Spontaneous Speech and Simple Addition

Spontaneous speech is one of the areas we are focused on developing at home and at school. Early number concepts is another area. Matthew likes numbers. This week at school, Matthew spontaneously demonstrated that he could do simple math too.

Working on counting objects (I forgot what was used) at preschool, Matthew's teacher asks him to put 4 in a container. He counts 4 into the container.

Then 3. He counts 3 into the container.

Then 2. He counts 2 into the container.

Then 3 again. But there are only 2 left on the table. He counts 1, 2... pauses and scans the table. Then without any prompting he slowly says, "I need 1 more."

Teacher: Yes, you do need 1 more, Matthew.

Matthew (speaking slowly): I can't find any.

Teacher: What should we do?

(Matthew pauses thoughtfully).

Matthew: Get more in here (pointing to full container).


And that, my friends, is outstanding PROGRESS!

Toy Review Tuesday: Felt Board Stories

Using felt board pieces are one way I am able to make stories or rhymes more tangible. Matthew and Elizabeth enjoy putting the felt pieces on our modified garage sale-bought (for $5) easel. It's "modified" because I covered the chalkboard side with 4 sheets of adhesive felt ($1 per 8" x 10" sheet).

Beyond Play sells magnetic felt boards and felt boards with cardboard backing. I didn't want to spend $20 to $30 on a felt board for our purposes. I suppose I could've also made one using a flat panel of wood from the hardware store and covered that with adhesive felt sheets. Hmmm...

We have several felt story sets. So far, we have "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", which is pre-cut and store-bought (online from Beyond Play). Matthew enjoys pulling the monkeys off the felt board and dropping them on the floor. Then he says, "No, no" while shaking his head when we get to the part "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."

The rest I made using felt board templates from an educational resource website called DLTK's Growing Together. There is an option to print in color or black and white - with the idea that the kids will color the pieces. Then I cut out the pieces, laminated them (I use a Scotch Thermal laminator. It is so easy to use and does the job very well.), and put adhesive felt on the backs so they'd stick to the felt board. I tried using cut up pieces of sandpaper but the glue wouldn't hold the sandpaper and plastic together.

We have Baa, Baa Black Sheep, 5 Little Ducks, and Itsy Bitsy Spider.

I also made a fish tank felt set (with stiffer felt) just for fun. It's been good for counting and colors. I only made 10 fish though.

Our latest homemade felt story set is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" since that is the book that Matthew's preschool class is reading at school this week. I also made separate pieces with just the words "brown bear", "yellow duck", "blue horse", and so on for all the animals in that book.

Play time with the felt stories isn't consistent though. The kids' staying power largely depends on their moods and how interesting I make it. Sometimes they'll be into the felt stories for 5-10 minutes at a time. Sometimes I am only able to hold their interest for 2 minutes. But that's ok. With most activities I do with them, I go for repetition and fun instead of length of time. Repetition has always been one of the important keys to Matthew's learning. And of course, it has to be fun!

Overall, they've been great to have for my visual learner (Matthew) and my quick study (Elizabeth). They are another simple tool to encourage speech, language, cognition, and reading.

Conversation Book: Picnic by the River

I like to take photos. I'm not a professional photographer by any means but the photos I take are good enough to tell a story. They are good enough to put in Matthew's conversation book for school. Matthew enjoys looking at them and sharing them with his teacher and friends.

Photos in the conversation book can be about a special event or just any typical, everyday thing we do. The main criteria is that the photos are interesting and relevant to Matthew.

We went on a mini-picnic by the river last weekend. It was a nice, simple family outing. No picnic baskets or well thought-out picnic food. Just burgers and sweet potato fries from a fastfood place in town. No rain. Just the warm sun and gentle breeze. And it was a new experience for the kids. They had never eaten by the river before.

And these are my favorite photos of that day.

Conversation Book: I Scream for Ice Cream

Matthew tried his first tiny spoonful of ice cream at his 1st birthday. Then he never ate ice cream again until he was 3-1/2 years old. We offered him ice cream but he always refused it. He did not want it near his mouth. He didn't want anything to do with ice cream. It was all part of his food aversion, not just being picky. It was as if he feared it.

These days, he asks for ice cream out of the blue. If Elizabeth hears "ice cream", she starts asking for it too. Then it's like two baby birds with their mouths wide open begging for ice cream. For Elizabeth, I expected her love of ice cream to come naturally. And it did. For Matthew, it was a 180-degree shift from "keep that ice cream away from me!!"

So sometimes, we go to the ice cream/ frozen custard place in town. I bring my own mini cones because they're a better size for the kids to hold and eat compared to the regular-sized ice cream cones available. Then we sit and enjoy our ice cream. I usually get a small vanilla with fresh bananas and split it between the kids. Of course, I eat the left-overs. And with these two ice cream monsters, there's hardly any left-overs.

