wouldn't go down very much even with ibuprofen and a tepid bath. Since the fever wouldn't break, Mental Mother made an appointment with a Nighttime Pediatrics and we took her in at 9:20pm. After a long wait, they tested her for flu and strep, but neither came up positive. So we took her home, gave her more ibuprofen, and put her to bed. The fever had broken at 1:30am, but when we checked on her later after the ibuprofen wore off, it had soared back up to 103.2. Today her fever was low, but needed occasional treatment with ibuprofen. Since then she's had one bout of stomach virus symptoms, so it looks like she has some kind of stomach bug that isn't influenza, but behaves similarly.
So Ella's a bit under the weather, and I don't feel 100% myself, but other than that, all's good at our home. Hope you're all well.
She had a 102.5+ fever on weds afternoon, and it wouldn't go down very much even with ibuprofen and a tepid bath. Since the fever wouldn't break, Mental Mother made an appointment with a Nighttime Pediatrics and we took her in at 9:20pm. After a long wait, they tested her for flu and strep, but neither came up positive. So we took her home, gave her more ibuprofen, and put her to bed. The fever had broken at 1:30am, but when we checked on her later after the ibuprofen wore off, it had soared back up to 103.2. Today her fever was low, but needed occasional treatment with ibuprofen. Since then she's had one bout of stomach virus symptoms, so it looks like she has some kind of stomach bug that isn't influenza, but behaves similarly.
So Ella's a bit under the weather, and I don't feel 100% myself, but other than that, all's good at our home. Hope you're all well.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Going to school...
Whew, it has, once again, been a while since I've posted.
Recently it has been time for Ella's progress to be formally reviewed by her therapists, and to revise her education plan. So there's been lots of meetings, testing, planning, etc going on.
As a summary of her evaluation, Ella is more-or-less in the same relative place she was last time she got evaluated. Her motor skills are 7-9 months behind where they "should" be, which is roughly how far behind they were before. Of course, she's older now so that's less of a percentage than before. She is most severely behind in expressive communication skills, as she's still not speaking on any consistent basis. Here she's behind by approximately 18 months, and although that doesn't count her signing, she's still behind even if you were to count them.
And of course, all that evaluation has led to a new education plan for Ella. Currently Ella is in a home based therapy arrangement, where the therapists come to our home for one-on-one sessions with Ella. The plan now is to transition Ella into a group therapy arrangement at a school. This would normally happen anyway when she turns three, but we're doing it a tad bit early. The basic thinking here is the increased exposure to peers will help her model off others, and that's a philosophy that makes sense to both of us as parents.
So, starting in two weeks, Ella is going to be going to a local elementary school for a class called MINC-T (multiple intense needs class - toddler). She'll be going 5 days a week for 2 and a half hours a day. We've already had a chance to go to the school, visit the classroom, meet the teacher, therapists, and most of her fellow students and their parents. So far I'm reasonably impressed with everything.
At any rate, it's getting late (or early) and I best be off to bed.
Recently it has been time for Ella's progress to be formally reviewed by her therapists, and to revise her education plan. So there's been lots of meetings, testing, planning, etc going on.
As a summary of her evaluation, Ella is more-or-less in the same relative place she was last time she got evaluated. Her motor skills are 7-9 months behind where they "should" be, which is roughly how far behind they were before. Of course, she's older now so that's less of a percentage than before. She is most severely behind in expressive communication skills, as she's still not speaking on any consistent basis. Here she's behind by approximately 18 months, and although that doesn't count her signing, she's still behind even if you were to count them.
And of course, all that evaluation has led to a new education plan for Ella. Currently Ella is in a home based therapy arrangement, where the therapists come to our home for one-on-one sessions with Ella. The plan now is to transition Ella into a group therapy arrangement at a school. This would normally happen anyway when she turns three, but we're doing it a tad bit early. The basic thinking here is the increased exposure to peers will help her model off others, and that's a philosophy that makes sense to both of us as parents.
So, starting in two weeks, Ella is going to be going to a local elementary school for a class called MINC-T (multiple intense needs class - toddler). She'll be going 5 days a week for 2 and a half hours a day. We've already had a chance to go to the school, visit the classroom, meet the teacher, therapists, and most of her fellow students and their parents. So far I'm reasonably impressed with everything.
At any rate, it's getting late (or early) and I best be off to bed.
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