IEP Goal Bank

Another CI mom, from THIS blog, shared a wonderful site with all us other CI moms and dads on the CICircle and Listen-Up forums through Yahoo Groups. This IEP Goal Bank is a wonderful site to use for those currently going through an IEP process or to bookmark for a future IEP. It provides an IEP Goal/Objective Template, it gives examples of specific goals from articulation, to auditory processing, to language etc. It also has additional links to explore for activity/material ideas too.

Although we're not going through this process right now, it is not too far away and I am gathering as much information as possible to be armed and ready when the time does come (which is next January). There is so much involved in an IEP process and as Aiden's mom and dad, it is up to us to make sure he gets what he needs and I think this is a great informative site to help parents along.

If you have any other sites you have found helpful during the IEP process, please share them in the comments section.

From Snow to Sunshine

Just a few weeks ago we were overloaded with snow. Since it was too cold to go outside and play, we brought it in.

Aiden got to SCOOP and DUMP, make HILLS then pretend to drive the trucks UP and DOWN the hill, make SNOWBALLS, play find the (insert object), BURY, DIG, and "ooooo, the snow is so COLD, brrrr", FILL the cup up until it's FULL then PAT-PAT-PAT the snow down, and even make a mini SNOWMAN ... all from the kitchen sink.



Oh, and his big sister even taught him about "yellow snow" and how never to eat it.


Aiden has played in the snow before, but not like this. Everytime we took him outside he sort of stayed away from touching too much of it. It took him a little bit to get his hands "cold and wet", but before too long, he was having a blast.

Fast forward just a few weeks and it's feeling like Spring outside! The sun is shining and I can't keep Aiden inside. So I picked up an indoor herb garden to plant with Aiden.

With this Aiden got to POUR the water into the BOWL to BREAK UP the SOIL and MIX it all up with a big SPOON, SCOOP the soil into the PLANT POTS, OPEN the SEED packets and POUR them into the soil then PAT-PAT-PAT the soil down, and pour more SOIL into the POTS, then WATER the PLANTS so they can grow.

Both of these activities also worked on Aiden's sensory integration (SI) goals, such as being able touch and feel different textures but even more so, being able to sustain attention to one activity for more than 5 minutes (which we're working very hard on)! It is very important that he feels a sense of accomplishment to help him attain this goal.

And as you can see, he is very proud of his final product!

Auditory-Verbal Goals as of August 2009

About a month ago we started creating themed units to go along with Aiden's therapy. Along with the theme, his therapists and I choose:

a handful of books to go along with the themed unit

key vocabulary words

two or three songs or nursery rhymes to work on, whether or not they go along with the theme

two or three key functional word phrases (i.e. "All done!" or "Blow (mommy) a kiss!")

This has really helped me stay focused and not feel so overwhelmed with trying to fit it ALL in, and best of all, we are seeing some great responses from Aiden!

I plan on posting our themed unit plans every couple of weeks (and will post our past two in separate posts), as I just LOVE how this community of deaf/hoh moms and dads share in a common goal -to help our children learn to listen and speak. There are some who do not have easily accessible resources and I hope that this is helpful. PLUS, in the same sense, I would LOVE feedback on our plans, including ideas for additional activities, songs, and/or books. These themes will be consistently revisited and the more ideas to work with, the better.

Before I start posting our themed units, I wanted to document, for Aiden's Journey, his current Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) goals, which we also work on week after week. These goals do not change until Aiden has them mastered on a continuous basis.

AIDEN'S CURRENT GOALS

AUDITORY HIERARCHY LEVEL

1. Demonstrate a conditioned response to Lings (mastered August 2009 by pointing to his ear whenever a Ling is voiced)

2. Consistently turn to his name (mastered end of July 2009)

3. Respond to requests to imitate words using a hand cue

For example, I hold my hand up to my mouth and voice the /ah/ sound, then place my hand by his mouth and say "Your turn!" Aiden will imitate /m/, /ah/ at this point.

4. Participate in rhymes/finger plays
Since we started focusing on particular songs each week, Aiden will use the correct hand motions for two to three songs based through listening alone. We will continue to work on new songs/nursery rhymes each week.

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE (Cognition)

1. Recognizes common sounds (e.g. "brrr" for car)

2. Understands up to 20 words

3. Follows one-step commands in routines (i.e. "wash the baby", "Give (mommy) the (spoon)."

I am currently documenting the WASP sounds he recognizes and how many words he understands through listening alone. Aiden is progressing with one step commands, especially since we've started our themed units. For example, Aiden will blow kisses (from our bubble unit), wash the baby, and point to face parts (from our bathtime/body parts unit) when asked to do so without any visual cues.

EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE

1. Develop an auditory feedback loop by imitating combinations after an auditory-only model (i.e. WASP program which is similar to the learning to listen sounds)

Aiden imitates the airplane (ah), car (brrr), and ice cream (mmm), when he sees the object or picture.

2. Approximate any 1 - 10 high frequncy words in context (e.g. more, up, hi, all done, go)
Aiden's current expressive spoken vocabulary that he uses in context includes:

ahhhh (airplane) - 6/09

maa (more) - beg. 7/09

maaam or ma-ma (mom) - beg. 7/09

da-da or dahd (dad) - end of 7/09

uh-uh (up) - beg. 8/09 (not consistently)

ah da (all done) - beg. 8/09

on (for on, in, and down) - mid. 8/09

buh-buh (bye-bye) - mid. 8/09 (not consistently)

um-um (yum-yum) - mid 8/09

malm (milk) - end 8/09

3. Use jargon (words mixed with sentence intonation)

4. Speech Babble CVCV (consonant-vowel-consonent-vowel)
For example, we use a peg board and pegs to help accomplish this and demonstrate turn taking. I start with a peg up to my mouth and voice, ba-ba-ba, then pass the peg to (dad) who voices the same, ba-ba-ba, who then passes the peg to Aiden who will hopefully imitate the action and sound and then place the peg in the board. We continue on with different vowels (bo-bo-bo or bu-bu-bu etc.) trying to get Aiden to imitate each one. The other day Aiden started this on his own, voicing da-da-da into a cup then passing the cup onto me. He still doesn't imitate much, but we're working on it.