Math: Not Our Favorite, But We're Gonna Rock It! (Videos)

I remember when I was teaching....my students with Down Syndrome almost always struggled more in math than in reading. I always hate to make generalizations like that, but from my experience it almost always held true! Interestingly enough, when I looked into this further, there is research that shows people with Down Syndrome achieve a higher level in reading than in math, so there are some facts supporting my observation. Not surprisingly, I'm finding with Zoya (and her teacher is as well) that math is just not her favorite :) She will choose any other activities over math activities in the classroom and at home! I try to incorporate math activities into other activities and do short spurts of math work as not to frustrate her (or me haha) too much! I also try to do a lot of games that incorporate math skills! Both my students with special needs and students without special needs LOVED learning math through games!

I have recently pulled out my "Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome..." book after it took a little vacation in a box in the basement! I used this book a lot when I was teaching, and it's been helpful once again as I figure out how to best help Zoya in the area of math! I really did forget how much I love this book! It has a lot of great ideas to make math more concrete rather than abstract for our kids! (On a side note, there is also a "Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome" book in this same series that is also very helpful!)

I've been researching some math programs that might be best for Zoya and have narrowed it down to a couple. One of those is Numicon and the other is Math-U-See. I'm going to continue looking into both...but if you have experience with either of these programs with a child with Down Syndrome, I'd love to hear about your experience!

Some of the beginning concepts we've been working on include rote counting to 20, arranging numbers 1-10 in order, 1-1 correspondance, more and less, counting items up to 10 items, telling how many are in a set after counting them, understanding zero, and completing patterns.  The very most basic concepts that we started with that Zoya has now mastered are matching and sorting by color, size, and other attributes, showing one more, simple comparisons (more or less, big or little, same or different), and identifying written numbers 1-20. So that is the foundation on which we are building.

I took a few videos today while I was working with Zoya. You can see that I pretty much adapt as I go and see needs or see that she isn't understanding.

Here is Zoya working on ordering numbers 1-10. I got this cool wooden number block set on Zulily before Christmas! I LOVE it and we use it for lots of different math activities!

Here we are working on "what comes next." If you noticed in the first video, Zoya keeps going back to number 1 to start counting all over again. I don't discourage it because it helps her practice counting, but she has difficulty counting on. So practicing "what comes next" will help her to count up from a certain number. 

This was the first time I attempted to use this tool for 1-1 correspondence. As you can see, she struggled to grasp the concept....so after this I gave her a little break and came up with a tool that would help her understand this concept a bit better. You'll see that in the video after this one! 

In this video, you can see the tool I came up with to help her! I just drew a grid on some paper and cut it out so it showed one square per number (1 square after the #1 block, 2 squares after the #2 block). I like this because you can see how she looks at the squares for the first few and is able to grab that many counters to match. Without this tool she had no idea how many to grab for the number and kept getting distracted by having to grab one at a time and count. I also like the grid because I could easily turn it the other way and have the numbers along the side instead of the top. In hindsight I'd have used a different color paper since it blends in with the table (or put a different colored mat down under it). Also, I only made it go up to 7 because that's as big as my piece of paper was, and also...I won't move on to more until she masters these smaller numbers first. Once she does I'll just add on to this grid by tapping another sheet of paper to it! There are so many ways to practice this same concept, but I think this is going to be one of our favorites! 

And one last video. I dug this puzzle out of the basement and Zoya enjoys it. It's great for counting and ordering numbers. You could also do the above activity with this puzzle, putting the correct number of items under each train car number. I like it because it allows her to move around a bit more. Hands-on is the key for Zoya learning math, so with everything I do with her for math skills! 

Please let me know if these videos are helpful! I'm trying something new after a few blog readers requested some more videos of how I teach the girls. I'm passionate about teaching, since it was my first profession, and a bit of a nerd in that area, so I'm happy to share ideas. Just remember every child is different...what works for one of my children doesn't necessarily work for the others, so I'm constantly trying to adapt to their needs and figure out the best ways to help them understand the concepts! 

