Learning the Alphabet Part 2

**Make sure you read the post prior to this one, or this one won't make much sense! 

At this point Zoya can recognize all the letters of the alphabet and choose them from a lineup of 3 letters. She can verbally name about 2/3 of them and our goal is to be able to verbally identify all of them. Obviously there were a million little steps in getting her to learn the letters though. It is a lot of work for both myself and Zoya but she is determined and was actually ready for her letters. I think that is an important first step. I had tried working on letters with Zoya one time previously and she just wasn't into it so we took a break and tried again in a couple of months. Once she started learning her letters she started noticing letters and words around her. She would point to letters on shirts or signs and try to say "letters." Then she started being able to isolate some of those letters in places. Now she points out letters everywhere we go and yells their names....from items we are buying, to shopping carts, to people's clothes with letters, to books, to necklaces with words. I just love it! Anyways, my advice is, don't start working on letters until you think your child is ready or else you'll both just be frustrated!

My next piece of advice is break it down! And when you think you've broken things down enough, break it down again! If your end goal is for your child to read the letters of the alphabet you have to set short term benchmarks (here is the special ed. teacher in me talking!) I realize this might not interest everyone, but I've had a lot of people ask how exactly I went about teaching Zoya the letters. And it might seem pretty technical, but setting short term benchmark goals is just the dorky special ed. teacher in me....and it has worked!  You can use this idea of having one overarching goal with several short term benchmark goals for any big goal you may have for your child. A lot of you probably already do this but maybe you've just never stopped to think about it.

Here are some short term benchmark goals I set for Zoya (with the overall goal being that she will speak each letter name when shown that letter in isolation) and how we transitioned from one short term goal to the next. You'll see that each short term goal builds on the short term goal before it and it's like climbing a ladder with your big goal at top! (When I talk about the cards-picture side up or black-letter side up, I'm talking about the double-sided flashcards I bought from Preschool Prep. One side has the letter character/picture and the other just has a black letter).

1. When shown one letter card, picture-side up (A-H upper and lowercase), Zoya will repeat the letter name (after hearing me say it) and/or give the sign/gesture that we came up with for that letter.
This is just a fun way to start getting to know the letters. While we did this I sang songs, or said the letters in funny voices...whatever I needed to do to keep Zoya interested!

2. Given three letters, picture-side up (meaning the character from the movie in the shape of the letter is what Zoya is to identify, not the actual black letter just yet), Zoya will point to the correct letter (letters A-H, both upper and lowercase).
Looking back I would have done letters A-D to start and broken it down even smaller). This goal was broken down into two smaller goals as I went along. When we first did these flashcards, picture-side up, I would give either an auditory or verbal clue to help jog her memory. Remember we had been watching the letter video (A-H) once a day and still were at this point. So for example, I'd say "Zoya can you find DANCING D?" Or, "Can you find G FOR GLASSES?" and then I'd sign glasses. This helped a lot in the beginning. When she had a couple weeks of practice doing it this way and started to get really good, then I'd just say, "Zoya find D" and then I'd wait. If she had trouble, then I'd give her the clue. Eventually she got to the point where she could point to the correct letter only hearing the letter name.
To transition to the next short term goal, when Zoya got really good at identifying the picture letters, I'd flip the card over and show her the black-letter side and have her repeat the letter again or just tell her the letter if she couldn't say it.

3. Given three letters, black-letter side up, Zoya will point to the correct letter (letters A-H, both upper and lowercase).
Again, this goal was broken down even smaller too. I started by placing two of the incorrect choices picture side up and putting the correct letter choice black-letter side up. Even if she caught onto the fact that I always asked her to pick the "black letter" it still helped her start to cement the letters. When she did well here, then I turned all three choices to the black-letter side. To begin, again, I would give her the letter name along with the clue to help jog her memory. Eventually we were able to move to just hearing the letter name and having her pick the correct choice. Some letters she learned before others, so when I knew she had learned a letter I'd just drop the clue. If I wasn't sure I'd give her the letter name without the clue, then wait, and if she wasn't sure I'd give her the clue/gesture/sign. To transition to the next goal, I'd say "Find D." Then when she found it, I'd ask, "What letter is that?" And since she had just heard it she was able to repeat it.

