Encouraging Play, Fine Motor, Speech

Almost 20 years ago, my senior in college asked me to sing a song as a part of 'ragging'. We were already friends so I kept refusing but he was persistent. Finally one day I sang a lullaby and he held his head in mock frustration. Whether he was disappointed by my bad singing or because he was expecting me to belt out a romantic song, I don't know.

It's a little bit funny. Last week I was asked what my greatest 'strength' was. After some prodding (i.e.: "what does your daughter think your greatest strength is?"), I mustered a 'I sing for my daughter even though I cannot sing'. I think my husband got more badly-sung kiddo songs than he bargained for.

 

Mon
10 min wind instruments
10 min puzzle
10 min pretend play with her baby
10 min scoop and pour pasta into another bowl
10 min stacking cups/blocks, putting small pegs in holes
10 min matching
10 min playdough
10 min put cards into mail box, ziploc bags
20 min books

 

Tue:
45 min Music class
10 min wind instruments
10 min matching
10 min doodles
15 min Shopping. One of the grocery stores nearby has little 'Shopper in training' carts. I only noticed them last week. I will try to take her every week and she can pick her fruits.

One of her new IFSP goals is to fade away the dependency on books when eating because now she demands books to eat. It will not be easy. Her OT asked us to try feeding her in a different place than usual. So she ate yesterday at a park near her music class. But she was well entertained by the squirrels, dogs, etc.

 

Wed:
60 min Fitness center
10 min doodles
10 min matching
20 min books

Thurs:
40 min pretend play with new playhouse, cooking set
10 min wind instruments
20 min books
10 min puzzle, pegs into small holes

 

DD is doing well. She is using 100+ words regularly and just starting to combine two words. Requesting books, songs, doodles by name (like "bus book", "sing farm","draw eye"). Filling in the words in almost all her rhymes. Started to try count to 10 (gets it right about half the time) She imitates more readily.

She is doing some basic puzzles. Just started making finer markings on her doodle pad (beginnings of digital grasp)

She is throwing tantrums a lot more since she has started to request things more frequently and we have to say 'No' more.

Meal times are a pain. She has a high pain threshold, so hunger doesn't seem to bother her much. She has learnt how to jump and bounces around the room like a ball all day. She has not gained a single pound in the past 5 months.

My focus for the next quarter is going to be pretend play, verbs, fine motor skills.

 

I focused on none of these

These past three months, most of my time has been spent begging DD to eat one more spoonful... because she was starting to lose weight gradually

She is back to an okay weight now, so hopefully I will be back on track.

 

April 4:
-Fitness center
-alphabets and shapes flash cards

April 5:
-Alphabets (flash cards. she was able to identify all but 4. Have to see if she does this consistently)
-Numbers (1-10 except three of them. Will check if consistent)
-Practicing 'What'? (Right now, with hidden objects. Shaking a box with an object inside. Prompt her to say 'what' and if she does say it, she gets it. She is saying 'what' when I shake boxes, so now hiding the objects in different ways like inside a sock or under a pillow)
-Practicing turn taking (she loses interest in the activity if I take turns)

 

My daughter has started to sing bits of songs (or books) with anywhere between 10-15 words. But when speaking, she is only combining two words and it is still something we need to prompt. I think the ditties are rote due to our incessant singing.

I want to make the songs more meaningful to her. Pinterest is filled with ideas based on children's books and songs - I want to use some simple props so she knows the meaning of the songs/books and can act them out. Maybe it will increase her pretend play skills.

Even if I write things down on paper, I can never find my notes again and keep forgetting my ideas and nothing gets done. So I will try to post about these here periodically.

I also want to introduce some new songs to her, not just nursery rhymes. For everyone else it may come very naturally, but I need to make an effort because I don't normally listen to songs at home or anywhere

 

DD is getting close to three and these past weeks she had testing done by the early intervention, school district and developmental pediatrician's office to prepare her for her transition out of EI.

She qualified for speech and physical therapy. They found no deficits in her fine motor skills in the EI and school district tests! I guess we practiced all the typical fine motor activities for her age too much and she could do everything they tested her on.
I have put her on a wait list for private occupational therapy because she still needs a lot of support. Her skills are so uneven, she still cannot do a pincer grasp with her right hand.

The pediatrician's testing was limited to speech and communication and they said that her expressive communication was better than auditory comprehension. That is atypical and they told me to slow down and work on listening. I wonder how much of it is because of her restlessness but will keep that in mind.

 

This has been a flop show. I made/collected some props for some songs - photos of frogs (Five Green and Speckled frogs), monkeys (Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed), bunny figures (Hop little bunnies)

When I try to sing and use the photos/figures, she takes them and runs away. She then lines them up on the floor and picks them up - in a forever loop. If I try to take them, it's a tantrum. I am giving up on this until I think of some way to have control.