Happy Metcha Day Sofia!/11 Months Home!

On Saturday (11-30) we celebrated Sofia's first "Metcha Day." Lots of people in the adoption community celebrate "Gotcha Day" (the day they took their children out of the orphanage) but we like to be different and celebrate Metcha Day instead :) The first time we laid eyes on our girls and physically held them is the day they were "born" to us, in our minds :)

I was reading back on some of my old posts from Sofia's adoption and I had to laugh :) I think one of the very early on posts I titled "Live Wire".....and I was definitely right on with that description!! But, clearly you can see she was much more reserved for our initial meeting ;) She promptly fell right to sleep in her Daddy's safe arms!

Looking back on these pictures, a year later now she seems like a completely different child....both on the outside and inside. She looks so pale in these pictures with dark circles under her eyes and dry skin and lips. Her eyes in these pictures look so much emptier than the eyes we see today! She has so much life behind her eyes today. Emotionally, a year later, she's learned to be loved....which sounds really easy, but for such an independent spirit has been a somewhat difficult road! She's learned she needs a mama and daddy to love her and tickle her, sing her to sleep, and scoop her up and coddle her when she gets a boo boo. Even this far into the journey, we're still seeing positive changes. She's been seeking us out much more for no other reason than to just be picked up and held. She requests "more" (one of her only words so far) when my first round of  her special song "You are My Sunshine" ends. She's a big Daddy's girl and loves snuggling with him, wrestling with him, and following him around the house like a little shadow!

Her "firey-ness" is part of her personality and we'd never want to change that, but it's pretty awesome to see the softer side of her coming out as well. It's a beautiful thing to watch a child figure out that they NEED and WANT to be loved and taken care of. I was pretty sure that was an inborn characteristic of all children, but it's certainly taken Sofia a little longer to be able to completely surrender her control and feel safe and peaceful trusting us to take care of her. A year home, she finally BELIEVES she is loved and wanted!  For being such an independent, seemingly confident little girl, some major insecurities were uncovered on our journey over the past year. She never should have HAD to have been so independent at such a young age. She never should have learned to guard her heart by 15 months old, but she did and that breaks my heart. She is so resilient, though, and I know she'll continue to heal with love! I'm hoping that our second year home will bring more healing and a continuation of trust-building! Sofia's joy and sense of humor keep us laughing every single day! She takes some of the most serious moments and turns the mood to a much lighter one. Her sass, dirty looks, and antics often make us turn our heads to laugh (so she doesn't see us!) She is so much trouble and so much joy wrapped into one adorable little bundle! She's taken several years off my life already with her stunts and attitude, but the joy and laughter she brings must give me a few extra years, so I think it's all balanced out!

A couple pictures taken a year ago today:

There were many more happy/excited pictures I took a year ago today, and those are the ones I've always looked at/posted. Looking at these two pictures today I can see now what I should have seen then-emptiness and loneliness.....a look of an empty tank needing to be filled up....a child lacking confidence and self worth. The second picture, I can almost hear her saying, "I want to be loved so badly but I'm not sure I deserve it." Maybe that sounds a little crazy, but I can see it in her eyes in these pictures. And now, after knowing her and loving her for a year it's even more clear to me. Her fragile spirit, once overshadowed with a boisterous personality, has been uncovered and is beginning to mend. 

Watching a broken heart heal never gets old. Being a part of that story....well I certainly feel unworthy, but I'm so thankful I get to be the one helping to mend her sweet heart and soul! 

I love this girl something fierce, even if it's taken me a little longer to figure out how to be the mama she needs!

And I thought I'd end on a funny note with this video of Sofia! One of my absolute favorite things about her is her ability to laugh at herself and find humor and joy in so many little moments throughout the day. One of Sofia's gifts from the Lord is definitely spreading joy and laughter! 

