Activity: ASL Photo Scavenger Hunt

I'm using this new series of posts to share about some of the activities that we do with our kids! We spend a ton of time researching online for new and creative ideas, and coming up with a few ideas of our own. I hope that this series will be a help to other people in coming up with creative ways to teach their kids!

Activity: ASL Photo Scavenger Hunt

Skills: Increasing sign vocabulary , following multiple step directions, fine motor skills (cutting, gluing)

Tori and I are tag-teaming Nolan's school right now, with me doing a session in the morning and her doing a session in the afternoon. We realized that he is desperate to learn more sign to be able to communicate, and that he will never be able to read until he has a form of functional communication. We are choosing 5-6 signs per week and just doing activities with him (all play based) that incorporate using these signs. On this particular week, the signs were: Nikki mummy, Tori mummy, dog, iPad, loud, and quiet. We also wanted to review other signs that we previously taught him to see if he remembered them: shoes, bike, book, baby, ball. The following week, when we did Part 2 of the activity (making the book, below) we were focusing on the name signs for the other kids.

Nolan and I sat with the iPad and I signed to him "I am taking a photo of Nolan with the iPad". He knew all these signs (photo, Nolan, iPad) and posed for a photo.

Next I told him that I want to take a photo of a ball with the iPad, and asked him to bring me a ball. He understood all of this and was very excited to race into the other room to search for the ball. He successfully brought me back a ball, and I helped him hold the iPad steady to take a photo with it.

We continued along in this way. I would sign an object or person to him, and he would have to go around the house and bring me back that object or person, and then we would take a photo of it. At the end, we reviewed all our photos and their corresponding signs.

Nolan loved this activity. He was proud when he understood exactly what I was asking him. When I signed to him that the game was finished, he started crying!

He successfully retrieved nearly all of the items/people that I asked him to search for in our scavenger hunt. He didn't remember "bike". He looked at me quizzically, and then pointed to his feet, asking whether I meant "shoes", as the signs are similar. I pointed to the direction of the bike and then he remembered. We introduced 1 new word, "puzzle", and the others were all review.

Nolan is a helper and he loves when we give him jobs, so this activity was right up his alley as he felt important when I asked him to do something and he understood and was able to follow the instruction. He typically doesn't do well with 'testing', so this was a good way to be able to test his knowledge without him knowing that that was what I was doing. We will continue doing this activity and adding new objects as we increase his sign vocabulary.

For fun, the following week I printed out all the photos that he took so we could make a craft with them! He had to cut out all his photos and then glue them to paper and we made an ASL Photo Scavenger Book with all his photos. I wrote the word under the photo, and as we flipped through the book, he did the sign for the object. He did so well and it was a great way to review the signs he knows. I learned that he knows the objects very well (the toys he plays with) but was mixing up some of our name signs. He was happy to show it off the book to Tori when she got home!

Braille Part 2

Well, it happened. I am obsessed with Braille right now. The more I learn about it, the more fascinated I become. And the more excited I am about teaching Charlotte and opening these doors of literacy for her.

The Hadley course we are taking, Braille and Your Blind Baby or Toddler, is amazing. We are learning all about the importance of literacy right now, and how to promote early literacy in your blind children. We are also studying Braille ourselves as children whose parents understand Braille are more likely to be more successful with it.

I'm learning that at this stage, Charlotte doesn't need to understand the Braille letters yet, but I DO want to instill a love of reading in her! And since she can't see the pictures, giving her something to feel, like Braille text, texture, or objects representing characters in the story, will help engage her in reading. It's also important to be animated with my voice to keep her interested, and to involve her in the reading by asking her to turn the page! So right now, the focus is on her language development, her interest in reading, and her learning how to use her hands to explore things, on top of just exposing her to Braille so that when she gets older, she will already have that foundation.

