Picture Schedule

A picture schedule can be beneficial to a child who has difficulty transitioning from activity to activity. As well a picture schedule can assist a child who has tantrums or "meltdowns" when they are not following a certain routine. This picture schedule can be displayed in a common area and reviewed with the child throughout to day. In my experience it is good to review the schedule in the morning and then as each activity has passed, I allow the child to place the finished task into a finished folder or box. The child feels a sense of accomplishment in this especially if you praise him/her for a job well done on each task. Even things the child does not enjoy become more tolerable if he/she sees that something fun is coming up on the schedule. For example, if the child doesn't like a certain chore or academic objective, seeing that free time is only a few tasks away can be quite motivating.

Responsibility

One thing that has been rewarding is giving our child with special needs chores around the house. The chores are a way to encourage him in something he can do well. He can help take out the trash to the trash can, he must be with a grown up to do this. As well he can sort silverware out of the dishwasher very well and can assist in watering the plants. Things like this give us a way to teach "life skills."

Take Time for Yourself

If you have one or more children with a speech delay or special needs or both, please remember to take a mental health break for yourself each day. It does not have to be an expensive endeavor, just something simple even like taking time to groom yourself and reading a few chapters of a book or the like. I have to remind myself to do this.

Of course each moment is precious and we are trying to compensate for delays/differences that our children may have, however our own self care is a priority as well. This means it is still important to keep up with our own medical and dental appointments as well as eating right and exercising. I let a lot of this go by the wayside when we starting delving into the special needs aspect of our lives. It took me a couple years but now I am making and keeping my appointments, etc. so I can be at my best for my entire family.

Speech Therapy

When accessing speech therapy for your child, it could be beneficial to you (parent or caretaker) to "sit in" on the therapy session. This way you can view what the therapist is doing and then implement those methods into your home/daily life.

It might even help to get a sense of this before you start attending the therapy or even the evaluation. That way there's no awkwardness once you get started with attending the sessions. I would try to get a sense of this on the phone while speaking to the Speech Therapist before setting up any appointments or evaluations.

Speech Delay (Early Intervention)

If you think your child's speech is not where it should be for his/her age, refer your child to speech therapy. You do not need to wait for a teacher or doctor to suggest it to you. If there is a speech delay, your child may greatly benefit from early intervention!

Wow! This year has flown by so fast. We had a great day of family activities. A trip to the splash park was brief, DS does not care for splash parks. I think the spray attractions remind him of a shower and he doesn't care for showers. From there we headed to the store to run an errand and then off to the pool which DS and DD loved.

Grind

ETC online has proven to be a challenge because of the yes/no questions. We may have to bypass those to continue well into the consonant blends that the second book offers. The simplicity of the ETC workbooks assists me in trying to keep DS focused.

We have added some dry erase addition cards which are great because they offer a lot of visuals, this is a supplement to reviewing tables and completing addition worksheets. DH has also located a program called ABA Math which has built in reinforcers, drills the facts and praises the student, best of all it's free!

Reading from Bob Books and McGuffey's will get us through until our next library run.

DD is showing an interest in the addition cards.