In this video, Shawn was feeding Sofia some cheeseburger pie....he snuck in a tiny spoonful of just ketchup. She LIKES ketchup, usually just mixed in with her food hahah....this was the first time she ever tasted JUST ketchup, and you can see it threw her for a loop and she wasn't sure what to think at first, then she thought it was absolutely hilarious that he tricked her! We have hardly found any foods Sofia does NOT like! Oh that laugh.....I watch this video on repeat on bad days and it always leaves me feeling happy! 

On my next "Sofia Update Post" (probably 1 year home), I'll update more about her development, likes and dislikes, so if you have any Sofia-specific questions, let me know! 

A Sign Language Post

With both girls we used sign language to help them with their communication since we knew speech would take longer to develop. I've heard the argument many times that teaching children sign language will hinder their speech, to that I say you're wrong! I'm sure there is some fancy research out there somewhere but I haven't looked. I don't need to because I've seen so many children learn sign language first and then take off with their speech later. 

Teaching my girls to COMMUNICATE is far more important to me than teaching them to speak, initially. But teaching communication is also so important for when that speech development DOES come! Depending on what type of therapist you come across you will hear so many different things about signing in regards to speech development. Some therapists will say to teach children very basic signs such as "more," "all done," "eat," "dada," etc. This is the path we've taken with both girls. Some therapists will say to only teach very specific signs, for example, you shouldn't teach them just to say "eat" you should teach them all the different food signs. Well based on their cognitive development as well as fine motor development when we started signing, we had to start on a more broad spectrum and then get more specific. For example, we started with teaching "eat" and when Zoya got really good with that then we would start teaching some specific food signs such as "banana." 

I think just the initial idea of teaching the girls that a sign gets them what they want is so important! "More" has been a really good sign for us to accomplish that with both girls. We've already seen decreased grunting and yelling and frustration from Mila because she understands that she is communicating her needs effectively. This makes her happy. Mila, like many babies learning sign, started using "more" for many things that she wanted (like when she wants my phone or a certain toy), but it was effective and we will expand upon that. They say it's like baby babble. When babies start babbling they babble the same sounds to communicate many different things until their speech develops further.  This is "sign language babble." Don't google that term because I just made it up haha. 

Here is Mila signing "More" and then "Eat." She started by needing hand over hand prompting to sign both of these words. She got really good with "more" and I would request that she sign "more" for bites of her snacks and meals. When she got that down and was doing it without prompting, I added "Eat."

Then she learned to sign "More Eat" all together. Today she was signing "More Eat" with no prompting from me (other than just waiting her out). 

I was talking to a friend who has a child with special needs as well and she said, "You know when we post things like that video you posted of Mila signing, many people don't realize that to get there you worked on that skill for every single meal and snack for months." She is exactly right. And I guess I didn't really ever think of that. Maybe that is why I am so proud when they learn something new, because I know how hard WE worked at it together. I know how many repetitions it took to cement the skill. So bear with me as I brag about my kids because they work so hard and when they meet milestones and accomplishments that might not seem like a big deal to parents of typical kids, it's definite cause for celebration here!

Sisters

Zoya and Mila are so different from one another, but they make perfect sisters! Zoya is very protective of Mila. If she is fussing, Zoya does not like it and will try to make it better. Sometimes she will sign, "together" which means "pick her up! she wants to be with you!" Sometimes Zoya will give me suggestions on how to make Mila stop fussing (I swear Zoya thinks she is the mama hah). She will say "Mama baba," or "BINKY!" Sometimes she wll run over to her just to be there, which almost always makes Mila stop crying. It is so sweet.  Zoya really doesn't show jealousy (anymore) with Mila. She takes pride in sharing her toys with Mila and will do so all on her own and then look at me and say "Mama, share Mila" with a big smile! Zoya loves helping with diapers and taking Mila's bottle over to the sink when it's all gone. Zoya sometimes needs reminders to not squeeze Mila when she wants to hug her and to not get so close to her face. Mila just admires her big sister and smiles when she sees her.  I love seeing the two of them interact with one another. It's so sweet!

I can't wait to watch their relationship grow over the years! They are so blessed to have one another!