In my last Braille post I listed some of the books that I had purchased in Braille. Lately, we have been taking other books and toys and adapting them to meet Charlotte's needs and make them more interesting to her. I ordered The Black Book of Colours, which is in Braille and all the illustrations are used with raised lines so blind readers can see the pictures with their fingers! I am excited for this to arrive. We have a few numbers books, and I went through with my Braille labeler and added the Braille numbers to each page so Charlotte can touch them as we count. I also took our shapes puzzle and added the Braille word (square, circle, etc) to the shape so we can read it and learn the names of shapes as we do the puzzle!

 

What is most challenging right now, for Charlotte and especially Brianna, is that both are resistant to touching things with their hands. We are trying to incorporate touch into their lives by doing activities which involve touching objects of different textures, and just being sure that whatever we do with them, we use their hands very purposefully to feel everything around them (not just during school time, but throughout the day). Right now Brianna screams and cries if we have her touch anything. Many of the activities we do with Charlotte, we do with Brianna as well, but only for very short periods of time as right now, our only focus for her is helping her overcome her sensory challenges. When she is more comfortable with touching things with her hands, then we will be able to really spend more time with these activities. Charlotte isn't as resistant, but she prefers to pick up an object and toss it across the floor. She very rarely will sit and just feel anything (musical toys, Braille books, sensory toys, etc) unless I sit with her and hand-over-hand encourage her to do it. Right now I am putting Charlotte in the Bumbo chair for a little bit of time every day, when I am occupied with the other kids, and putting toys or books on the tray to give her the opportunity to have those objects close by so she can explore them. Usually she just throws them off the tray, but I hope she will start exploring more often!

Resources:
Eight tips to introduce reading to your young child who is blind
Braille for my baby
Braille Literacy (CNIB)
CELL Practice Guides with Adaptations
Eleanor's In-sight: Early Literacy for the visually impaired

Activity: Proloquo2go Sandwich Making

I'm using this new series of posts to share about some of the activities that we do with our kids! We spend a ton of time researching online for new and creative ideas, and coming up with a few ideas of our own. I hope that this series will be a help to other people in coming up with creative ways to teach their kids!

Activity: Proloquo2go Sandwich Making!

Skills: Increasing English vocabulary, familiarity with Proloquo2go, following directions, reading, cooking skills

One day, Lily and I went to the kitchen and I asked her if she would help me make a sandwich. She was very excited and as we made the sandwich together, I described each step in English and took photos of her doing them.

The next day I took those photos and plugged them into Proloquo2go, putting them in the proper order and labelling each step. Even if you don't have Proloquo2go, you could print them off and use paper copies.

That morning I asked Lily if she wanted to make a sandwich again, and told her that this time, she was going to make it all by herself! I opened Proloquo2go and showed her how to follow each step. We sat together and she went through all the directions step by step, touching the button on P2G so it would read the direction outloud, and then following it with minimal help. The first time we did this, I was surprised that she didn't know what the words "knife" or "bread" were. Today she knew all those words and understood what was meant as she followed the instructions.

When we were finished following the directions and the sandwich was made, I took out some scraps of paper that had all the 9 steps written on them. We went through step by step and I gave her 3 paper options. I would say the step "ex. get the peanut butter" and she would have to look at the 3 options and select the correct one. Sometimes she would try to go fast and would just point to one without really thinking, but whenever I made her sound the words out and fold her hands together while she looked and thought about it, she would get it correct.

She was so proud of herself to do be able to complete this all on her own! She was especially excited when I helped her cut the sandwich into 4 parts. She, Tori, and 2 of our ayahs Parvathi and Prameela all ate a piece, and she beamed with pride when they told her how good it was!

