Well, the work involved in helping a five year old achieve her potential is sometimes overwhelming and frustrating particularly when that five year old is living with Down Syndrome.
The sweet little girl that she is doesn't know and doesn't care at this stage that she has been living with Down Syndrome. She enjoys her life and she learns to do things as she is able.
She compensates so very well with sign language and trying to verbalize the words that it is truly endearing to me as her mom.
We went to speech as usual for 9:30 this morning. Jo did really well and is saying more during the sessions. Right now, the expectation is to get her to verbalize and when deemed necessary to encourage her to pronounce the word as correctly as possible. Herein lies the challenge. When my little girl gets tired of trying to be perfect, she shuts down and will not participate.
The key has been to keep it simple and to keep it playful with activities that she likes. This morning we spent a half hour on 'Help me' with a ball that lights up when you bang it really hard on the table top. She had to say help me so that Carla would bang the ball on the table for it to light up. By the end of the activity she was spontaneously saying it because she liked the activity A LOT.
We went to the Rotary Park in Wolfville for an hour. She climbs on the playground equipment really well. She runs pretty good, too.
Her play school teacher dropped by with information about SMILE. We talked a little about the bureaucracy with the provincial Department of Community Services in maintaining a preschool/play school. We also looked over the form we have to fill in for the referral to occupational therapy for Johanna.
Paperwork, paperwork paperwork. Need I say more.
Her dad is busy cutting haulage this afternoon. It's been a sunny day but the wind sure has been blowing hard. He wants to get it in while he can. The weather has been very changeable lately.
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