I'm going to have to get my own cup next time. I love ice cream/ frozen custard too. Except I love chocolate with roasted pecans and macadamia nuts.

I put photos from our latest trip to the ice cream place in his conversation book for school to share with his teacher and friends.

Conversation Book: Daddy's Birthday

The kids and I surprised Bill on his birthday last week. When he came home from the office, we had balloons and his favorite food on the table.

It was a no-green vegetable kind of celebration, with his all-time favorite food - regular crust pepperoni pizza! It was shortly followed by an ice cream cake roll and Betty Crocker's blueberry muffins as his cake. Matthew helped blow out the candles on the "muffin cake." Then both kids had fun helping him open his birthday gift.

This wonderful memory ended up in Matthew's conversation book, which he takes to school to show his teacher to encourage more verbal expression, among many benefits I outlined in a previous blog entry "Conversation Book: Grant's Farm".

He is always eager to show his conversation book to his teacher. The photos are very relevant to him and they remind him of things he can try to talk about and share. When I say talk about, I really mean he can read the short narratives I wrote with each photo. It is also being used to help break the ice between him and his peers, as he seems to be shy around his 4 or 5 classmates. As a secondary benefit, he gets some reading and comprehension practice.

I replace the photos every week to keep the album fresh and it gives him something new to share and talk about.

Related post:
Conversation Book: Grant's Farm

Finding His Words

After a little over a week of no potty accidents at school, Matthew wet his shorts twice yesterday. The hourly potty timer they had for him was not set, which happens to me at home too. And when I forget to set it, he is more likely to wet his shorts unless I remember to take him to the bathroom. He is still learning. And so am I.

He has demonstrated on several occasions that he can hold it in and knows when he needs to pee. He grunts and does the little potty dance. He knows the difference between wet and dry although he doesn't mind being wet.

He just needs the words to express this need. Since I am encouraging spoken language with him, I am not reminding him how to sign "potty." Instead, I prefer to show him the written sentence "I need to go potty" since he can sight read those words. And I know it will be a matter of time before he will spontaneously and independently say "I need to go potty" when he needs to go.

The first time he wet his shorts, his preschool teacher, Erin, noticed that he ran to a corner of the room and had a funny look on his face - the kind of look that says, "I need to go potty." He just couldn't find the words. She was going to take him but he preferred the paraprofessional (Dena) in the class to take him, as she usually does. He refused to go with Erin (he fondly refers to her as "E-in". So they went over to Dena (he fondly refers to her as Dee-ya) together.

Erin said, "What do you want to tell Ms. Dena?"

Matthew slowly but firmly said, "I want to tell E-in BYE!"

Erin said, trying to hide a chuckle, "Why do you want to tell me bye?"

Matthew slowly and clearly said, "I need to go potty, Dee-ya."

The second time he needed to go, Erin says he marched right to the front door and pushed the Go Talk button we have up there with a toilet on it. It says "I need to go potty." Unfortunately, it was just too long of a walk to the restroom. He ended up wetting his shorts but HOORAY for initiating to go BEFORE it happened.

He is learning. And he is finding his words.

Conversation Book: Grant's Farm

I started a "conversation book" for Matthew to take to school. I got the idea from a down syndrome education online article "Reading and writing for infants with Down syndrome (0-5 years). (Highly recommended resource!!) It is a photo album with photos of what we did during the week or weekend. I have the photo on one side and on the adjacent page, a short sentence about the photo written from his perspective.

The short narratives I write in the photo album aren't intended to
"test" his reading ability. I have underlined words that are not (yet) in his sight word vocabulary. So except for the underlined words, he can
read and understand the rest. The short sentences help him tell his teacher about what he likes (or does not like) or what he did recently.

I change the photos in the album every week to keep it fresh. He loves looking at photos. And his teacher tells me that he's always excited to show the photos to her.

In a nutshell, here's what I hope to achieve with the conversation book.
- encourage more spoken and spontaneous speech and language. He understands so much but has difficulty in expressing his thoughts.
- use his sight reading (a major strength) to give him the language to express his thoughts.
- encourage speaking in sentences.
- encourage social skills and turn-taking. His teacher had a great idea to also use his conversation book as an ice breaker with his peers since he tends to be shy and quiet around them.
- give him the language he can use in talking or thinking about things he likes and his experiences.
- it will also be a good way for his teacher to get to know him better.
- it's a good opportunity to practice reading and comprehension. He is highly motivated.

Grant's Farm
The first set of photos I put in his conversation book was about our trip to Grant's Farm.

Here's a video of him feeding the goats.


After a week, I replace the photos in the album with photos of a different and recent experience. A few of the old photos are displayed on our refrigerator for the following week but without the sentences. Instead, I use them to just point out different things on them. At the same time, I write short sentences on a small white board for him to read to me, giving him the visual words that I think he might want to say to help him tell me about the photos. So instead of just giving him the auditory input, "say this...", I make use of his visual memory (a common strength in children with Down syndrome) and his ability to read.