Here it is! Abbey’s Year video!! I don’t think I got around to doing one last year, but we have several older ones on our YouTube channel. It’s amazing to see how far she has come! She’s happier than ever, communicating more than ever and is really getting the hang of going new places and trying new things!
Celebrate with us as we look back and see how we have helped Abbey learn and grow!
Click here to watch Abbey’s Year 2014!
Abbey is working on a reading curriculum at school called Edmark and seems to be doing well, so I thought it would be good if I could do something over Christmas break to keep working on her reading and spelling.
I googled Edmark and found some great stuff to print out at home, to work on her words at home. She’s actually on words 11-20 right now, but I know that there are a lot of other words she is reading and can spell, this is just a way to keep track, let her show us what she knows and work on words that she doesn’t know…but especially work on her typing words into her communicating app, hopeful that this will lead to more communication!
Here’s a video of us working on the stuff I printed out, just day one! I’ll try to do some more videos as we do more.
Click here to watch the video of Abbey at work.:)
P.S. I found the printable on a site called http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/. Some were free and some were a few dollars. They have all of the Edmark words to work on in many different ways. They have lots of great stuff!:)
Abbey is truly starting to anticipate parts of Christmas!! She’s looking in her stocking often, wondering when the day will come. We’re marking off dates on the calendar, heading towards that big circled day…wondering if she’s understanding that, or not?? She visited Santa, not too impressed still, but pressed Santa on her iPad and after a bit of prompting told him ‘thank you’ for coming over to see her.:) Her favorite button? CANDY CANE, of course! Some of these buttons go to a set of Melissa & Doug wooden Christmas cookies. He behavior specialist plays with this set with her and uses these buttons.
Pretty cool, we’ve got a Halloween folder also now and she knows how to use it…now, working on Christmas! Making communicating fun and meaningful for her is so rewarding. That moment when she opens up those new folders that you’ve made and spontaneously uses one or more of the buttons, such a wonderful moment!!
How have you made a Christmas folder for your kids??
So, when the new pool arrived, we knew Abbey would be happy….but look at her go, wow! Let me add that the box weighs 130 pounds! Yes, she’s amazing!
Click on the video below to watch!
It took her the entire week, but she finally seems to have adjusted to the time change!
Whew, what a week!
What a difference that one little hour makes! Usually Abbey adjusts so well to change, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what the actual problem was. Abbey doesn’t know how to tell time, but we’ve always known, for years, that she has some kind of internal clock. When there is something that always happens at the same time, she starts sensing when it’s supposed to happen. So, when the clocks rolled back an hour, she got up Monday morning and even though I tried to tell her that she had school, when the time came and went, she thought she was staying home. We had 4 grumpy, “I’m not going to school” days in a row because of this! She likes to stay home, but knows she needs to go to school, so if there’s a chance to stay home and then you take it away…watch out! She saw her chance and I kept taking it away!:(
So, solution for future dilemma’s like this?? My home team worked on a visual for Abbey to know whether it is school or not. I’ll share when it’s done, if it’s helping her.:) We’re hoping this will also give her a meaningful way to understand the days of the week and understand the calendar that she practices every day!
Click on the video below!
The Abster is a grumpster this morning, didn’t want to get ready for school! We distract and stay busy once we’re all ready and waiting for the bus!
She wasn’t very into doing her exercises with me this morning, but she did them. Then we smelled the roses and pulled the petals off to stay busy for the rest of the time. This is a favorite activity for Abbey, but I don’t let her do it very often, so she sure got into that!
Here she is with the roses:)
Click on the video below to see her doing her exercises, rather grumpily:
P.S. She’s carrying her iPad mini in a Chat Bag, found at http://www.chatbag.net
Here’s Abbey actually playing with some toys appropriately, which is hard to come by! Ok, well, kind of.:) It’s super neat to see her playing and not ‘stacking or piling!’
You’ll also notice the sensory component that is included in everything she does!!
Here’s Abbey asking for the same thing over and over….she’s got a one-track mind today!
It’s been a rough week of not enough sleep for either of us. We’re doing much better now so I’m counting my blessings as she repeats herself over and over, so thankful that it’s in such a nice sentence!:)
We all have days where we are tired and grumpy, right? I think parents with kids with autism can have plenty of them…with kiddos that don’t sleep well and so much to do! It’s too easy to fall into the grumpy trap when things are so overwhelming and then when sleep doesn’t happen..wham, it’s almost too hard to push it away! The worst is when our kiddos pick up on it, as they often do, and become grumpy too!
Well, yes, I’m having a tired and grumpy couple of days. I have to make myself do the things that make me feel better, like walking, not eating just chocolate all day, etc..
So, what do you do to feel better when you are tired and grumpy, autism moms and dads?
Click on the video below…
It’s so important to look back! Sometimes you feel like you’re at a stand still, not making much progress or that it’s just going so slowly. When you look back and see, over time, all the progress there has been, it can give you that motivation again to keep on truckin’! Whether you’ve video taped when they were younger or have old IEP’s to look at or just even old pictures, look back, look at how far you’ve come!! Look at how far we’ve come!!
Click on the video below! And, wait until you see the video on the bottom…a blast from the past!:)
Click on the video below to see Abbey getting ready in the morning, right after we started using a picture schedule for her, before she had a communicating device. It made such a difference with her!
abbeysvoice 