August 12-18, 2012

For at least the past six months, I've been using this MagnaDoodle board to write letters and numbers and to draw shapes for Oliver.  I started doing it on a whim, but he took to it and eventually began bringing me the board and pushing the drawing magnets into my hand.  Sometimes, he'd allow me to do hand-over-hand drawings with him holding the magnets.  He obviously enjoyed it and seemed to get something out of the activity.

Well, yesterday he wrote this letter C by himself, unprompted.  He wrote it, then he came and grabbed me by the hand and walked me over to it to show it to me.  And squinched up his face in a happy grin over my effusive praise, hugs, and kisses.  Two things (besides the writing itself) interested me.  First, he brought me to the board instead of bringing the board to me.  Bringing the board to me has always been his way to request that I write letters.  Reversing this seemed (to me) to emphasize that he wanted to show me what he did.  Secondly, for the last two weeks, his favorite letter on Starfall.com has been C.  He's wanted to watch it over and over again.  Interesting.

I had to take a picture.  I think the hardest thing about having a kid who doesn't talk is that you are never sure what's sinking in.  We can go over letters, numbers, shapes, and colors all day, but not get any concrete indication that there's any retention.  Obviously, something got through here, though.

Is it the ABA therapy?  It's probably too soon to say.  After all, he just finished his first full week.  I will say that it seems like he's attempting to use more sounds to request things.  I've noticed more pointing, too. 

This week, Henry had his five-year-old checkup and Peter had his two-month-old one.  Which meant vaccinations for them both.  Now, I would love to say that Henry was brave and stoic and submitted to his shots with courage, but I think my pants would immediately burst into flames.

The kid needed two full grown men to hold him down.

When the screaming stopped and the tears subsided, shots remained the topic of conversation for most of the rest of the day.  Despite my telling him that he wouldn't need any more vaccinations for another six years, Henry kept asking why he needed to get them in the first place and why did they have to be sharp and did the needle stay in his skin, and so forth.  Even this morning began with, "so, I'm not getting any shots today, right?"  Poor, poor child.

As you can imagine, school did not occur that day.  Still, Henry got the following done this week:

• Saxon Math 1: Lessons 21-23 (writing the number 19, writing addition number sentences; writing the number 20, identifying ordinal position to sixth; writing the number 21, addition facts - doubles to 10)
• The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading: Lessons 74-78 (words with the long-u vowel sound; long-vowel words: CK to KE; sight words: to, two, too; the hard and soft sounds of C; the hard and soft sounds of G)
• Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Kindergarten: Pages 58-68 (Qq, GJQ review, lowercase alphabet, Uu)