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!:)
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!:)
Here’s Abbey trying to tell me something! The video of her is a bit hard to hear, sorry, should have turned up the volume on her iPad. I think you should be able to make it out, though.
She’s been doing a lot of talking lately…with her device, which has been very exciting! She uses Proloquo2Go to talk to us. And, she’s bringing it to us, which I explain in the video, is huge!
Click below to see the video!
There are so many apps out there that we have tried with Abbey that we feel help calm her, and let her explore her creativity. She loves water, I mean really loves water, so Koi Pond has been a big hit of hers for a long time. There are now several like this, but this remains her favorite one.
So, click on the video below to see Abbey’s favorite calming and creative apps!
We used to use a visual schedule for mornings and it worked great, first on her Dynavox, then on her iPad with Proloquo2Go. We haven’t had to use it in years, though, because she knows the routine and will even willingly do things out of order.
Some mornings are a bit hard to get her out of bed, she’ll pull the covers up over her head…but not usually for more than a few minutes, then she’s up. Some mornings, she wakes up at 4 or 5, leaving mom wanting to pull the covers up over her head! But, 99% of the time, she’s happy to get ready, knows just what to do (although still requires my help to do some of it) and is happy to go to school! Long gone are the days that I thought we’d never get out the door…and some mornings, we didn’t!
Click below to see US talking about it, ok, well, I’m doing all the talking, but Abbey obviously is agreeing with me!:)
It so exciting when you find something that motivates your kiddos to communicate!! It doesn’t come easy, but I think, gets easier as they start learning and start realizing how it works for them. Some days, she’s a communicating machine and other days, it’s like pulling teeth. It all depends on her mood and what she wants, how motivating it is for her and how motivated she needs to be that day. Some days she needs some prompting and other days, she just goes and goes…those days make me so happy!
So, this was a pretty good day! She was happy and very motivated by candy! This video shows the progression from the beginning, starting with me showing her what to do, to her figuring it out and going with it! Candy is extremely motivating, as you will see! So cute! I used one of the ‘expressions’ on Proloquo2Go for ‘thank you’, so that’s super cute too…
Click the video below to see her treat or treating, in action!
So, yes, Abbey is a bit of a foodie, as you can tell. Ok, so, she really loves food. You can tell by the apps that she chooses to play the most. These apps are fun and they do work on pretend play, creativity and lots more! Wait til you see what she likes to top her donuts with…oh, boy, she’s her father’s child, for sure!:)
I love how creative the specialist that works with Abbey is. Abbey was having an off day, tired, not motivated, kind of day when she came over yesterday. I pulled out the moon sand like stuff, thinking she needed something sensory to do. So, the specialist, knowing Abbey loves to squish up things made out of moon sand, tried to find a way to work on using her iPad with playing moon sand….and this was the result.:) She’s using the keyboard in Proloquo2Go. I worked on it for a bit after she left, trying to get the most I could out of it!
Click on the video below to see how she did it!
abbeysvoice 