And here is a sweet video of the girls:

My Sassy Talking Girl

Oh Zoya girl....she just makes me laugh. She is so very sassy. I love that her speech is really starting to take off (I remember wondering if I'd ever be able to say that). She surprises us with what she says and how she is really starting to put sentences together. It's so nice being home with her because I can work on speech all day long in normal exchanges throughout the day and it doesn't seem like work to her. She actually LOVES trying to say words correctly when I give her a little help. She gets so excited when the word comes out clear. She tries so so hard to communicate...it's one of my many favorite things about her. Sometimes she sounds like she's speaking Russian, but other times her speech is much clearer! Either way she just keeps trying over and over to get her point across through words and signs. Signs have been so great for us in so many ways.....obviously for her expressive communication, but they've also been great for me to help zoya order her sentences in the correct word order. Kids with apraxia have a hard time putting the words in the right order, especially as sentences get longer. So instead of saying each word and having Zoya repeat one word at a time and having a somewhat broken word by word sentence, I can sign each word to remind Zoya what word to speak. That way her sentence is more fluent and she gets practice saying all the words together not just repeating me word by word. It has helped so much!

We've been focusing a lot on going from 1-2 word utterances to 3-5 word sentences. For example, when Zoya has to go potty, she says "potty." So today we've been working on saying "I go potty," or "I want go potty." Yes I know we're missing a word, but we'll get there....once she gets good with "I want go potty," we'll add in the "to." Another example is that we always make her request to get down from the dinner table after eating. She used to just sign "down," then she would say "down," now she is able to say "I want down please." It's a progressive process and we just add a little bit at a time.

The other thing we've been working on a lot is pronouns. "You" and "Me" is such a hard concept for her, but we're getting there. We do turn taking games to work on this a lot. I've been intentional about saying YOU and pointing and having her do it back to me. We've also been working on "his" and "her" as well. I find pronouns so difficult to teach to her! You can see in the video me asking her "what is her name?" I, of course, pair all the new concepts like this with gestures and pointing.

The other thing in the speech world we're working on is increasing vocabulary and processing spoken language to follow directions better. Zoya understands a lot of what is spoken to her and can follow 1 and 2 step directions fairly well. But every now and then I'm reminded that she still has difficulty processing language. Tonight after Mila's bath Zoya was being my helper. I asked her, "Zoya go get me the comb for Mila out of the bathroom." Zoya happily ran into the bathroom and brought me back a towel! I asked her again. I said, "a comb for her hair." And she brought me back a hair bow! My sweet girl, I just giggled at her sweetness and how she tried so hard! It surprised me because if I said pick the comb and gave her 5 choices, she knows what it is. She obviously knows what a comb is but maybe she couldn't find it or maybe she only heard part of what I said or maybe it's just that missing link between the verbal directive and processing all the language I threw at her. She is so super fabulous and I seriously can't believe how we got so lucky to call her our daughter! So proud of my chicky!

Tonight we were playing the keyboard toy with Mila (who only makes a quick appearance in this video haha). I was playing a back and forth game with Zoya and I would take the keyboard and say "no no no I do!" and change the song. I wanted her to do the same and usually I have to teach her each word and then work on linking them together. Well she surprised me tonight when she shook her finger at me with her sassy attitude and even had an appropriate (although sassy) tone with her words. My little stinker...

Hello!

This morning when I went to get Zoya up, I had opened the door but not yet turned on the light and I hear her little voice say a perfect, "Hello" in a voice that sounded like it had an accent. It cracked me up. We had been working on saying "hello" but mostly just got "lo" or "hi." But this morning she nailed it and she's been saying it all day. It's just the cutest little word I think I've ever heard her say! It makes me laugh when I hear her little voice say it! Zoya's speech has been showing a lot of progress since she started preschool. I've been working with her on words that start with the "h" sound. It's tough for her to go from an unvoiced sound to a voiced sound but she's been doing a lot of vocal play and whispering lately and I'm loving the progress she's making! We've also been working on stopping sounds, especially "p" for "up" and "help" without saying "up-a" and "hepp-a." I took this little video after her bath tonight. Zoya girl is too sweet for words!

