Conversation Book: Christmas Parties

Here are some photos from Christmas. We went to a few parties and breakfasts with Santa. The kids got to see Santa Claus and have their picture taken with him on 3 separate occasions, at least. At one breakfast event, Santa Claus arrived on a big red fire truck.

Conversation Book: Getting Ready for Christmas

Conversation Book: Swim Class

Matthew loves swimming. He loves dunking his head in the water and he holds his breath for a few seconds. He still needs a floatie though. Without a floatie, he can't seem to propel himself forward so his swim instructor is teaching him that now.

I love that he loves swimming. It's fun and great exercise for him. My fear is that he has no fear of water. That can be dangerous.

He's been away from the pool for 2 weeks now because of the wheezing but I think he's good to go again this week.

Conversation Book: At Grandpa's Farm

I am usually thinking of ways to provide hands-on activities for Matthew. He learns best by being completely immersed in the experience instead of being a mere spectator. By being completely immersed, he is getting visual, auditory, tactile, and whenever possible, olfactory and vestibular input as well. His mind and body are completely engaged and this active stimulation is the ideal way for him to learn. It seems to be an effective way to get him processing and retaining information. On that note, I try to pair fun gross motor activities with more academic activities.

I love the glimmer he gets in his eyes and the verbal and non-verbal excitement he shows when I show him photos of an experience he enjoyed immensely. It usually is a "full contact" experience that triggers such a reaction.

A simple trip to Grandpa's farm is in Matthew's memory bank in the "fun and exciting" category. Such memories usually motivate him to talk more therefore, stimulating more speech and language and adding to his fast-expanding vocabulary. And even if he may not verbally demonstrate his learning right away as Elizabeth typically would, the fact that he gets that glimmer I described is proof enough for me that he gets it, i.e. learning input was successful.

Two of his top favorite things to do at Grandpa's farm include spending time with Grandpa and riding in Grandpa's electric car. He loves to give Grandpa hugs and he laughs and giggles in the electric car, especially when we drive through walls of thick weed overgrowth. Fast is the only speed he loves.

Conversation Book: Driving Grandma's Car

There seem to be more individuals with Down syndrome who do not get driver's licenses than those who do. Yes, there are people with Down syndrome who have learned to drive and who have a driver's license. Some of these inspiring, hard-working individuals are on the Self-Advocate Council at the National Down Syndrome Congress. Click here to read about them.

Will Matthew ever learn to drive? We don't know yet.

Will learning to drive be one of his dreams? We don't know either. That's for him to figure out.

There are people without Down syndrome, typically developing people, who choose not to drive for various reasons.

At this point in time, our focus is on providing learning opportunities that would further his development so that later on in life, he will have more choices available to him. And I hope that one of those choices would be whether to drive or not.

So for now, he will be driving Grandma's car.

Conversation Book: Muffins

Matthew and Elizabeth have become muffin monsters in the past two weeks. They ask for muffins EVERYDAY.

Elizabeth says, "Muffin!! Muffin please!!"

Matthew says, "May I have muh-min please?" If he says the word slowly enough and after watching how I say it, he can articulate the middle "f". It just takes a little prompting. He can sight read the word "muffin" easily.

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.