Infographic I thought was neat- ASL

I liked this, but remember- I am Swizerland, so even if I personally like ASL, I don't think everyone NEEDS to learn it. I hope with all the fun YouTube ASL music videos more people WANT to learn it :). I think it would be interesting to see if using more finger spelling and signs in the lower grades of regular schools would help kinesthetic learners, as well as visual learners, but I don't have a soapbox for the issue ;)

I want to be Swizerland...and a video

I like that Swizerland is neutral. I also like that they are tri-lingual and ready to defend themselves if necessary ;)

Having a deaf child means you get free entry into a world where so many of a parent's choices are judged by those who would not make the same choice. Technology, communication, and education are all hot button topics to some people in each "camp". I am incredibly lucky that I live in a region with so many resources. If I lived in the middle of nowhere I wouldn't have choices- there aren't a lot of Deaf Schools, so signing wouldn't be as viable, Oral Schools aren't everywhere, and certified AVT therapists aren't everywhere, so if I lived somewhere else I might be stuck with whatever the state gave me and be glad for it. But I am here. I am availing myself of everything I can, and usually I am happy I can do that.

But when I feel like there might be pressure to just use one approach I feel myself getting defensive. I would defend my choices if anyone at the school for the deaf railed on me for implanting my boy- but no one has, thankfully!  I know I need to respect the parents there (hearing and deaf) who have their own reasons not to amplify or implant their kids and who have just embraced signing. Likewise, parents may never sign, and throw themselves whole heartedly into an Oral or Aditory Verbal approach. If that works for their family I think that is awesome!  I have read many blogs where CI kids thrived with those approaches. But I am doing things in a way that feels right for me.

I love languages, and the more the merrier. If I can give Peter access to multiple languages, I will. Kids in Swizerland don't have problems learning at least two, and often three or four languages.  My friends who have multiple languages at home have kids who maybe started talking a month or two later than my kids, but they now read and speak in two languages at age 7.  I know Peter is a smart cookie- he is now catching up to about where 9-month old hearing kids are, according to a couple evaluation scales. Since he's 18 months old, that may not seem awesome, but he has made those 9 months of progress in Under six months, and less than two of those months with two ears on. If what we are doing is working so far, I don't see a reason to change. Of course if I feel there are issues I will make adjustments, but right now I am still figuring out what proportions of what ingredients are the best for us, and everything is staying in the mix.

Our mix is working well:

Music?

Great talk. Makes me think about how Peter perceives music. I know he likes music class, and I really hope we are helping train his brain to hear the beauty.

TED talk on Building the Musical Muscle (about music and CIs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTE0MRRXNzs&sns=em 
(If there is no video above here is the link)


So much is being said right now about music and how CI recipients hear it. Just remember that brains are amazing, and they can learn more than we think;)

 ;)More hope for music! New Sound processing strategy being studied :)

Video Check-in

Thank goodness I don't get fined for late check-ins on the blog! I am trying to keep up recording progress and what is happening, but it's hard! The last two weeks we were hit with kidney stones (my hubby) and the flu (everyone else) , busy work, late meetings and oral surgery (hubby), keys locked in the car after speech therapy (Peter and I were outside the car), and then the fun stuff, too- making Halloween costumes for the girls, and me teaching French again. But it has added up to me being busy, and wondering how badly I'm failing something or someone at any moment.

But we are now all healthy, and Peter seems to be doing great!

Note that this video was made using a treat- I do not force him to talk for food! I want to make communicating fun, and what is more fun than chocolate ;)
And puppets...

iPad Apps We Use

Here is a list of the Apps I am currently using with Peter:

Speech-related:
SoundTouch (pairs real pictures with real sound clips)
MusicOBaby (interactive instruments on the iPad screen)
Musical Hands (easy to play colored screen for sound awareness)
The Farm (easy farmyard games with animal sounds)
Bugs & Bubbles (right now we are only using the colored-bubble popping part, but it's good for practicing "bubble" and "pop"!  My girls like the other parts of the app)

Monkey Preschool is not used by Peter, but he is VERY interested when Samantha plays it. I swear I heard him say "mmmm" when she turned it on last time!

Fine motor:
DoodleBuddy (free, and great for finger painting with no mess!)

Sign Language:
The Baobab (a beautifully illustrated written and signed story)
Signed Stories (a whole library of ASL-interpreted and read-aloud stories. Peter loves "Five Speckled Frogs". I have fun taking the ASL quizzes based on each story :))
Not used as much:
SignShine (signed, but not illustrated nursery songs)
Baby ASL (good for my girls to practice on)


I am always looking for more fun, smart apps. If you have any you love, let me know!

Animal fun

A couple videos to show what we have been working on. We are giving everything a sound, and labeling sounds. One example is saying "walk, walk, walk" when moving a toy. We have used the phrase at home with animals, and in speech therapy with Mr. Potato Head. And here is what happened:

And farm animals are always fun, and we have so many versions of them-Little People, vintage Fisher Price, puzzles, books, puppets, etc. so it is easy to expose Peter to lots of repetition of the same sounds in different ways. The following video has times where Peter isn't saying anything, but I kept the wait time to show a little about how much I have to model and how long I have to wait. Any signs in the video are spontaneous.

Rhyme and rhythm in ASL

Peter and I went to the CSD ASL workshop/ Playgroup today, and it was a blast.  I loved learning about some of the rules to ASL poetry and how ASL nursery rhymes can be constructed. I am starting to recognize more and more signs, but I was also reminded of how much I need to practice my receptive finger spelling!
The ASL workshop was taught by a new teacher at CSD, who was recruited from Massachusetts. She signs a lot of music videos, and her talk on bringing rhythm, repetion and physical rhyme into ASL for young kids was really nicely done. She quoted a statistic that hearing kids who had 8 nursery rhymes memorized by age four were much more likely to become skilled readers. The foundation of rhythm and auditory memory helps with literacy. ASL rhymes can help the same way for kids who can't hear. They build up the memory pathways and strengthen the language foundation.
How is a rhyme made in ASL? I am sure I didn't grasp everything, but there are different ways to express it- using the same hand shape in different ways (like the clawed hand for bear ears, chubby cheeks, and a chubby belly) or choosing words that use the same handshap and repeating them (like the open palm used for SCHOOL, HERE, HELLO, C'MON that was woven into a welcome back to school poem).
The talk was getting really interesting when Peter decided he was done sitting still and wanted to go play- and that I had to come, too. I hope they post the video on YouTube!