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??
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!
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!
Yesterday turned out to be a fun day, well most of it! We went to a ‘trunk or treat’ event at our local autism center, The Responding to Autism Center. My oldest son with high functioning autism put on ‘his idea’ of a costume and went to help out with one of the games for the kids, but ended up hanging out with his friends, from social skills classes, that showed up, for most of the time….which was really neat to watch. My oldest kiddo, Maggie, almost 18 now also came and helped out with games. I was so impressed with all the teenagers there, how great they were with the kids. I saw lots of kiddos having a great time and a couple struggling…but a nice safe, understanding place to do it in!
So, Abbey participated in a new way this year, which was very exciting! I added a folder to her Proloquo2Go on her iPad with the buttons, ‘trick or treat’ and ‘thank you.’ She caught on VERY quickly, that she received candy when she did this and had a big smile on her face….stay tuned for a blog post about this, WITH a very cute video! And, yes, my Proloquo2Go peeps, I added the ‘thank you’ with expression, so super duper, extra cute!:)
Click below to see my video diary post for today and hear what I have to say about taking opportunities!!
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 