Developmental Pediatrician Observation

Katie's developmental pediatrician came to Katie's school one morning last week to observe Katie and her educational team. She specializes in deaf communication, so it was really good to get her input on some things.

She really likes Katie's interpreter (as do we!) and feels she has a really good handle on Katie and her communication needs.

She did have some concerns about the effectiveness of Katie's expressive communication. She thinks Katie's signs seem apraxic in nature. Apraxia is a problem with motor planning and sequencing. I know of at least one or two other children with CHARGE who have apraxia, so I'm in contact with them to learn more about this and what we might do to help Katie with this. Dr. Wiley also has some resources that she plans to share with Katie's team about fine-motor development as it relates to sign formation.

Katie is going to be trying out a Dynavox--an augmentative communication device that has pictures and will "speak" for you--to help with her expressive language. Dr. Wiley thought this was a great idea. The school has one on loan from Ohio State for two months and started working with Katie on it as of last week. We hope that she'll pick it up quickly and it will give her another avenue for expressing herself. Dr. Wiley thought we might also want to start some private speech therapy, in addition to what Katie gets at school, to focus more on learning how to use the device.

Dr. Wiley had several other observations and suggestions that were right on target for Katie. Arlin and I will be meeting with Katie's educational team on January 5th to discuss her findings. We are so lucky to have such good professional and educational resources for Katie--we feel very blessed!

Signing Progress

Katie has been making great progress with her signing skills this school year! Her receptive skills continue to flourish, and she is also now starting to use expressive sign more and more every day. It seems like language is starting to click for her, and she's beginning to understand that the signs actually mean something.

Last week, I got this encouraging email from Katie's interpreter:

I think I failed to mention in Katie's communication book today something that I feel was a very big step with her communication. Besides the fact that she made several unprompted requests today regarding her wants, she did something else I want to share with you. Ashley (Katie's support educator) was working on numbers with Katie today. She had lots of numbers in front of Katie as we were working on her receptive skills. Ashley would say a number and I would sign it, and Katie would find the number and pick it up. We have done this activity many, many times. Katie will watch for the sign and often will need it signed again as she is having to watch for both digits. However, today I signed the number (64) and she looked at me and signed back to me "6" with that expression that was saying, "Did you sign 6 (60)?" Of course, she really signed 7, but that is her 6, 7, 8, and 9. I got so excited! I said to Ashley, "She just asked for clarification!!!!" She has many times looked at me for clarification (needing the number signed again), but this was the first time she tried to sign back to me asking for clarification. I think this is great! She really is getting it! This was the first time she has used turn-taking appropriately without being prompted. I hope this makes sense. It is hard to explain in writing, but I think this shows wonderful progress!

We were thrilled at this note! It's so wonderful to see Katie's language starting to develop! We are proud of you, Katie!

Drink Up!

Guess what Katie wanted to try last weekend? Drinking from a water bottle--and trying Kool-Aid! Katie still drinks from a sippy cup because she has trouble coordinating turning the cup up to her mouth, pouring the liquid in, and swallowing it. A sippy cup allows her to drink independently without spilling a lot and without choking on the liquid. And usually the only thing she will drink is milk. Occasionally, they can get her to drink water at school, but at home she wants only milk.

She saw me get a water bottle full of cherry Kool-Aid from the refrigerator last Friday evening and take a drink, and she suddenly decided she wanted to give it a try too! She did pretty good and was SO excited and proud of herself! It quickly turned into an obsession--I bet she got 50 "drinks" (her drinks were barely small sips) after that! Check out the pics and video of her below.

Mom, that looks good! Can I try it?

So excited!

Thank goodness for Spray 'n Wash!

Birthday Getaway

Arlin had a big milestone birthday (the half-century mark!) this past week, so he and I went to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee for a couple days to celebrate. Arlin's sister and parents stayed at our house and took care of Katie for us. We were all kind of nervous about it because Katie had never stayed by herself with them for that long, but she did great! Twila took her to school each day, and her interpreter and aide said she did great at school too.

We enjoyed our trip. The weather was beautiful both days, and although a lot of the leaves had already fallen, the trees were still gorgeous! We rode the tram up into the mountains, went shopping, and had some great Southern cooking (my favorite!). They were having a chili cook-off in downtown Gatlinburg on Wednesday night, so we had fun sampling all the different chilis--and then getting some Ben & Jerry's ice cream to cool our mouths off!

Katie was glad to see us when she got off the bus on Thursday. And we were just a tad bit happy to see her too! :-)

Thanks again, Aunt Twila and Grandma and Grandpa Kauffman, for taking such good care of our girl while we were gone and for giving us the opportunity to get away for a couple days!

Fall School Pic

Katie's getting the hang of this school picture thing--another great school pic! Can you tell my girlie is liking her French fries lately? Look at those chubby cheeks! :-)