Last week was great! Our entire family has recovered from all of the sicknesses that February had brought.The sun shone brightly, the temperature felt like Spring, and the girls even busted out their flipflops from the attic! I love spring weather. It just makes me feel happy. I am so glad that March is here, and I hope it brings more sunshine than rain....both weather-wise as well as emotionally and physically for us.
Anderson is doing great. We still have no idea what caused his fever or head increase that caused our last ER visit. We pretty much left with no answers. However, he has his follow-up from his past surgery tomorrow with his neurosurgeon. I have A LOT of questions that I hope to get answered.
We have started measuring his head circumference every single day so that they can not pretend like his head size didn't increase due to a mis-measurement. (That's what 2 doctors tried to tell us at this last ER visit). But I know better. I know that it did increase 2 cm overnight, and I wish they had taken that more seriously. Next time I will know for sure when it changes and how much.
I will find out tomorrow if Anderson is still going to do his helmet therapy or not. As a matter of fact, now that he has a shunt that has drained that cyst, his head looks much better- not perfect, but better. Plus I want his neuro doctor to give the okay since the shunt tubing goes from the top of his head down the back of his head- I'm sure they don't want the helmet to put pressure on that tubing, but that side of his head is the one that needs the pressure to be "pushed" in. We will see what we find out.
We will also be going back soon to PT. Now that he is doing so much more, I am anxious to hear what the plan will be in this area. When Anderson's Early Intervention teacher came this month, she was very impressed with how well he is doing. Cognitively he is still advanced. We are working on crawling right now...he wants to so badly, but he just hasn't figured out all of the movements yet. He just gets on all fours and rocks back and forth until he gets tired and then lays down and rolls over onto his back. Maybe movement is coming soon. We are working hard with him on this.
We are also starting some "baby signs" with him. We are starting slowly with only 4 signs (eat, more, night-night, all done). I'm a little skeptical about him using these...so if you have a success story please share it with me. I'm afraid that if he gets used to using the sign, then he will be delayed in his speech...any opinions on this matter?
I hope that March brings many new milestones and continued good health (for all). Hoping to post soon with more updates and success stories! :)
5 comments:
Andrea, I'm so glad that Anderson is doing well. How fun that he's getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. It's so exciting that he's so close to making that next step (from rocking on all fours) to crawling. He'll do it!!
I can very much relate to what you wrote about how you're uncertain about using sign language with Anderson due to concerns you have with whether it could hinder his verbal language. THAT was my very same concern too when Matthew was a baby/toddler. I had such reservations that since Matthew took such a long time to learn something that if I introduced a method for stimulating language through signing that he might somehow only learn to 'talk' with signs. I questioned professionals and other parents and it took me awhile to convince myself that it would be okay.
Now looking back I am absolutely convinced that introducing sign language does NOT hinder verbal language and I would do it without any hesitation.
In fact, I really believe that using sign language can help stimulate pathways for verbal language. Since a lot of kids who have ACC thrive using a multisensory method of teaching, I think that a (multisensory approach) mixture of methods for promoting language (sign language, speech therapy, reading books to your child, using picture books, talking to your baby, etc.) can be very helpful.
In the ACC Reading document, the parent of a child with ACC shared this (with respect to sign language and verbal language):
"Ryan started speech therapy at 15 months old. For three long months, once a week, his therapist would go over the signs 'more, all done, open' and maybe 3 or 4 other ones. He couldn't care less! He never seemed to be looking at our hands (of course I kept trying to teach him)...he had lots of fun playing with her, but didn't pick up on the sign thing AT ALL!
At 18 months we were on vacation in Ireland, when his daddy realized he forgot the video
camera in the car. So he went to get it. While he was gone, I was tickling and picking up Ryan for about five minutes. Then I stopped. Then we looked at each other and he signed "more". I screamed 'what'? And he did it over and over and over again. Just in time for the video camera! By the end of our two week vacation, he was signing more, all done and open. The amazing part is that
it really seemed like he never paid attn to the therapist and to me for the three months we tried
to teach him those signs!
Luckily he got kicked out of speech therapy at three yrs old when he said his first 10 word
sentence. Speech has never been an issue again."
There are some adorable sign language videos (that helped me learn signs too). Let me know if you want more information about them.
Sandie
E-mail: hope@aracnet.com
So happy he is doing better and that all of you are over your flu's etc!
I used Sign Language with Grant and it was WONDERFUL! He would say "More, Eat, All Done" the most. But it was so helpful when he couldnt speak. I made sure that When I did the sign language, I always verbally sd what I was signing and eventually he started saying it as he was signing! Hope this helps!
Andrea,
I have an 11 month old with Complete ACC. I have recently begun a few simple signs and it has worked wonderfully. She is developing her speech as she works through the signs. In fact, I am 100% sure that she learned how to say the word "More" because she was learning the sign and every time we showed her the sign, we also said the word. We are now working on Thank you and please...she hasn't gotten those yet, but we keep working on it!
Well since you asked for opinions :)..... Much research has been done concerning using sign to supplement language learning and all of it points to how much multi modalities assists verbal language skills. Think about teaching kids to read at school and all of the modalities you present that in to teach them....... you let them see it, hear it, even touch it--if you can. Same with early language. Multisensory cueing. Hearing it.... seeing it.... touching it. I've used it with many babies and children with developmental delays and have never seen one who chose it over verbal speech if verbal speech was physically and cognitively attainable. Lots of parents are now using baby signs so that their kids can begin to communicate wants and needs much earlier than their verbal language skills will allow and I think it's great. I did a few with my kids, especially "more" to eliminate whining and screaming :) Not that it helped Avery much... lol! I'm so glad to hear your family has been well this week. You've been in my prayers! Sorry so wordy........ what did you expect from the speech therapist, though. ;)
I hope you feel as blessed as I am by reading your update on Anderson! He's 9 months now and rocking on hands and knees?! My little guy is 12.5 months and just rolling and bears no wght on his legs. Gods timing is so perfect though.
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