"Sorry"

Zoya has perfected the word "sorry." LOL! This "sorry" was right after she was playing with the folding door and I asked her to stop so she wouldn't pinch her fingers. Once again she started playing with it and I said, "Zoya do NOT touch!" And she ever so gently, while staring me down, reached out and touched the door with one finger and looked at me like "what-do-ya-have-to-say-to-that-mom?" So this is her "after time-out" apology. She says it and signs it (sign looks more like "please" but its her "sorry").  It's funny she has started saying it on her own, like she does something she knows is wrong she'll say "sorry" real fast. She is somethin' else this girl!!

Zoya Talks about Her Day at School

Zoya FINALLY made it back to school today!! She has a little bit of a cough, but feeling MUCH better and was so very excited when she heard she was going to school! Shawn took her and he said she ran over to one of her teachers and acted like she couldn't care less about saying goodbye to him! haha.She was so happy to see "B" and "Nana" and all her friends! 

This video was taken when Zoya got home from school. We started a little communication page that her teacher fills out so I know a little about her day. It's so nice to be able to talk to her about her day and know what she did.  So this is after I read her page to see how her morning went.  She had been out of school since last Friday, so I expected her to have a little trouble following directions. Overall she did fabulous today, except her very first school time-out...which whipped her right into shape! She was not listening well so her teacher needed to use time out to send her a little message, and it worked :) I love that her teacher has high expectations for her and doesn't let her "Down Syndrome" be an excuse for poor choices.

She knows Zoya is capable of behaving well and she holds her to that expectation.  It makes me laugh seeing the way she looks away when I ask her about time out.  Then she says her version of "uh oh."

You can also hear her counting a little in the video. One of her favorite things to do at school is be the calendar helper and count the numbers.

We have noticed positive changes since Zoya has been in school and she is so happy when she comes home. It's almost like she is proud to be going to school....we can see that it makes her feel like a big kid and she thinks she is so cool! (She is :) ) Her speech is improving since being around typical peers, and she is interested in trying new activities with less anxiety. So proud of our big girl and all she has accomplished!!

A little info on our "time out technique"

We use our own version of "1-2-3 Magic" which is a behavior technique (and her teacher is using the same form at school). Basically if you give a directive that isn't being followed or your child is not listening/making a poor choice, you start counting 1-2-3. If you get to 3 they have to take a time out. The wording the technique uses is "1-2-3, take 5." We adapt it for Zoya and give a little more time in between each count and might look something like this:

"Zoya come here" (and then wait for 3 seconds)

(and if she doesn't comply) "Zoya, that's 1, please come here." (wait)

(still not complying) "Zoya, that's 2, you will have to go to time out if you don't listen, please come here." (wait)

"Zoya 3, go to time out."

(the funny part is she always complies when i say go to time out! haha)

I love it because it takes the frustration/emotion out of it and she always knows to expect the same consequence. It also gives her two choices: listen or go to time out. We use it a lot, and she responds VERY well and maybe only 1/20 times needs to go to time out. Her teacher has been using it at school and says Zoya responds very well to it and today was her first trip to time out (the first time the teacher actually got to 3). Zoya listens very well IF she knows she can't get away with her little tricks and IF others have high expectations for her.

The actual technique says children should go to their room for time out, but we don't do that. We do a time "in" where she can still see us but we are not interacting with her and she is missing whatever activity was going on. She sits for 2 minutes (we use the bottom stair for her time out place) and then apologizes and always a hug/kiss and a reminder why she had to go to time out.

Some Videos of Miss Zoya

A cute little girl named Izzy is missing her friend Zoya and has requested some videos....so here ya go sweet girl (and the rest of you LOL).

This is a little video of Zoya helping to take the dog for a walk. She looks like such a big kid to me here and the way she sways her body she looks so confident and like she just knows how cool she is HA! It's great!

