Moving Right Along

We've officially filled out the enrollment packet for Lyric to start preschool once she turns 3 and transitions out of in home Early On visits.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I'm incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity for her.  Tiffany says they have a room that is dedicated for sensory play that has trikes, ball pits, and all kinds of toys for them to use to get their energy out.  The school has a great playground that she will love.  She will be with other kids her age that she can interact with.  They have circle time, free play time, stories, and all kinds of fun stuff.  It will be really good for her.  There's still that small part of me that is kind of disappointed because I was really hoping she would make enough improvements to avoid needing "special" preschool, but I know that was also a lofty goal.  We're not sure yet on what the start dates will be, but hopefully we will be hearing about it soon.

There has been an explosion of language and other activity lately that has me feeling hopeful about things.  She's been trying to sing along with songs, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  She's counting on a regular basis (she often skips 4 and 7 for some reason, but hey - it's a start).  She says things like "3, 2, 1 - blast off!" on a regular basis when we are playing.  I think I am going to take a stab at teaching her the ABC's.  She also asked Travis to put on Pocoyo instead of Snoopy this morning, which is new.  Generally she is quite vocal about what she wants to watch, but it's usually just one word that stands for the show, not "Put this on, not that!"  She answers questions, and Melissa finally got to experience that when she came over a few days ago.  She also recently ran after one of the cats shouting "Wait! Come back! I'll pet you!"

An issue we're running in to now is pronunciation.  Lyric drops consonants (and sometimes vowels) from words that she says, and it's something that really needs to be worked on - but it's difficult to know how to work on it.  Balloon is still ah-woo, Snoopy is still oo-ee, help is still hey-o.  I'm not sure it's that she thinks she's saying what it is and doesn't realize there are letters missing or what, but it's definitely a concern.  She still speaks mostly "Lyricese" which can be a challenge to translate.  I know that she gets frustrated with us when we can't figure out what she means, so it's clear that what she's saying makes sense to her.  Just not sure what to make of it.

It's finally starting to get warmer here, so we've been able to do quite a bit of playing outside.  She likes to play in the driveway and the backyard.  The only difficulty we have there is getting her to come inside when it's time to go to bed, but I suppose that's something we should appreciate.

I'm thinking my next entry may "jump on the band wagon" and be a post about "Reasons Lyric is Crying" - just debating if I want to undertake such a thing or not.  Until then, Tiffany is coming over tomorrow and hopefully we will have an update on where we stand with preschool.  

Excitement and Irritation

A few days ago, we put Lyric in a t-shirt that had a local band on the front of it.  She looked at the name of the band, pointed to the letter T, and said "T!"  Then she said "Teeee tee tee tee tee tee" - which is what is said when you're moving the letter T in the app Endless Alphabet.  This has happened with multiple letters, on various occasions.  She loves to repeat after the letters when she is playing the app, too.  Things like this just reconfirm my choice of allowing her to use an iPad.  A lot of Sanctimommies scoff at the idea of allowing a child to do things like watch TV, use a computer, or use an iPad because "they just can't be educational."  Pretty sure that the way Lyric has been improving lately proves that this kind of statement is bullshit (pardon the language).  I'm not saying it's a cure all, or that it's a replacement for the valuable things that we do to work with her in speech therapy sessions, or in other ways - but it's definitely one more thing in the arsenal that is helping to foster her rapidly expanding skills.

Another positive of this week - Debby, the Occupational Therapist came over.  She has only seen Lyric one other time.  She brought a pressure vest with her for us to use, which I will address in a moment.  The positive that I want to touch on occurred when Travis, Debby, and Lyric were playing with a ball that we already own.  Lyric caught the ball every single time it was thrown at her.  Debby noticed this, and mentioned that she is a really good catch.  So Travis mentioned the fact that she can hit a baseball with a bat that is pitched to her.  Debby got a surprised look on her face and said "She's not supposed to be able to do that yet...." to which Travis responded "I know!"  We've always suspected that this particular skill was an advanced on, so it was nice to have confirmation.  Not only that, she's been able to do it since the middle of last year - so it's not something that is new for us.  Overall the visit with Debby went well.