4. Zoya will verbally name each letter (letters A-H, both upper and lowercase).
This brings us back to the overall goal, and what you saw Zoya doing in the video. She still needs a lot of repetition and practice to cement all the letters into her brain :) Unlike kids without special learning needs, Zoya needs continual practice with skills she has already mastered so she does not lose the ground she has gained.

And when I got through all of these steps for letters A-H, I moved onto the next set. We are working on the third and last set of letters, which has proven to be the hardest for Zoya. Seriously...W and V and U and Y and Z...they're all too close! Those ones (except Z) confuse her! As you can see it's quite a process!!!!

In my next post, "Learning the Letters Part 3," I will write about some other supplemental tools we used during our letter-learning journey!

Learning the Alphabet Part 1

The other day, I posted THIS VIDEO of Zoya reading some of the letters of the alphabet. Back in June, when I was done teaching for the summer, one of my summer goals for Zoya was for her to learn all the letters of the alphabet (just the letter names, not the sounds yet). We had already worked on COLORS,  NUMBERS, and shapes (which I never blogged about). For all of these skills, I used the Preschool Prep Company materials. These materials are FABULOUS! Part of Zoya's Down Syndrome means she requires a lot of repetition and practice to master skills, as I've said before, and this program does just that! I cannot say enough good things about this program. And NO they're not paying me to promote them, although maybe they should??? LOL....I'm a pretty good advocate for these materials after seeing how amazing Zoya has done learning colors, numbers, shapes, and now letters.

That is not to say you can just buy the videos and pop them into the DVD player and walk away (although that probably might work with kids without special learning needs!) Just as with most materials, we need to adapt them to fit our kids best.  So for the alphabet, I bought the DVD, the letter flashcards (they don't make number or color or shape flashcards, but if they did I would have bought them instead of making my own), and the board book with flaps. The DVD is nicely divided into three sections so that you can view the letters 8-9 at a time. This is really important because it would be unreasonable to expect Zoya to sit and watch the entire video of 54 letters (there are 54 because there are upper and lowercase and a fancy g and a fancy a) or to learn all 54 in one chunk.  Zoya had been successful with colors and numbers and shapes because she was only expected to learn 8-11 colors/shapes/numbers (since numbers go 0-10). So I decided to divide the alphabet into the chunks that Preschool Prep recommended. That would mean Zoya would be learning 16-20 letters at a time. It did work for her, but in hindsight I probably would have broken it down even further and done 4 letters at a time (since they present upper and lowercase at one time that would mean 8 actual letters).

So we started watching the video once a day, just watching the first 8, or 9? (can't remember exactly) letters. I sat with her and reinforced the letters by saying them, or commenting about the letter character (A is an astronaut, B is a butterfly and bee, C is a cloud, etc). This association learning is an awesome concept and works wonderfully with Zoya. She remembers each character, just as she did with the colors, which in turn, helps her to remember the letter. Also, while we watched the DVD together, I gave many of the letters gestures (since the ASL signs for letters are too difficult for Zoya with her delayed fine motor skills). So in that video you could see Zoya doing gestures, which helped her to remember some of the letters. For letter "C" it looked like she was clapping, but she was actually signing "cloud." For D, she signs "dance" because the character on the DVD dances. For letter E, she points to her hear for "earring" because the character on the DVD wears earring. For G, it looks like she's hitting herself in the head like she finally remembered, but she is actually touching her eyes for "glasses," which, once again is how the DVD teaches the letter "G"...using characters with glasses and goggles. For H, she squeezes her face, which is her made up sign for "house"...I still don't know why she signs house this way LOL. For I, you can see her point to her eyeball....J, she signs "jump", etc. Using a combination of association learning, gestures, and the great visuals of the letter characters, Zoya was able to learn her letters!