Braille

Aside from Charlotte and Brianna, all of our blind children have profound cognitive delays. Most of them are also on the autism spectrum. When Charlotte came to us, we knew that she had lived the first 19 months of her life in an orphanage where she was deprived of affection and stimulation, and we know very well what effect that can have on a child's brain. We had no idea whether Charlotte would talk, one day go to school, or be able to do things like read and do puzzles. We still do not know these answers, but the longer that Charlotte is with us the more we believe that as she gets older, she will be a typically developing blind child. Already she has surpassed Jasmine, Cedar, Chloe, and Promise in terms of her receptive language. This is new for us, and has led me to spend a lot of time researching educating blind children. Although Charlotte is only a year old (almost 2), I want to give her the tools she needs to help her mind grow, and to prepare her to navigate life as a blind child and adult. This article, Beginning Braille Skills, was really eye opening to me. The Hadley School For The Blind also offers a lot of online courses for professionals and family members of blind children/adults, including a free intro to Braille course. Their Braille and Your Baby or Toddler course is $99, but looks amazing. Tori and I signed up and start soon.

I learned that just as a sighted baby and toddler sees print everywhere, a blind baby and toddler needs to "see" (with their fingers) Braille. Sighted children understand what letters are long before they learn to read. They see letters in books, on cereal boxes, on signs. Charlotte is only a baby and nowhere near ready to learn to read, but we need to expose her to Braille in the same way that sighted babies are exposed to letters. Because she is blind though, this needs to be more intentional. With our other blind children, we have never used Braille because right now they are not at the stage where that seems like something appropriate to be working on. Maybe one day this will be something we do with them, but for now we are working on other goals, and so Braille is completely new to our house!

I purchased a Braille labeler online through the Braille Bookstore for $24.95. You do not need to know Braille to use it. You simply type a word letter by letter in, and it prints it in Braille onto labeling tape which can then be used to label anything in your home. The woman who recommended this product to me suggested buying extra clear labeling tape, so I did that as well.

I found, when I asked online on the 2 support groups I am a part of for parents of blind children, that there is a lot of different thoughts for how to label and how to expose your child to Braille. Some people said to label everything in the house. Others said just do those things that are labeled in print (like, for example, buttons on a microwave, dishwasher, etc), others said just to start with the first letter rather than doing the whole word. I ended up labeling some of her favourite things and some things that she touches frequently throughout the day. As she is near it or as we use the object, I run her fingers over the Braille and say the word. We labeled things like; water (her bottle), all the rooms in our house at the door frames, her toy box, and the beds and table.

I also ordered our first Braille books! I am a huge Robert Munsch fan, so I ordered Murmel Murmel Murmel off the Braille bookstore. Off Seedlings Braille Books For Children I ordered Love Bug, Clifford's Bedtime, Good Night I Love You, and That's Not My Duck. The book from the Braille Bookstore was just the papers with the text and Braille binded together. The Seedlings company takes the actual books (with pictures, as you get in a bookstore) and pasted the Braille to each page, so I liked those best as my other kids can read them and they are board books so the pages are thicker for Charlotte to turn. I was pleased to see all of our favourite books and authors available in Braille! There is contracted Braille which uses contractions/abbreviations, and uncontracted Braille, which is the standard Braille alphabet letter by letter. I purchased all uncontracted Braille books (grade 1) as that is usually how kids learn. In addition, an awesome mom named Ann, who has a daughter with anophthalmia (same as Charlotte, Brianna, Cedar, and Chloe) made us an ABC Braille book to introduce Charlotte to the alphabet and to read through as we sing the ABC song! The first day I introduced the Braille books to Charlotte, she was super grumpy and I was sure it wouldn't go well. I did a few other activities that she cried and fought me through. Then I pulled out the Clifford Braille book and ran her finger over the Braille as I read. All the sudden the crying stopped and she sat, still with her head turned slightly to the side in concentration, until we finished the full book. She was so interested in feeling the Braille!

Aside from just exposing her to Braille, I learned a lot about pre-Braille activities that I can do with Charlotte (and will also do with my other blind children). Pre-Braille skills are the skills that will allow young children to one day learn to read in Braille, so things like discriminating textures, building hand strength, and fine motor skills to explore with their hands. An example is when we read, I have her practice turning the page and move her hands so she learns that we read from left to right. We also do an activity where we hide different objects inside Playdough so she can practice exploring with her hands and discriminating different textures. Recently I put beads inside Playdough and helped her squish the Playdough and find the beads inside, while talking about the different textures to teach her words like "squishy".