You can also hear her "no" to my kisses request, which I hear a hundred times a day for any old request I might have...but she always give in in the end! She's also the kid who is doing what you asked all the while saying "no." That's my girl :)

In this video you can hear  Zoya tell how old she is and hold up her fingers :) She also keeps asking for movies on my phone, which means videos of herself...she doesn't quite understand when I hold the phone up to take a video that she can't watch it until we make the video LOL. You can see her sign her version of "computer" which means she wants the iPad (her videos are on there too). She keeps trying to look behind her because she knows the iPad is in the living room and wants it!

There ya go Miss Izzy....a special post just for you! Zoya says HI!

Zoya Spells Her Name

I've been working a lot with Zoya on letters and her name lately. You can see a little of her hard work here. You'll have to turn your volume up so you can hear her little voice. She recognizes about half of the letters of the alphabet so far, upper and lowercase! I am also working on teaching her how to put the letters of her name in the right order. This is why I love short names for kids :)

Silly Singing Girl...

*Video Problem Fixed...

No words needed...I love this girl!

I Want That!

I wrote the other day how Zoya said "I want that" to me with no prompting at all...I tried to get it on video here. I'm so proud of her! It is probably hard for others to understand what she is saying but between her signs and words I think it's pretty cool...you can see how far she's come! You will see her "groping" for words and nothing comes out...that is very common with apraxia and something we are working on in therapy. Check out my big girl!

A Case of the Giggles

Had to post this video...Zoya was cracking herself up on the way home from speech tonight. No worries Shawn was driving while I video taped her!

Maybe you had to be there but this girl had us laughing hysterically!

Numbers and iPad

I took this video a while back but never got around to posting it. I was trying to video Zoya doing her color app on the iPad and I got a little bit of that. You can also see how fast she picked up on how to navigate this thing...it amazes me and now I have to keep her from exiting the games before they're done because she likes to just go back to the main screen and choose a new app.  Stinker! One of her favorite apps is the itsy bitsy spider one so you can see her asking to play that one.  In the video you can see her touch the botton left of the screen (it has a little white pointer finger) and I never even knew you could exit the program this way....Zoya taught me that LOL!

Colors Part 3

I posted about Zoya learning her colors HERE  AND HERE. Zoya had a really hard time learning to match two similar items until just recently. You can see her matching the color card to the one that looks the same. It seems like a simple skill but it's not so easy to teach and it wasn't so easy for Zoya to learn...but she's got it down now :) She is able to do the same with her numbers and shapes (I havent posted about shapes yet but she has recently learned the 8 shapes in the preschool prep series). You can see her in the beginning of the video smiling with her cheesy face because she thought I was taking a picture with my phone..she didn't realize I was trying to take a video.

We recently started working on sorting colors into the correct color group.  I've been using little color counters and having her put them on the correct color character on the placemat. Next I will use different colored placemats or bowls and have her try to sort colors that way without using the color characters.

Learning Numbers

I blogged about Zoya learning her colors HERE (you can follow the link on that post to see an additional post about learning colors). Zoya has been doing fabulous learning numbers 0-10 using the same program she used to learn her colors. Zoya has shown me on multiple occassions that she knows all numbers 0-10! This video shows her doing number flashcards with the number characters on the back. She is highly motivated by knowing the characters are on the backs of the flashcards :) I'm so proud of her! We are working on helping Zoya to say the numbers since the signs are way too hard for any 2 year old, let alone one with delays in fine motor skills. She can say zero, two, and nine pretty clearly so far. Her only way to show us right now what she knows as far as her numbers are by selecting the correct choice or pointing. In the video you see her selecting from a choice of three numbers. She is able to pick out of a selection of up to 5 numbers without getting distracted, and if she is really focused she can point to the correct number characters out of all 11 numbers on her number placemat.

