Inchstones

Nathan is doing GREAT!

His teacher was almost floating with pride when she told us at the IEP meeting that Nathan can now move a Pony walker all by himself! I didn’t quite believe her so I asked her to put him in the walker and I almost passed out with joy when I saw him walking in it! Hooray hallelujah hooray!

He also met every single one of his IEP goals and we’re now making more complicated ones.

Today we worked on the IPAD with proloquo2go. I confess we haven’t been using it much (proloquo). He has trouble being consistent with it because of the spasticity in his arms and hands. But today he did the cutest thing. He grabbed my hand and brought it over to the IPAD. He then start using my hand to press the buttons. I’m not sure why he thinks that’s easier, but it completely transformed his ability to use it! Using my hand he told us he wanted to go outside and get in the pool. I asked him if he was sure and he went through all the steps to pick it again, so outside we went for a quick dip of our feet. Then we went inside and he went to the “I want to go” then “Outside” buttons, and picked the swing. So we put him on the swing and he was giggling and laughing, he was so proud that he’d told us what to do!

Then he told us he wanted to read a book and to play with a car.

Finally he took us to the “I feel” tab and told us that he was tired. Then we asked him if we should put the IPAD away and he used his yes/no talking buttons to say YES. Then, thinking it might’ve been a mistake, we asked him if he was sure and maybe he wanted to say something else. He wouldn’t really move his hands. We sat there waiting for a while but he didn’t do anything. So we asked him again if he was done and he used his yes/no button to say yes. Incredible!

And to put icing on this cake – he is still trying very hard to say words! Everyone keeps telling me they heard him say stuff. Today during the session he said “elmo” when he picked a book, telling us he wanted his elmo book. He also said “boo” when we asked him to say “book”. He’s now saying: mo (more), ma (mama), boo (book or boat), gampa, agua, nalga, yeah. We’ve heard other words but not consistently yet.

We’re so proud and so happy to see him making inchstones!!!!

(Sorry no pictures my hands seem to always be busy with a bundle of cuteness and I keep forgetting to take pics!)