We haven't had our AVT session for a couple weeks since we've been on vacation, but we were up bright and early to head down to Cook Children's for our bi-weekly therapy. It's nice, because Aiden's daddy is now working 10 hour days so he has off on Fridays to go to therapy with Aiden & me. I like him hearing it from them, then I don't feel like I'm "telling him" what to do all the time! : )
Aiden usually falls asleep soon after we get in there, but he raring and ready to go today, giving out huge smiles and really participating! We always start our sessions with Becky asking about all the new things Aiden is doing. Here's what he's doing that makes his mommy smile (and sometimes even cry)!
*He found the da-da-da-da sound again! He was saying it for awhile then seemed to lose it. I know all babies do this, but as a mother of a deaf baby, I get terrified that he's going to stop cooing and babbling. So hearing the da-da sound from him again is music to my ears!! What I have been doing with him is taking his hand to feel my throat and my breath as I say "da-da-da-da-da" and after about a week of doing that Aiden started picking it back up and when he says anything, we all go crazy showing him how excited we are!
*He's been grabbing his toys and of course brings them right to his mouth. The last few days he's been making a long O and the OO sounds as he holds the toy to his mouth. I think he likes the vibrations.
*Aiden loves vocal play (where we talk to him then pause for him to respond, then we talk again, etc). He gets so excited and is really experimenting with a lot of sounds! He's also starting to be very vocal when he's by himself too. Before if no one was around, he would just sit there very quietly, but now, I think he's starting to detect his own voice and gets really loud talking to himself! I love it!
*He's really been exploring a lot. He has found his toes, hands and other parts of his body; he loves to touch our mouth when we're talking to him; and of course the hearing aids are still being pulled out, but not as bad as before.
I JUST LOVE IT!!!! My binky boy is really starting to notice sounds and it just takes my breath away!!!!
After we talk about Aiden's highlights, we go into our lesson. Here's what we learned and will work on this week.
*
Communicative intent (powerful moments) - We learned about this with our other great AVT Miss Helen. This is where we introduce a new game or song with Aiden (i.e. peek-a-boo), and then after playing it repetitively, start to pause in between lines to give Aiden the chance to respond. Ride a Lil' Horsey is a great one to do this with. As we bounce Aiden on our knee we sing:
"Ride a little horsey into town, Ride a little horsey
Then faaaall (pause here for reaction) DOWN"
and then tip Aiden down towards the floor. He loves playing this!
*Learn-to-listen sounds (tell then show) - Whenever Becky introduces a new sound she always includes a song to sing with it and a book to read about it. This week we're working on:
bus (bu-bu-bu), "Wheels on the Bus",
The Wheels on the Bus, by Paul Zelinsky (this is a great interactive book!)
Being a teacher, I have a lot of these books, but if I don't, I love Amazon.
*Reading to Aiden - We continue to read Aiden around 10 books a day (we're all in this together!). I know this seems like a lot, but I'm talking about the little infant, touchy-feely, interactive books. As we read him the book, I pick out one extra thing to focus on, for example, describing the sun on each page or counting the animals on each page. Aiden loves the touch and feel books and is now reaching up himself to check it out. Another of his favorites are the books by Karen Katz, they have that lift-a-flap feature. If anyone has any other favorites or suggestions, I'd love to hear about them to add to our collection!
Now I'm off to find a toy spider (ewwww - I absolutely hate spiders, even the toy ones!) and a bus to add to our learning to listen box. Whenever I go to any store, I always look for cheap items to add to his learning to listen box and can usually find them here or there. Any suggestions on where to get all these toys would be greatly appreciated too!
1 comment:
Tammy,
I love to hit the $1 section of our local Target. Just as we walk in, there are bins full of lots of different things each time. Now, for $1, they are not the highest quality, so they might not last forever, but they are just great for the way our toddler goes through toys. Yep, we are in the throwing phase....oooooh that gets under my skin!!! especially since he really doesn't hear me saying "Please don't throw the toys!!! So then I feel like a bad person for getting annoyed. sigh. The guilt all of this drags up is incredible.
Sorry, got off track there! So check out Target's $1 section, or the other places that are fun: craft stores, like Michaels or JoAnne's, because they always have some new and interesting and usually cheap stuff, and they have awesome fabrics and textures too!
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