I will try to upload a video of her doing numbers on the iPad in another post :)

Learning Colors Part 2

Being a teacher, it only makes sense that lots of my posts are about how Zoya learns. I love working with her and learning more about her learning style and watching the light bulb go off when she learns new things!  I posted about Zoya learning her colors HERE. One thing many people with Down Syndrome have difficulty with is generalizing skills. For Zoya, she learns one concept in one way or place and then also has to be taught how to use that concept in a different way and/or place. For example, using the Preschool Prep curriculum, Zoya first learned her colors by associating them with a color character (almost like she was learning a name for each color character). She could recognize the color characters but could not then recognize the color "red" anywhere outside of the "red character." So I made some flashcards you will see in the video below to help her bridge the skill from color characters to colors in general. I put the color character on one side of a flashcard and then a blank piece of that same colored paper on the backside of the same flashcard. I would show Zoya the plain color side and ask her what color and then flip the card over so she could see the color character. She eventually learned (after much repetition and practice) that the colors are actually more than just a character. So after that I made plain colored flashcards without the characters, which you will also see in the video (you can see her asking on the red card where the red character was! haha). So little step by little step she learned to name her colors without relying on the color characters. I can't say enough how great the color character idea helped her learn her colors though! Now she is able to name colors of objects in real life like hair bows (she picks out what color she wants every morning and loves it) and colors of clothes, crayons, toys, etc. She often labels the colors of things in her environment now without prompting...she just thinks its fun! My friend who is a montessori teacher says kids should drive the learning so when they get really interested in a subject, just let them fly with it and give them the support they need to learn more about that subject! That's what we've been doing...colors, colors, and MORE colors!

It was easier for Zoya to choose the correct color from a lineup, like you saw in the ipad video in my last colors post. It was a whole new skill set to be able to simply name the color of a card when presented with a colored flashcard but she did learn how to do that after lots of repetition and practice. The next skill with colors we are working on is sorting and matching, which also requires much practice and repetition...see any pattern here? Zoya learns very well, she just needs extra opportunities for practice and repeition. Repetition is the key for many kids with special learning needs, and is especially the key for Zoya learning/memorizing things like colors/numbers, etc.

In this video you can hear Zoya doing her best to say the colors and the ones she can't say, she signs. She started out signing all the colors without verbalizations and then soon after added the verbal words or approximation for each color (so those who say signing prevents kids from speaking I disagree and think it only helps!) Green and orange are really hard for her to say so she signs them; yellow sounds like lellow with verbalization only, blue like boo with sign as well, purple is pretty close with verbalization only, black sounds like lack (with sign as well), white sounds like wwhhhyyyyyy, and red sounds like rrreeehhh with verbalization and sign. Its strange that when she is able to say the word so others know what she is saying, she drops the sign all on her own! As I said in the last color post, pink and brown are not taught in the preschool prep curriculum which bugs me, but we are just learning those two now.

So here is little Miss Zoya showing off her colors that she has worked soooo hard to learn!

Learning Colors and the iPad

Zoya is really into colors lately. We started working on colors a few months ago and she has mastered them! She loves naming the colors of everything she sees! Zoya learns best with LOTS of repetition. I found a program that works great with Zoya to teach basic concepts like colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. You can check out Preschool Prep HERE. I absolutely love these videos and books and have made some flashcards to go along with them for Zoya. We are moving from colors onto numbers. The only thing I didn't like about the colors program was that it didn't have the colors brown or pink. But otherwise the repetition of this program is exactly what Zoya needs in order to learn best. The videos are basically a screen with the color and then a "color puff" doing an activity and the narrator repeats the color name over and over and over in different tones. It seems boring to me, but Zoya just LOVES it and it has really helped her learn her colors! When Zoya was first watching this video, we'd sit with her and show her each color sign along with the color and word on the screen. I also made color flashcards to help her carry over the concept of color people to actual colors.

I'm posting a video of Zoya using an iPad app to practice colors from the same preschool prep company. They go along with the videos and Zoya just loves practicing her colors with this app. It also helps her to focus for longer periods of time. I know you're probably thinking, seriously your 2 1/2 year old has an iPad? Yes she does and it has already helped her in soooo many ways! There is a lot of research being done on children with special needs using the iPad to communicate and improve many skill areas.  We are trying out some augmentative communication apps to see which one works best with Zoya before we decide which one to buy. There are so many apps that are helping Zoya with speech, academic skills, attention and focus, and fine motor skills for sure! If you're still not convinced (or if you're using or want to use an iPad with your child) check out Babies with iPads.