Another activity we have tries is puffy paint colouring: This is where you take a colouring page from a colouring book and cover all the lines of the image with puffy paint, so that it sticks up from the page and a blind child can feel it. Then, they can colour the object with crayons being able to feel where to colour. Rather than just scribbling on a paper and not being able to see it, this is more interesting and teaches the child to use their hands to feel where to colour, and also to discriminate the 2 textures (smooth paper and raised paint). Tori tried it with Brianna and Chloe. Chloe tolerated it well for a bit. Brianna wasn't ready for this yet, but we are going to try to keep pushing her and try to expose her to new things using her hands. She screamed and fought it, as she does everything right now that involves using her hands to explore.  Brianna is so new and we are still getting to know her. We are trying to expose her to the same activities that we do with Charlotte, and as she gets more comfortable and we get to know her better, we will be able to better understand where she is at and what goals are appropriate. I was surprised that Charlotte loved the activity. . She sat calmly and seemed to be soothed by the back and forth colouring motion. Because of the paint, our crayon would hit the edge and we would know to start going in the other direction. I was pleased!

 

I found this awesome website, Ellie's Eyes, written by the parents of a little girl named Ellie who is blind. They shared the video "Ellie with her new touch and noisy book 15 months" and I loved it so much that I searched for that book and found it on Amazon India! It is called This Is My Monster. As you can see in the video, Ellie is able to listen to her Mom reading and knows when to press the button so she is involved in the story telling. She also feels the textures and turns the pages. Those are great pre-Braille skills and things that we are working on with Charlotte! Many years later the same family shared the video "Ellie using Pre Braille skills books". With this book, the child has to trace their finger from one object over several different paths to find something. For example, help the butterfly find his flower. I did some searching online and found that these are made through Tactile Graphics, a company out of South Africa. These are a bit advanced for Charlotte, but I bought one anyways and we will start exposing her to it. They are a bit pricy but are beautiful and handmade and the website has a lot of selection. I ordered the same book that Ellie is using in the video, Paths, but the website offers lots of other books that are great for developing pre Braille skills. It just arrived in the mail and I love it so much. It is beautiful! I am going to try it with Charlotte tomorrow.

So that is a little bit about our new journey in learning Braille! We are pretty excited to start learning more about it and introducing it to Charlotte and Brianna. We will keep you updated!

Food and Your Blind Child

Most of our blind children have challenges when it comes to eating, and as I did my research, I learned how common this is for blind children. This is so common as these kids have no visual cues to be able to see the food they are eating, are not able to watch others feed themselves and imitate the behaviour, and are often nervous to explore new textures, so eating new foods can be scary. For kids like mine, who spent time in institutions, their motor skills are delayed as well, which makes learning to feed themselves more difficult.

Here are some good blogs and articles on the topic: Food Glorious Food and Family Voices At Mealtime.

 

Charlotte really struggled during mealtime when she first came to our home and I remember we had to give her a banana after many meals because we weren't getting enough calories in her as she would cry and spit the food out, and a few times made herself gag to try to spit it up. We would also need to water everything down to a mush-like substance. We are working hard at exposing her to foods with different textures now, in the hopes that she will get used to them and become less adverse to eating crunchy foods, hard foods, etc.

I have shared in previous blog posts some of the foods she has tried since joining our home; quiche, ham, pancakes, Popsicles, chocolate, and various fruits, among other things. She is a big fan of Popsicles! At this point, the only foods she eats willingly outside of her usual rice/curries/tiffins, are bananas and Popsicles. Oh, and she loved chocolate raspberry cake at Starbucks. In 2015 I would love to see her expand the foods she will eat and also learn how to feed herself finger foods! She likes bananas, and because it is one of the only foods she is motivated by, that is the food we are using to teach her to feed herself. We put the banana in her hand and prompt her to bring it to her mouth. We have tried other foods like crackers, cookies, and watermelon, but she cried and refused. Now that Chloe is feeding herself, we are moving our efforts onto Charlotte and sitting with her every meal doing hand over hand feeding. So far... it is interesting! She hates it and likes to make that clear. One way we are working on helping her become more comfortable with trying new foods and feeding herself is by feeding her the new foods while she wears her headphones, listening to music. This has definitely helped and with the headphones on, she doesn't cry at all!

