School Has Started...

It has been a while since I have posted...our computer is broken...so no pictures :( Emma had a wonderful start to first grade. She was up early and spent most of the morning walking around with her new backpack on just waiting to go!! She was so excited to see her friends again and had many hugs to give. She had a wonderful first day and used her dynavox really well. I am so proud!! She has such a wonderful group of kids in her class, a great teacher, and her new aid seems to be an awesome match with her. I have a feeling we are going to see some very good things from Miss Emma this year!!!

Daisy Scout Day Camp

Emma and I spent the day at Camp Tanlgefoot for Daisy Scout Day Camp yesterday. It was a great day. All of the girls there were kindergarten or first graders. We broke into groups and spent an hour at each station before coming back together as a group to cook our supper over an open fire. We started our day in the craft house. Emma had a rough time getting going, but once she did...she did a good job. She made a picture frame, door hanger, sun picture, and bracelet. Next we were off to the the meadow for games. Emma enjoyed playing with the huge ball the best. While in the meadow we played a go fish matching game in the grass, bean bag toss, and learned to use the hula hoops like jump ropes. After a tour of Camp Tanglefoot we crossed the road and headed to the lake. The lake was Emma's favorite station. She absolutely loved being out on the pontoon boat. She especially liked it going fast! When we would go slow she was saying "go, go" because she wanted to go faster. After an hour on the lake we went back to the campsite to make an edible snack. We make a camp fire that we could eat. After our snack we all learned how to tie a knot in a rope. The girls in our group also got to help build the real fire so that we could cook our hot dogs and marshmallows. It was such a fun day - Emma enjoyed it so much. I was very pleased with how helpful, courteous, and nice Emma was to all of her new friends. She shared and took turns very well. She did get distracted by other groups that were close by and felt the need to go join in their fun. Definitely something she needs to learn is to stay where she needs to be and not to run off when she sees other stuff going on around her. Girl Scouts is going to be a great extra-curricular activity for Emma to be able to participate in. Emma will definitely be doing more events with the Girl Scouts in the future!!!

Computer Time

We have been so busy...not a very good excuse I know...we haven't gotten Emma much time on the computer lately. When she does we will usually set her up with the Starfall.com website. She has done it enough that she is able to click around herself. She remembers the letters to pick on that will get her to the activities she likes the most ~ like the baseball song! She was playing the other night and I wasn't really paying much attention to what she was doing, but when I did stop to see what she was up to I was really pleased with what I saw. She had found a page that you had to drag and drop the correct shape/letter in the correct spot. She had it figured out and was doing it really well. She is doing so great...can't wait for her to get back to school so that she can continue to practice the skills that she knows and also to learn all the new things waiting for in first grade!!

Occupational Therapy

We had a referral appointment to talk to an occupational therapist this past week. Emma is going to start going to therapy every week. She has some sensory issues with touch and sounds that they will try to help us with as well as work with her on developing the skills she needs. Some of the skills she will be working on will be buttons, writing, cutting with scissors, and sitting to work for longer periods of time. She can continue to have the therapy as long as she shows progress towards her goals every 12 weeks. To start helping her with the sensory issues we are going start "brushing" with her. To start we are going to do it when she show signs of wanting it and as part of our bedtime routine. It is just a soft bristle brush that we use on her arms, hands, legs, and feet. She does seem to really like it. She gets such a calm look on her face when we use the brush on her. We are also going to get a CD with special music to play in her room at night to try to help her get a good nights sleep. Going to sleep isn't hard for Emma, but she never sleeps and entire night. At this point...I will try about anything to help her sleep!!!

More Practice...

I have been working more with Emma so that she is getting used to choosing the right answer for what we are asking her since she is not consistently giving verbal answers. Here she chose her name right away and then did choose the right word for dad one her second attempt. We just did a quick run through this morning after she used her device to tell me what she wanted to put on when we were getting dressed. We were in the living room with Nolan near by and cartoons on t.v. ~ so she didn't do so bad with all of the outside distractions we had going on. The words I have programed so far are mom, dad, Emma, Nolan, Kelsey, Gizmo, red, blue, green, purple, black, and yellow. I am going to be programming these words next to start working on...cat, dog, bird, fish, ball, and car. I am choosing words that we can match to a picture as well as trying to choose words that she shows interest in hoping that this will help her want to continue to do them.

Great Eye Exam...

Emma had a great eye exam today ~ no problems. She is growing up so much!! She sat so nice and did everything that they wanted her to do...other than the drops!! Of course she had to spread the love...and gave lots and lots of hugs ~ even to the old guy in line behind us when we were checking out. Wouldn't the world be a great place if everybody could be as thoughtful and caring to each other as Emma is to everybody she meets!!

Dynavox Practice

We are working on a good routine with the Dynavox at home. It has been kind of hard to get used to using since we are so used to how she communicates that we can usually figure out what she is wanting. I have been working on getting more stuff programmed to make it more individualized for Emma. It was exciting because I used the snack page and asked her what she wanted for snack. She picked "popcorn". She has never actually asked for popcorn before. When she finished her bowl I showed her how to ask for more by using the "more" and "popcorn" buttons. She continued to use the "more" "popcorn" until it was all gone. I must say that it was the middle of the day and I normally would not have popped popcorn at that time...so I wonder how many times has she wanted something and has not been able to tell us?? We have also tried using it with her sight words and puzzles. I give the word "red" and she can choose the color red on the device. For a puzzle we count the number of bugs on the puzzle piece and she could choose the number on the device. She needs help, but hopefully is learning the process. I really think this is going to be one of Emma's best assets at school. I'm so excited because there is going to be so many more possibilities and different ways to use this device!