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’s so amazing to watch your child who struggles to learn, to pick up things so quickly, but I’ll tell you what is even more amazing to me…seeing her happy doing it, smiling, looking like she’s proud of herself. The other thing that just makes my heart smile is seeing her relationship with her behavior specialist, you can tell, Abbey just loves her! She looks at her, she references her, she plays with her (what is she gonna do when I put the wrong one down? Smiles:) and she enjoys her time with her. She’s not always easy to get to work, even when it’s fun, when she’s tired or grumpy…but we all have those days and that’s ok! We’ll take what we can get! Abbey is obviously having fun here, that’s key! Whether it’s the velcro, the stickers, playing with her specialist, or all of the above…whatever works, it’s important to keep trying new ways, new things until you find something that works and that’s a gift that her specialist has.
Now, in a perfect world, all of my friends could have people in their lives like Abbey’s team…something I long for, pray for and work as hard as I can to see them have! If you need help finding help, please let me know! I don’t know all the answers, but I know where to look for them…..from way too many years of searching!
Proud of you Abbey, you GO GIRL!!
Click on the video below to see her with her behavior specialist in action:
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 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!:)
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!
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Today was a patience testing kind of day. It takes an extraordinary amount of patience to raise a child with autism and I have a lot of it, most of the time…but sometimes, I wonder, do I have enough??
She’s starting to understand more and more what she’s supposed to do and what she’s not, but sometimes the temptations are too much for her and there she goes into everything again, or not stopping to play outside to come in and go potty. She’ll go months and months doing great and then once she does it, seems like she does it over and over and over! She listens well….trick is, as long as I’m patient and firm, together! She can totally tell now when I’m getting frustrated, oh dear!
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