Ruminations

This has been a very enlightening few days for me. It started with our XBOX contest. From all of the input I received I learned so much…primarily that there are a million ways to use the dynavox creatively to help Nathan learn to communicate. It also taught me that it was time for a paradigm shift.

For the last 4 years I have been almost entirely focused on Nathan’s physical development. I figured that since children spend the first 2 years or so developing their motor skills, that this would be my first emphasis with Nathan’s rehabilitation. We have come to a great strategy and I believe we have the best of all worlds in place with his physical program.

Now it’s time to focus on communication and cognitive development. I feel like an infant again. Now that I finally feel I have a handle on physical rehabilitation, it’s time to put that on auto-pilot and go back to school. I have so much to learn! I have to learn about early childhood development, augmentative communication, speech and language pathology, and how to marry these 3 disciplines.

I had hoped to rely on Nathan’s school to provide this. But the last IEP meeting last week proved me so completely wrong. I realized that the school will not step up to this responsibility, so it falls back to me. I plan to do something about it, but that will take time, so in the meantime, it’s up to me to learn the best way to teach Nathan and to help him learn to communicate.

The good thing is we have amazing guides. The people we are working with for Nathan’s communication are wonderful. Now I just have to learn from them and prioritize communication as part of his rehabilitation.

In the meantime we have been enjoying daily outings and get-togethers with family. It’s been so nice to get together with the family every night and watch everyone pamper the kids. Nathan and Belle are the only children in my side of the family so everyone loves them! It’s been a great holiday so far. Now if only someone would go do all my Christmas shopping!

Comments

  1. Sally Fraley says

    Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!!
    Got your e-mail -computer not working right now–but soon!!

  2. Nice insights, Marcella. Nathan can continue his motor development as you concentrate on his cognition/communication. The more he sits in a supportive ‘chair’ or in standing, the better able he will be able to do both. He can work on the 2 important ‘c’s’ in either sitting or standing.

  3. I’m back on line.

    can the game cards for candy land be programmed into the dynavox? it might be a sneaky way to get N to learn colors or pick his guy to use to play and count. It would be more like matching at first- matching his card on the machine to the one that is drawn for him…but maybe motivating to play with cousins and peers….I don’t know how the programing works but maybe fun….

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