Progress Report

Whew, it's been a while since I did one of these, so I'll try and remember the inchstones and new words and phrases since the last progress report.

Kiddo:

Social: We spent an amazing two weeks with family and Kiddo seemed to blossom socially from all his fun playing with his eight cousins and other relatives. The weird thing is, we didn't see it as much while we were there, but we do now.  He is now calling his friends by name, and when he sees pictures of his cousins will call them by name.  He also now calls Little Brother by his name, rather than "Baby" as he has for the past several years.  He is starting to respond to peers too, when they talk to him.  Before he seemed oblivous to them talking to him, so huge progress there.

Kiddo with his cousins--all born in 2010. :)

Gross Motor: It's taken me three years to find a good pediatric physical therapist, but FINALLY, I found one, a good 45 minutes away, and she is truly AMAZING.  Within one session she had taught Kiddo how to get up on tiptoes, and within two sessions, Kiddo was alternating his feet on stairs.  The two weeks we were visiting family, he had lots of practice alternating feet on stairs, as we were on the third floor of a hotel.  We encouraged the alternating of feet by prompting him with "One-two-one two! (without the prompting he doesn't alternate his feet).  He's doing so much better on stairs, and next time we're around a staircase I'll get a video.

Fine Motor: He is still not holding writing utensils properly, but is now coloring items on a coloring page rather than just scribbling all over it. Sometimes he picks really random things to color, like at church this Sunday they were to color a picture of Jesus walking with his disciples, and Kiddo only colored the plant and the sun.  But still, he's coloring, rather than just scribbling, which is awesome.

Speech: Wow, this kid has so much stuff to say now.  I wish I could even remember it all, but life is so busy I don't even have time to write down the conversations we have.  Yes, conversations!

Biggest articulation improvement is he is now including more final consonant sounds.  Words that end in p and t sometimes d he's including those ending sounds.  He's also getting better at changing consonant sounds, rather than repeating them.  Example: potty used to be poppy but now has the d sound in the middle, whoo hoo!  However, he's had so much practice switching consonant sounds that he's doing it in words where they stay the same.  Example, I'm now "Moppy!"  And yes, always with an exclamation point.  I can't wait to be Mommy again, regardless of whether it has an exclamation point or not.

Biggest speech/communication improvement is he is now using verbs.  They usually have to do with what Little Brother is doing, as Kiddo thinks it's his job to report on Little Brother's activities.  Some examples include:

Little Brother's name + ______
Throw toys.
Close door.
Loud noise.  (aka, Little Brother is screaming)
Cry.
Sleep.


Some conversations (though these are not his pronunciations, just what he's trying to say)

Me: Look, it's a roly poly!  If you touch it it will roll up into a ball, because it's scared.
Kiddo: Yeah.  Wake up bug!
Me: It'll wake up when it's not scared anymore.
Kiddo: Eat leaves?
Me: Yes, I think it eats leaves and grass.
Kiddo: Bee eat honey.
Me: Yes, they eat nectar from flowers to make honey.
Kiddo: Butterfly eat flower.
Me: Oh, yeah, they eat the nectar from flowers.  Like bees.
Kiddo:  Yeah.  Bug wake up!  Eat leaves!

Me: Time to pray.
Kiddo: No pray!
Me: Yes, we always pray before bed.
Kiddo: Mommy, Daddy, (Kiddo's Name), (Brother's name), Jesus!
(those are the things he always thanks God for, but usually in fill in the blank format: "Thank you God for ____."  Way to rush the praying there, Kiddo.)

Kiddo: (spotting the toddler bed we had bought for Little Brother)  Big boy bed!
Me: Yes.  It's a big boy bed for Little Brother, just like you have.
Kiddo: Yeah.  Big boy.  Little Brother--little boy.
Me: Oh.  Yeah, Little Brother is a little boy and you're a big boy.
Kiddo: Yeah.  Daddy big big boy.

Hubster: I've gotta go to work, to fix the robots.  (He works with computers, but always talks to Kiddo about his work using robot references, since Kiddo is so into robots).
Kiddo: Robots sick?
Hubster: Well, they fell down. I have to help them up, make them feel better.
Kiddo: Robots get up!
Hubster: I'll help them up.  It might take them awhile.
Kiddo: Ok.
(Later, when Hubster returns)
Kiddo: Robots up?
Hubster: Nope, they're still down.  But I'm helping them up.
Kiddo: Ok.  No robots down.


Little Brother:

Behavior: Little Brother has some hyperactivity/impulsive issues that Kiddo's OT was noticing and recommended we get him evaluated for sensory processing disorder.  He also is terrified of water, and whether it's fear or sensory related, we do not know, but we're getting him evaluated in a few weeks by Kiddo's OT.  I've started using Peace and Calming essential oil on him and it does seem to be calming him down.  He has less temper tantrums and is hitting and throwing toys less.  He's much more enjoyable to be around lately. :)

Speech: I got Little Brother formally evaluated by Kiddo's private speech therapist.  She admits that apraxia is a possibility but it's too early to tell yet.  She diagnosed him with "severe expressive delay, mild receptive delay, and moderate articulation delay."  His behavior made it rough for her to finish the evaluation so we agreed that private therapy is not a good idea for now, until we get his behavior issues figured out.  So we'll continue the twice a month speech with Ms. Blessing in our home through Early Intervention, which he'll get until he turns three (in August).

I attended Little Brother's transition meeting yesterday.  He will receive speech therapy services through the school like Kiddo, when he turns three.  Now I have two kiddos with IEPs, fun times, but whatever we have to do to help them, we will do. :)

Little Brother's speech seems to be totally taking off lately.  He repeats a lot of two to three word phrases we say.  Sometimes they sound clear, sometimes, not so much.

New words and phrases:
apple
grapes
I know
bubble
It's a _____
One-two-one two  (this is how he counts after our stairs experience with Kiddo.  Even if I say One he'll say one, I'll say two, he'll say two, I'll say three, he'll say one, I'll repeat three, he'll say two, etc.  Gotta work on this)
color
Me! (when he sees himself in the mirror)
moon (which is for both the sun and the moon in books)

Academic skills: He can identify body parts, lots of animals and their sounds, and several shapes (circle, triangle, star, square and rectangle).  Naming colors is either a concept he doesn't grasp or doesn't care about, though his favorite color is definitely red.  (Any time he colors, he always starts with red, and sometimes will only color with red.)  Counting is also something we're working on, so far he only counts to two.  Puzzles though, he's a champ at.  This kid loves puzzles, and sometimes can sit for twenty minutes, doing the same puzzle over and over again.