In the video you can see Zoya is a little distracted :) She had already been practicing numbers and colors on the iPad for 20 minutes when I finally remembered to video tape her doing it. She cracked me up feeding the characters and Elmo her snack! You will see the one she gets wrong she hits the other two that are wrong before selecting the only one left (the right choice)...this is one thing I don't love about this app...she likes to see the other colors disappear so if I'm not right there she will intentionally pick the wrong color to watch it disappear. I wish they would just not do anything if you pick the wrong color.  It took a couple times of me just turning the iPad off and telling her all done because she wasn't listening to the directions...now she only picks the wrong one occasionally or if she is distracted or not paying attention. Using this program has really helped with her being able to say the color names as well because she hears them over and over and over....repetition is exactly what my girl needs! She can also name all the colors verbally or by signing when they're presented to her, although she is slightly less accurate, but doing pretty darn well!

Dada!

I've been MIA as I'm recovering from right hand surgery...using only my left hand to type takes a LONG time!! But I thought I'd share these cute videos with you! Zoya's new favorite game is to hide and have us find her or for us to hide and she tries to find us! She could do this all day long! I love how she calls her Dada over and over and gets so excited with this game!!! You can see Zoya's love for her Dada! Every time I hear her say Dada I am reminded how good God is to have given these two each other!

Video Cuteness

Zoya has been quite the big little girl lately! She has almost perfected the finger shake that goes along with "no, no no!" I don't shake my finger at her, but Zoya thinks it is funny when Mya is being bad and we tell her no and shake our finger at her! So, in true Zoya fashion, she took the "no no no" up a notch and had the following conversation with me on Sunday:

Me: "Zoya, finish eating your lunch, then we are going to take a sleep"

Zoya: "No, No, No" (shaking finger at me), then signs 'play'

Me: "Ummmm I don't think so. You need to take a sleep."

Zoya: (long pause) looks right at me and says, "No."

(In case you're wondering she DID take a nap! Mom wins!)

In the video with Mya, you can see Zoya telling her "no." We were telling her to say it so we could catch that cute little finger!! But Zoya will often shake her finger at Mya and tell her no no no just like this! She is the boss of Mya, or so she thinks! The other video is Zoya's favorite game to play with Daddy...flying full speed into Mya! You can see her shaking her body when Shawn stops as if to say...."let's go daddy!" Her laugh is so contagious! This video is for Zoya's friend Izzy :) Hi Izzy!

This last video is Zoya "reading" her book I made for her. It has people Zoya knows and loves and sees often. Each page has a picture of a person (most pages are a picture of someone WITH Zoya in the picture) and at the bottom it says, "I See (name)." When we first got the book (from Shutterfly) we just worked on identifying people and looking at the cute pictures. She loves this book and asks for it often. Recently we started working on saying three words together, "I SEE MAMA," "I SEE DADA," etc. Tonight was was saying all three words together with no verbal cues from me! I still gave her lots of physical cues like opening my mouth to reminder to start with "I" and point to each word as a cue to say the next word. Obviously she isn't really reading or really even paying a whole lot of attention to the words (she does look at them at times though) but she did a super job saying three words together!  This is the very beginning stage or reading, turning pages and watching someone point to the words and vocalizing.  So although reading is way far off for Zoya I think it's pretty darn cute to watch her "read."  Even though it might be hard for people who don't know her to understand her, we know exactly what she is saying! You can hear "aaaahhhhhh ssssssssssseee and then the name.  In this video, she does a really super job with Uncle Bub's picture especially. It is really hard work for her and you can see where she gets flustered a couple times. It's almost like her brain has all the information and trying to organize it and get it from there to her lips is such hard work for her! I'm so proud of my little girl for trying so hard! Right after this video she got down and a minute later brought the book right back to me and wanted to "read" again.