A didn't sleep well last night and C didn't either. I didn't sleep well the night before, so last night I was apparently out of it enough that I wasn't disturbed very much.
Last Friday night, I went to the San Diego Film Festival and saw my friend Julie's film, Broken Windows, which was a lot of fun, since I've never been to a film festival before. The film is good but slow. I hope it does well.
We went to dinner before and A surprised us by eating popcorn shrimp and calamari (even the squiggly bits) but not the mac and cheese. This is a strange kid.
He had speech today and did well although he was tired. We're about to go to the store, run some errands, so he'll just have to cope. He had a short nap this morning but it's hot here and it's hard to nap when it's so freaking hot.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Certificate of Participation
It's graduation day here from Global Group for the little toddler boy. He's finished six weeks of general group activity and as such is done being enriched. He's still going to his specific speech group. He's loving it so far; we're going to have to think seriously about preschool when all of this is done. He used to have to be convinced to go in, and now he has to be restrained from running right into the classroom when we get there.
He's got a speech evaluation scheduled for next week. This is with the regional center and is just speech, so we'll see what shakes out there.
He's using a ton more words now; I don't know if it's the classes or just being around other kids or the general explosion of language that happens, but he's got tons more words: baby, bubbles, crocodile. He's doing a lot more spontaneous imitation, where if I say a word, he says it back. And he's picked up words he knew but had stopped using, like "more."
They gave him a post-class evaluation to see where he was compared to where he started (about the same, with a couple minor improvements). The woman doing the evaluation said to me, "He's such a sweet kid. There were kids crying in the room and he took them toys and tried to play with them." Yup, that's my sweetie.
He's got a speech evaluation scheduled for next week. This is with the regional center and is just speech, so we'll see what shakes out there.
He's using a ton more words now; I don't know if it's the classes or just being around other kids or the general explosion of language that happens, but he's got tons more words: baby, bubbles, crocodile. He's doing a lot more spontaneous imitation, where if I say a word, he says it back. And he's picked up words he knew but had stopped using, like "more."
They gave him a post-class evaluation to see where he was compared to where he started (about the same, with a couple minor improvements). The woman doing the evaluation said to me, "He's such a sweet kid. There were kids crying in the room and he took them toys and tried to play with them." Yup, that's my sweetie.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Arrrgh, mateys!
My pirate name is:
Captain Bess Flint
Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Assessment, round 2
We're on to the next agency here in speech development land. They came by the house today to do a general evaluation, all five areas again. Three women: an intake coordinator, a special ed teacher, and a trainee. The intake coordinator asked me questions while the teacher played with A. The trainee watched.
A was in a great mood and was his bubbly outgoing self. He sat them down, brought them toys, and tried to share the toys the teacher gave him with the other two women. "He wants to make sure everyone's involved," the teacher said. "He's got great play skills. He should be a social worker when he grows up."
It was same old, same old for questions. We hit an impasse in the play portion of the exam because A refused to play with the blocks. The teacher had lots more fun things in her bag of tricks and he didn't want to play with blocks when he has a gazillion sets of blocks in the house already. He'd already brought a set of blocks out for the women to play with.
The teacher asked if he was an only child, and then said, "Gosh, with play skills like his and all these toys, you should have five more." Um, no. No no no. She also approved of our toys. They're good toys. Active toys make passive babies, you know.
Anyway, he's a scattered kid. This does not have anything to do with his focus, which is legendary and laser-like and was commented upon by the women; I'm talking test results. He's literally all over. Won't play with blocks, 15 months for cognitive and 12 months for fine motor. Threads three beads on a string, 30 months for cognitive and fine motor. Makes the overall scoring a bit inaccurate.
His receptive language is fine; he's got a delay in his expressive language. According to the math of the test, he's showing a 25% delay in speech development, which is not enough to require the services of the more intensive agency. But they think his expressive is far enough behind that it requires further investigation, so they're going to have a speech evaluation done.
When they were all through, they asked me if I had any questions, and so I asked, "In your opinions, should I be worried about him?"
And they all looked at each other and the teacher said, "No. I wouldn't. On a ten point scale, I'd say you should worry about a 3, which you probably already are. He's very bright; his play skills are great, very directed. Play is the basis for speech. He talks a lot already in jargon and I'm guessing one day you'll be saying, 'We thought he wouldn't talk and now we can't get him to stop.'"
So I'm somewhat relieved, although it felt anticlimactic to have three people tell me what I thought about my kid already was right. They don't know why he doesn't talk either, but there's a ton of money to be had if we figure it out (and apply it across many other kids in the universe).
A was in a great mood and was his bubbly outgoing self. He sat them down, brought them toys, and tried to share the toys the teacher gave him with the other two women. "He wants to make sure everyone's involved," the teacher said. "He's got great play skills. He should be a social worker when he grows up."
It was same old, same old for questions. We hit an impasse in the play portion of the exam because A refused to play with the blocks. The teacher had lots more fun things in her bag of tricks and he didn't want to play with blocks when he has a gazillion sets of blocks in the house already. He'd already brought a set of blocks out for the women to play with.
The teacher asked if he was an only child, and then said, "Gosh, with play skills like his and all these toys, you should have five more." Um, no. No no no. She also approved of our toys. They're good toys. Active toys make passive babies, you know.
Anyway, he's a scattered kid. This does not have anything to do with his focus, which is legendary and laser-like and was commented upon by the women; I'm talking test results. He's literally all over. Won't play with blocks, 15 months for cognitive and 12 months for fine motor. Threads three beads on a string, 30 months for cognitive and fine motor. Makes the overall scoring a bit inaccurate.
His receptive language is fine; he's got a delay in his expressive language. According to the math of the test, he's showing a 25% delay in speech development, which is not enough to require the services of the more intensive agency. But they think his expressive is far enough behind that it requires further investigation, so they're going to have a speech evaluation done.
When they were all through, they asked me if I had any questions, and so I asked, "In your opinions, should I be worried about him?"
And they all looked at each other and the teacher said, "No. I wouldn't. On a ten point scale, I'd say you should worry about a 3, which you probably already are. He's very bright; his play skills are great, very directed. Play is the basis for speech. He talks a lot already in jargon and I'm guessing one day you'll be saying, 'We thought he wouldn't talk and now we can't get him to stop.'"
So I'm somewhat relieved, although it felt anticlimactic to have three people tell me what I thought about my kid already was right. They don't know why he doesn't talk either, but there's a ton of money to be had if we figure it out (and apply it across many other kids in the universe).
Thursday, September 11, 2008
the House of Mouse
We just got back from Walt Disney World, that altar to childhood and capitalism. A had a fabulous time. This is what he loved:
Yes, they lost our luggage. But they found it. Yes, two-year-olds need naps and snacks. But they also notice the smallest things and have the biggest smiles.
- Peter Pan's Flight
- It's a Small World
- The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
- El Gran Fiesta (the boat ride in Mexico)
- Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
- the Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King shows
- Flights of Wonder
- Stealing the chocolate coating off his mother's Mickey Ears ice cream novelties
- Dole Whip and ice cream
- Running around with his cousins
- Swimming in the pool, especially when his dad picked him and me up and tossed us up in the air together
- The little table that slid out from under the desk to eat breakfast on
- Sitting on bench seats to eat with us
- Feeding M&Ms to Pluto
- Fountains
- The talking trash can in Tomorrowland
Yes, they lost our luggage. But they found it. Yes, two-year-olds need naps and snacks. But they also notice the smallest things and have the biggest smiles.
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