Thursday, October 3, 2013

If this doesn't warrant a return to blogging, what would?

So, I didn't mean to take a month off.  The devil (ok, the DOE, but they share many attributes, no?) made me do it.  Maya started kindergarten on September 9th, so tomorrow will be the end of her fourth week of school. We still don't have busing. Her school is a bit of a hike from here, and when you add in time for bathroom and diaper changes and snacks and talking to teachers, Will and I are commuting for around 4 hours a day.

This leaves me with enough "free time" to keep our home a 1/4th clean, to cook dinner 2 or 3 times a week, to barely keep up with the class that I'm taking this semester, and to keep arguing with the DOE and office of transportation about busing.  I didn't even manage to bill a single hour for my job in the month of September. Much like my over-used car, I am running on fumes.

But it's worth it, because Maya's school is good. We're still settling in, but they understand communication devices and jumped right in with the talker. They are firm and consistent with the I'm-going-to-test-every-single-situation-and-person-here Maya that emerges in new settings. They see her strengths.

Speaking of strengths . . .at back-to-school night I listened to curriculum discussions and then wondered where Maya's literacy level (letter recognition, etc) is. I picked up a book and asked her about a few words, and she surprised me. Yesterday I wrote a few sentences, and she actually was able to read them with the talker.  I tried again at breakfast this morning (because nothing counts until it's video documented, right?), check it out:



Literacy is so, so, so important for Maya, and other AAC users. Once you can spell, you can say anything---even if you don't have a button for a particular word. Just a few weeks ago she was using the starting letter sound to try to tip me off as to the new button she wanted me to add to her talker . . . once she can read and approximate spelling, she can learn how to do the programming herself! (Oh boy. I can only imagine what will end up in there.)

This is where I would typically sum things up, but I'm too tired to even come up with an ending. Today was kind of a lousy day, and this video was my silver lining. There you go.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This video brought tears to my eyes. What a smart little girl! You always knew she was smart...I love your unwavering love and devotion to her!

I know you are very busy and overworked, but you are doing amazing things. :)

Sophie's Trains said...

I love it. You are my inspiration. I've been fighting and pushing for communication for Sophie because of all I learned from your blog. She is learning PECS and doing really well, at home, school and in a PECS-focused aba group and tommorrow we are meeting with an AAC provider in our home. Wanted you to know how important your blog was to us and Maya's progress continues to give me hope (and Sophie's older sister's name is Maya too :))

Grammacello said...

So, you should send this video to the person who ranked Maya in the bottom of the bottom percentile-or whatever-when you were looking at nursery schools!
Just saying.... :-)

Anonymous said...

what aac program do you use

GingerB said...

These look like kindergarten skills to me! Lovely, thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I've never commented on this blog before, but I just have to say... Go, Maya! Great job!

Dana said...

She uses the app "Speak for Yourself", currently running on an iPad mini. More info can be found at the top of the blog under the "Our Communication/ AAC journey" tab

Anonymous said...

Omg. I think that person who evaluated her iq as some crazy low number should be required to watch this over and over and over again. I am mean seriously. Maya not only is clearly above average in terms of reading skills and has an outstanding visual memory. ( how in the heck does she know instantly exactly where on her talker the word is. ) But her ability to listen and process the cue you gave her: it's a day of the week...and then acknowledging with that little nod "ok I've got it" is very impressive.

Ellen Seidman said...

Sitting here with huge smile on my face. This is so awesome! Take THAT, doomsaying experts! We've found that Max's strong visual memory has come in really handy for reading (along with traveling, because he has on occasion proved the GPS wrong).

Maria said...

omg!!! I am so impressed. She is definitely reading better than some of my kindergarteners. Big hugs to all of you!

Anonymous said...

Wow Dana. Thinking of you.
-TD