This week was parent teacher conferences at SJ’s school. I wanted to do something special for her teacher’s because SJ goes to the best school ever with the greatest staff in the world.
Exaggerate much?
Well, to me it is all of that, and it’s been a God send for SJ. The least I could do is look up a simple thank you on Pinterest. I liked this printable from Tammy Mitchell Designs.
Instead of having SJ (Sedona) sign them I scanned her name and added it to the printable. That was her teachers favorite part, getting to have a keepsake of her name which she had JUST learned to spell.
In fact, out of nowhere she has been blowing me away with her handwriting. She can’t read, or sound things out. She doesn’t know ANY of the alphabet. So, considering all that, it is amazing that she can not only spell her name by heart (which is a long one), but she also knows several letters from her friends and family’s names. Just one example is when she saw the word Happy and thought it said “Hailey” which is a classmate. Then she had written some names on a piece of paper to which she pointed from bottom to top saying “Sedona, Zion, Ezra, Mommy”
Some of the letters she did get right, and I don’t think it was just a coincidence. She is starting to make the connection. She also very suddenly went from scribbling blobs to drawing houses, rainbows, buildings and people.
And here is one of daddy playing guitar.
There are other areas she is falling a little behind in. I don’t want to focus on that because her team assured me and reassured me that she is doing wonderfully and it’s nothing to be alarmed about. I am going to work on making sure she keeps her implants on ALL the time at home and the school is going to pull her out of nap next year, since she doesn’t nap anyway, so that she can have more tutoring. I’m sure she will be fine and we can all pray and believe that she catches up in the area of sentences and can continue to move forward in order to really reach her fullest potential!
Lastly, here is a video I put together for her teachers to see the progression she has made since coming to the school a year ago. If you’ve watched any of the videos on my blog you’ve probably seen most of these and can skip this, but it’s still interesting to see 18 months unfold in 6 minutes. The first clip is with hearing aids and she can’t speak at all, she is mostly just looking at the therapist and trying to mimicking through the visuals. Nearly 6 months later she is implanted and activated, and she started to hear words and repeat them. This potato head video was an enormous breakthrough for Sedona. The third clip is summer school and she is still mostly repeating words with prompting, but she recognizes several vocabulary words. Then fast forward to this year where she can understand a TON more and is saying a few simple sentences and communicating by answering questions. The last clip is one I took at home of her practices some of her vocab. She knows 300 words now (give or take) and is has even started to sing for the first time.
That’s what’s happening with SJ. I want to do a blog post about Z’s school next. I was a part of a Common Core webinar yesterday and it’s been confusing and a little scary, but nevertheless I love his school. I will elaborate on all that later. I hope everyone has a really GOOD Friday!
All progress is good progress :). I'm sure she will continue to change and improve her language skills. It's really amazing to think of all the things she has had to learn and catch up on in such a short time. The picture of daddy playing guitar is adorable! And a really good picture, too. Kids that age can't usually draw people that well!
Sarah, I honestly would not have believed that she drew it if I had not seen it with my own eyes. It really came from out of nowhere.
I loved seeing the videos again! She has come so far! Her drawings made me think of when Cody was in Kindergarten. I had gone to school for a teacher conference, and she was showing me something he drew of his sister. He had written an "L" and an "E" on it, and I thought, well it's the first two letters of her name, even if it's backwards…Then I realized he had sounded out "Elly"! He was almost six at that point, though, so I think SJ is doing super!!