The pressure vest looks like this: 

We're allowed to borrow it for a while to see if it helps calm her, or if it's something she will even tolerate.  According to the follow up sheet, we're supposed to use it for 10 - 20 minutes, 3 - 4 times a day.  We will see if we can keep up with that schedule, or if she will even tolerate using it that much. 

One last item of amusement before we get to the irritation is that Lyric has been picking up on Stephen Fry's accent in Pocoyo.  Despite the fact that we speak very American English, she insists on calling a ball a "bowl."  It's actually really adorable, but it also shows you just how easily young kids pick up on things.

On to the irritation.  I'm going to disclaim this by saying that I love Early On, and I love everything that they have done for us.  I like everyone that comes to help Lyric, and I have very few complaints in that respect.  However, they can be so disorganized sometimes.  I'm a pretty disorganized person, so I understand how it can happen - but when you're coming to someone's home to work with their child, disorganization is a little less forgivable.  For example, last time our speech therapist was here, she was wanting to come over this week but realized that we were getting a visit from both Debby and our coordinator, and didn't want to cram 3 into one week.  She said that she would get back to us about when she would come over.  I got an e-mail this morning that was sent last night about how she would be coming over at 11:30 today, but would have to leave early to do an IEP meeting.  I called her, because our coordinator also rescheduled to next week, to let her know we had no idea she was supposed to be coming over today.  She's going to get back to us about coming over next week.  We'll see if that happens.  It's not the first time the schedule has been confused like this.  I get that they handle a ton of kids and appointments, but it's kind of frustrating because I want her to be getting her help, and I feel really bad cancelling.  It's just difficult to keep everything straight sometimes, I suppose.

Our next visit is on the 16th.  Hopefully we get more information on transition then, because her 3rd birthday is coming up quite fast.

Lyric Speak and ABCs

It’s been a while.  Mostly because the schools are on spring break, so we don’t have any sessions this week.  I’ve also been quite busy with other endeavors. 

Melissa came over last week and brought a cool food chart that she made.  She laminated pictures of different foods that Lyric eats and gave us 2 charts.  One has spots for all the foods so we can stick them on there and ask her to show us specific foods.  The other has two spots, and the word “or” between them, so that we can use it to let her pick which foods she wants to eat.  She has been quite a bit more vocal about what she does and doesn’t want to eat, so opening the cupboards for her is getting marginally easier.  She will say “No, thank you,” or “No, I don’t want that,” if we offer her something that isn’t to her liking.  She also actually asks for the things she does know how to say, like cheese or hot dogs.  Small progress, but still progress!

Another thing that occurred when Melissa was over was what we call Lyric Speak.  Lyric babbles a lot.  It’s not just inane babble, either.  She is very clearly saying what she thinks are words, or conversation pieces.  She will look to us for response sometimes, and it’s difficult because we have no idea what she is trying to say.  She will get frustrated if we don’t guess correctly.  I’m not sure if it’s an issue with her hearing, or if it’s because her speech is developing so quickly that she just can’t figure out how to form the words that she wants to say, or what it could be.  She really never did the “Lyric Speak” thing at previous speech sessions, so why she chose to bust it out at this one is a mystery.  It is nice that Melissa got to see it though, because it is another thing that she can help us with (I hope). 

I’ve been slacking a bit on recording the activities we do lately.  We did an Easter Egg hunt this past Saturday.  The weather was awesome, and once I showed her what was going on, she had a blast.  I’m thinking that I need to make other scavenger hunts for her, like maybe one for her birthday next month.  Obviously she’s too young to do one with clues to follow, but as long as we hid objects in semi-obvious places, I think she would enjoy looking for them.  The number of apps on the iPad continues to grow, and she parrots the vast majority of them.  Right now her favorite is Elmo’s ABCs (she REALLY likes C because it has cookie).  We’re going to have to buy her the full version of that one when I get paid next week, because the current one we have only has 3 letters to play with.  She traces the letters on it, which is super exciting to me because it’s another thing she is learning how to do!

Not sure when we’re going to be able to get around to potty training.  I might give it a serious go over Memorial Day weekend because I’ll have 3 days off where I can focus on her.  She’s been telling us when she needs to be changed (she points to her butt and says poop), so I’m really hoping it might be successful this time around. 

So that’s basically the current “Goings On”.  We actually have two visits next week: occupational therapy, and speech.  Hopefully sometime soon I will find out about her transition in to preschool – where has time gone?!