New worries

It's no secret that my daughter has a short attention span.  I always worry of course since I'm her mom that it might be more serious than just the average toddler one minute attention span; however, today her school SLP expressed some concern as well.

She asked me to come in next Wednesday to discuss possible strategies for keeping her on task in a group setting.  She said that taking her out has been working great for speech, but they don't want to have to take her out of the room for every activity they are doing.  I obviously agree, but, sigh, I have to admit my heart sank.  I knew she has had trouble with attention, but much like her speech, I was hoping that no one else noticed and that I was just being an overly worried mom.  Having it pointed out by someone else makes my heart very heavy...again.

My poor little girl.  I know that when things do get hard for her she has a tendency to change the subject (or switching her attention to something else since she can't really verbalize much yet); however, she has a very difficult time attending to anything without getting distracted by something else.  What is normal, what is not, I don't know.  I know it's a little too young to diagnose ADD, but I hope to God she doesn't have that too.  She doesn't deserve this..any of this.  She's the sweetest, most vibrant, lovable little girl who shouldn't have to fight for everything she does or learns.  I know it's not fair for all the other children who have disabilities either, but this is MY baby girl and I have a right to feel sad for her. 

I also know as her mom I have to be strong for her.  I have to be the champion in her corner, her advocate, her soft landing, her biggest fan.  I want to do everything I can to make sure she can be anything she wants to be, and be what our Lord meant for her to be.

When my husband was diagnosed with bipolar disorder nine months into our marriage, there were people, many people, who told me that at least I knew before we had kids.  Yes, they were implying I shouldn't have them.  However, that's not what God commands us to do in the bible.  He didn't say go forth and multiply unless you have some disease, ailment, or defect.  I believe He didn't say that because He told us that we are all made in His image and likeness.  My husband says all the time how she is just like him, and it scares him.  It scares me too because his road was not easy.  But he's here.  He overcame everything.  He overcame all the odds and now he is a loyal husband, doting father, and brilliant engineer.  God had a purpose for him, and He has one for Ashlynn too.  However, it doesn't make it any easier.

First week of pre-K

After my IEP experience, I was excited but also skeptical pending the first day of school.  Excited and hopeful she would finally get the speech and language enrichment she so desperately needs, and skeptical because it didn't seem like her teacher or SLP would be the ones able to do so.

I dropped off her private speech report to the teacher and SLP so they could at least see her progress documented by the private SLP. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see there were 4 kids and 3 adults in the room.  Talk about a great student/teacher ratio!  There was the teacher, the para, and then depending on the day either the O/T or the SLP.

Day 1: I received a weekly agenda, which is basically the teacher's lesson plans.  It's awesome because even though Ashlynn can't tell me what she did, I can look at the agenda and talk about her day with her. 

Ashlynn came home and we ate lunch.  While she was eating, she balled up part of her sandwich, hid it in her fist, and asked me playfully, "Wherdido?" When I repeated, "Where did it go?" She laughed, opened her fist and said, "right der!."  Now, "right there" she has been saying for a month or so, but this "where'd it go" was new!  She played it the whole day, obviously proud of herself. 

Day 2: I pick of Ashlynn up from school and the SLP tells me that she believes it would be best to pull Ashlynn out of the classroom and drill (duh), but I was nice and on my best behavior.  I smiled and said, "Great!  I'm glad to hear that!  I think she really needs that."

Day 3: Ashlynn brings home art projects everyday.  Today we got a tree with various fall leaves.

Day 4: Ashlynn brought home the cutest fall leaves wreath.  I immediately hung it up!  I love it.  Great for working on colors.  While eating lunch today, I asked her if she sang the song "Autumn leaves are falling down."  She kinda said 'ya' and so we sang it.  When she was done, she said "see" for sing.  I asked her what she wanted me to sing and she said "bee..bubu bee."  I clearly didn't understand and she started kinda singing the melody to the baby bumblebee song.  I asked her if she was singing "baby bumblebee" and started singing it.  She started doing all the cute little gestures that go with the song.  I emailed the teacher if they had sang this song today (I hadn't seen it in the agenda), and she responded in a timely fashion that they had been singing it all week!  How exciting!!  Ashlynn finally told me something that happened in her day!! 

My skepticism might be waning.  I hope so.  I just want the very best for Ashlynn, and this week seemed very productive :)

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, book of the month

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie is a knockoff from the classic children's song, "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly." 

This is a great repetitive book I use with the kids to get ready for Thanksgiving.  The book chronicles a lady who goes through and eats certain Thanksgiving items. 

In therapy, I have cutouts of all the various items that the kids hold.  When it's their turn, the visuals may serve as a reminder to help them remember their word.  At the end, my older kids are required to do a summary and may use the visuals to help them complete it.  However, that's further down the line for Ashlynn.

For now, I gave her the word "pie" since this another bilabial she is still mastering.  In addition, it's also one of the speech words used in the Kaufman apraxia card set.  As before, I read the sentence, "She swallowed the cider to moisten the___, the Thanksgiving___ which was really to dry..." pausing and pointing to her visual to remind her to say the word.
By the end of the book, she was doing great and said "pie" in the cutest voice when I would pause for her to complete the sentence.  Her daddy even stopped in the hallway the other night to listen as we were reading it before bed.