I'm not sure what I've shared about Sweet Pea's fine motor goals, but we have been working on a few things at home in addition to writing her name. Writing her name is actually something that is a few steps ahead of where she is, but that's okay. One of her IEP annual OT goals is to imitate up to 3 pre-writing strokes (vertical line, horizontal line, approximated single closed circle) and imitate intersecting lines. She is making good progress towards that goal, but since practically right after we made that goal she stopped doing single closed circles and started doing circle after circle after circle. Her outside school OT couldn't believe that she started doing that so consistently, but we all knew that we could get her back to single closed circles eventually. It's still a work in progress, but I find that by using the phrase "start...stop" she does very well almost every time. The video was supposed to show you the circles she was making, but the crayon color was a very poor choice so unless you REALLY squint and put your nose up to the computer screen...you probably can't see them.
But the video also shows her accomplishing her second IEP OT goal...Using adaptive strategies as needed (including but not limited to: adaptive scissors, varied materials to cut) Sweet Pea will use scissors with her right hand to snip material (paper, play-doh) held in her left with no more than minumal assistance (Sweet Pea does at least 75% of the task) in 4 out of 5 trials as measured by observation/data and staff report. We purchased the Maped Koopy Spring Scissors, but we don't use the spring anymore. I think if the scissors were just a little bit smaller she would have an easier time, but she is doing pretty good as is. I am going to speak with her OT about increasing this goal as I believe that she might have met it. There could be some piece that I'm missing, but she seems to be meeting the goal if you look at the video below.
This gives you an idea of why we work on some of these skills at home...she really enjoys it! We don't push. When she is done we let her be done. Sometimes we have her finish what she is working on just to teach her to complete tasks, but if her mood isn't open to that we just let her be. We don't want to risk losing her love of learning!
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
It's Writing Time!
Why am I constantly surprised by what Sweet Pea can do? I know that I shouldn't be as I should set my expectations high, but I find myself doing it over and over again. For some reason I can't seem to realize what she can do until it is practically shoved in my face.
The latest example of this is her ability to start writing simple letters. I mean, come on, simple letters are really just simple lines so why shouldn't she be able to do this? Her March 2013 writing goals didn't include any letter writing so I was imagining that she had to master her that goal before progressing onto letters. I told a friend just a few weeks ago that we weren't ready for the Handwriting Without Tears iPad app. Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong...yet again!
I wish I could show you her samples, but as she isn't learning to write Sweet Pea, I can't. Luckily, her real name is a pretty simple name in terms of the lack of complexity of the strokes involved. For some reason I seem to recall Grandma stating in the hospital that besides it just being a great name, it was a great name for her in terms of the simplicity of learning to write it. Writing it in all caps would probably be easiest, but her amazing inclusion specialist is working on teaching her to write it correctly with the first letter capital and the others lowercase. She has her name drawn out with dotted lines on the whiteboard and Sweet Pea has to trace it when she goes into the Learning Center. (Tip - Her teacher said to not let the kids see you write the dotted lines because then they start to mimic that instead of making the solid lines, but if you have it setup before hand then it's a good way to go.)
Her inclusion specialist sent home a writing sample and while it was still very unrefined, the first few letters of her name were written without any hand over hand assistance or tracing involved! I remember seeing my nephews names looking an awful lot like this writing sample and it makes me so darn proud of Sweet Pea! I made up a dotted template today and had her write over it a few times with different color crayons and she is really getting it. It's fascinating to watch her!
Looks like I can add writing activities to my ever growing list of fun things to play around with when I have some time with Sweet Pea. At least this is one activity that I can do when her sister is around as having both girls color at the table is simple enough.
And now a question for all of you...do you have any suggestions for how to work with Sweet Pea on a skill, such as reading, when Angel wants to be right in there doing it as well? I've been told, understandably so, to not allow Angel to do it with Sweet Pea, but there isn't much alone Sweet Pea time in our house (at least not at an hour when the sun is up and my brain is willing to start working). I want to work with Sweet Pea, but how do I keep Angel occupied and not just plopped down in front of the TV, as then Sweet Pea would want to join her? I don't think that they are ready to understand "Sweet Pea time" and "Angel time". Thoughts? Ideas? Please share!!!!
The latest example of this is her ability to start writing simple letters. I mean, come on, simple letters are really just simple lines so why shouldn't she be able to do this? Her March 2013 writing goals didn't include any letter writing so I was imagining that she had to master her that goal before progressing onto letters. I told a friend just a few weeks ago that we weren't ready for the Handwriting Without Tears iPad app. Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong...yet again!
I wish I could show you her samples, but as she isn't learning to write Sweet Pea, I can't. Luckily, her real name is a pretty simple name in terms of the lack of complexity of the strokes involved. For some reason I seem to recall Grandma stating in the hospital that besides it just being a great name, it was a great name for her in terms of the simplicity of learning to write it. Writing it in all caps would probably be easiest, but her amazing inclusion specialist is working on teaching her to write it correctly with the first letter capital and the others lowercase. She has her name drawn out with dotted lines on the whiteboard and Sweet Pea has to trace it when she goes into the Learning Center. (Tip - Her teacher said to not let the kids see you write the dotted lines because then they start to mimic that instead of making the solid lines, but if you have it setup before hand then it's a good way to go.)
Her inclusion specialist sent home a writing sample and while it was still very unrefined, the first few letters of her name were written without any hand over hand assistance or tracing involved! I remember seeing my nephews names looking an awful lot like this writing sample and it makes me so darn proud of Sweet Pea! I made up a dotted template today and had her write over it a few times with different color crayons and she is really getting it. It's fascinating to watch her!
Looks like I can add writing activities to my ever growing list of fun things to play around with when I have some time with Sweet Pea. At least this is one activity that I can do when her sister is around as having both girls color at the table is simple enough.
And now a question for all of you...do you have any suggestions for how to work with Sweet Pea on a skill, such as reading, when Angel wants to be right in there doing it as well? I've been told, understandably so, to not allow Angel to do it with Sweet Pea, but there isn't much alone Sweet Pea time in our house (at least not at an hour when the sun is up and my brain is willing to start working). I want to work with Sweet Pea, but how do I keep Angel occupied and not just plopped down in front of the TV, as then Sweet Pea would want to join her? I don't think that they are ready to understand "Sweet Pea time" and "Angel time". Thoughts? Ideas? Please share!!!!
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