More to come in Part 2......I will discuss some more activities that we did and how we used the letter flashcards!

Down Syndrome Awareness Month

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month! With us leaving in 13 days for Eastern Europe for our second adoption of another sweet angel girl with Down Syndrome, I certainly will not be participating in the "31 for 21" blogging challenge. There's just no way I will be able to post on here every day for the next month! BUT, I will try my hardest to get some good posts in before we leave about what Down Syndrome has meant to us, and hopefully some of the ways Zoya is a star!

For this first post, I'll leave you with a video of our bright star showing off her hard work naming some letters of the alphabet. I'll do a follow up post about what activities we've done to learn the letters of the alphabet!

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"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.

Crawling Out from this Dark Hole!

Well Zoya has been out of school for a week and sick for 7 LONNNNNNG days. This is by far the worst virus turned bacterial infection to ever visit her little body....poor girl. She's had every symptom you could imagine from vomiting to intestinal "issues" to sneezing and wheezing and coughing and hacking and swollen eyes, red throat, runny nose, stuffy nose, rattly chest, barky cough and more :( She's been pretty miserable. She's getting cabin fever for sure! I thought on Monday we took a turn for the better as she seemed to be making some progress, her fever from Saturday/Sunday finally broke and she seemed to have a little more energy...still not great by any means, but some improvement. So I thought for sure Tuesday would be better.

She woke up Tuesday very early with an awful cough and was just downright miserable. She was so phlemy (is that how you spell that??? LOL) and kept choking on it and was afraid to cough.  She had an apt. to get her new Sure Steps (SMOs) so we did that quick then drove around and let her sleep until it was time for her ENT appointment (routine checkup for tubes).  I knew this appointment was coming up so I was happy she'd be able to see the ENT and see what he thought. By this point I knew her virus had gotten stuck in her tiny anatomy (characteristic of Down Syndrome) and had turned bacterial (I partly knew bc she was only getting worse, not better, but she also had the WORST BREATH EVER). He agreed that she needed an antibiotic as it looked like she had a sinus infection and throat infection (remember we were just at the pediatrician Friday and she looked perfectly healthy in her ears/nose/throat). Oh and guess who was a champ with very little anxiety at her ENT appointment? She was even hamming it up and used her Darth Vadar voice to say hi to the doctor. She was intrigued by his blue gloves and even avoided the much hated "throat stick gag" by opening wide enough several times for the doctor to see her throat LOL. So proud of my girl.

I'm happy to say she woke up this morning seeming a bit more like herself after 2 doses of the antibiotic. She has an awful hacking cough but at least she is getting the phlem up and not choking on it like she had been. She's watching baby signing times, which has been her only wish through this sickness (funny because we haven't watched that in a very long time, but I guess she remembers it comforts her and makes her happy, so I'm more than happy to oblige). Hoping she can get back to school Friday and she won't have lost too much of the progress she's made as far as the school routine. 

Oh, and guess who woke up sick today? Yep that would be this Mama :( UGH!!! I thought my body was fighting it off, but I guess between the lack of sleep and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches paired with tortilla chips and salsa for dinner weren't enough to keep me healthy...who would have known?

Preschool Germies and Doctors :(

Zoya has had a tough start to preschool. She is usually very healthy and I can count on one hand how many times she's been sick since being home. We kept her home last year and had a sitter come to the house for many reasons, one of those was to give her body a chance to heal and build up immunities after orphanage life. So now that Zoya is in preschool she's being exposed to all kinds of germs and her poor body is not liking it!

Last Friday I kept Zoya home because she woke up with a little cough (no big deal) but then she threw up on me a little :( She hasn't thrown up since VACCINATION NIGHTMARE of May 2010...so definitely not normal for her. She bounced back by the next day and went to school Monday and Wednesday and then Thursday night she was throwing up again. Poor thing. Thursday night she woke up at about  11:30and threw up about every hour until 4:30am. She was pitiful. Even being so sick she was the sweetest thing. We kicked Daddy out and told him to go downstairs because he had to work in the morning (although he did go to the store to get medicine and then came running upstairs when he heard Zoya crying and me trying to find the light and catch her vomit all at the same time...TMI?). She was also coughing a lot and sounded very congested but was afraid to cough because that made her throw up...so that made things even worse.  After getting sick at about 4am, I put her back down in our bed and layed down next to her. She put her hand on my cheeck and said her scooby doo version of "I love you." At 4am after being up all night that made my heart so happy. She just kept looking at me smiling through it all. I loved how she needed me and my Mama-love made it almost all better! Today she woke up happy as could be but had a fever that has gone up over the morning. She's taking her second nap of the day and hopefully she will start feeling much better soon!

Yesterday I took her to the doctor just to make sure there was nothing more going on than a bug because she can't really tell me if her ears or throat hurt. Also we've had some concerns about reflux lately and wanted to talk to the doctor about that. Over the last month of so Zoya has not been wanting to eat and gagging on her food sometimes, which has NEVER been an issue before. She has been waking up here and there gagging and when we check on her its almost like she might throw up (never does) or is choking. She gets hiccups 5-6 times a day sometimes too, which has always been the case with her. She also goes through periods where she coughs throughout the night-a dry cough. Soooo, the doctor wants to try her on Prevacid and see if that helps some of these symptoms, if not we will go through some testing to see whats up. The doctor thought she just had a little bug and some big reflux. (But at that time she didn't have the fever yet)

She has a follow-up appointment with the ENT Tuesday to get her tubes checked, so I'm glad they can take a look again and make sure nothing more is going on (like an ear infection or something) since she started the fever today. She also gets her new Sure Step orthodics Tuesday as well! She outgrew her other ones. When she came home her shoe size was a 2...she is now up to a 6 and will need a 7 with the braces.

She was at the dentist Thursday morning and did a fabulous job. She has gone twice before just for a real quick check and teeth count and "get to know the dentist" type thing. Shawn took her both times and she did NOT like it either time. So he was not looking forward to taking her this time. So we made a deal, I told him IF he takes Zoya AND Laina for all the bloodwork they need for the rest of their lives, I will take them to the dentist! LOL. I can deal with anxiety better than I can deal with watching my child be poked and be in pain :( So he laughed, but since I took Zoya the deal is on! She cried a little bit but was so brave and let them clean all her top teeth as she just laid there watching videos on my phone. She even wore some cool sunglasses! Then she thought she was done and they hadn't cleaned the bottom yet so she started crying but easily calmed herself down, which she NEVER would have been able to do months ago! She's making so much progress with the anxiety! In the past if she would have started crying at the dentist or somewhere else, she would not have stopped until we left...this time she calmed down and then charmed the entire office staff and didn't want to leave :) She even stopped by to visit a little boy having some cavities filled...he didn't mind :)

We have a new strategy for her anxiety called "take a deep breath" :) and I started it with her not really thinking it would work but its working amazingly well! She even does it on her own when she starts getting upset and 9 times out of 10 it keeps her from getting really upset or crying! She puts her hands above her head and takes a deep breath. This has been helpful to me because she will do it sometimes when I don't even realize she is feeling upset or anxious, so that has been a clue to us that she is feeling some anxiety. She initiates the deep breath on her own a lot and will do it easily if I remind her. In the middle of her crying I can say "take a deep breath" and she stops crying to take the deep breath, and then it's enough to calm her down. Whereas previously we would have had tears for hours sometimes. Yay for progress!

Here's hoping my little girl feels better soon!! And no more germies!

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!