An unhappy Brianna the first time we tired to feed her semi-solids

Brianna is new to our home and we are still figuring out how we can best feed her. Even though she is 17 months old and has teeth, at her old orphanage we only ever saw her being given a bottle. On her first dinner with us, we took the rice and curry that all the other kids eat, added some water to make the consistency softer, and tried to feed her that. It was clear she had never eaten solid food before as she had no idea what to do with it. We then blended it and tried to spoon feed that to her, and, as you can see from the photo, more went out than in! She is drinking bottles of Pediasure right now and we are blending up her meals and putting them in her bottle as well. At the same time, trying to introduce solid food, but she hates that and tries to make herself gag, so it has been challenging. We haven't had her very long, and so far it has been a big struggle to get enough calories into her. I think some of this is related to having a rough transition and not understanding where she is and who we are. Today she hardly drank anything and we have spent a lot of time rocking her and trying to get her to drink. Please pray for progress with this! We want our baby to have a full tummy!

Jasmine and Cedar both learned how to feed themselves in 2013 after joining our home. Following the Indian way of eating, our children don't use utensils but use their hands to feed themselves. We actually tried teaching some of them with cutlery as we thought with their sensory challenges that touching the food with their hands may cause problems, but after so many years of being hand fed by an ayah, they didn't like the feel of the cutlery in their mouths and would chuck it across the room when placed in their hand. Jasmine and Cedar all learned quickly how to feed themselves and now feed themselves all meals. All three are also very hesitant to eat anything outside of what they eat every day. Cedar will eat cake and drink smoothies, but that is it, and Jasmine won't even do that. In order to get fruit into their bodies, we have to mix the fruit up and pour it on their rice. They will eat it that way, and some of the kids show preference when their rice has fruit juice mixed in, even though they won't eat their fruit unless it is mixed. 

Chloe is our newest self-feeder, and I am so proud of her! As soon as she moved in with us, back in September, Tori and I began trading off meals, sitting with her and feeding her hand over hand. At first she didn't seem to grasp the concept at all. She would scream and cry because she wanted the food so badly, but if we paused, waiting to see if she would take the initiative to scoop the food and bring it to her mouth, she would instead just reach for our hands, wanting us to help her scoop. Slowly she learned how to put the food to her mouth on her own. We would help her scoop, then tap her hand and she would feed herself. For four months we did this three times a day between Tori, myself, and any volunteers that were able to help out, and slowly we were able to fade the prompts.  I got a message from Tori on January 20th, a few days before I arrived back, saying that after switching Chloe's food into a larger bowl which gave her more space to scoop the food, Chloe had fed herself breakfast for the very first time! She is now feeding herself all meals. Go Chloe!!

So those are some of our experiences on our blind children and their reactions to food and feeding themselves. We are going to continue working at exposing them to new foods, and we hope that one day soon Charlotte will be feeding herself, like Jasmine, Cedar, and Chloe have learned to do! And most importantly, that all the kids will try new foods and not be scared or anxious during eating times.

Letter From A Special Needs Foster Mama

The following is not directed at anyone in particular. It is just an accumulation of thoughts that have developed over the past year of fostering. I was sitting and talking about this with some of the volunteers the other day, and I thought it might offer an interesting perspective. 

We love visitors.

Really, we do.

We love meeting people who have followed God's call to take care of orphans, and have traveled halfway across the world to do so.

Thank you for your obedience. Thank you for your heart.

I know many of you have never been to India before. This might be your first time working with children who have been orphaned or with children who have special needs. I know it can be intimidating and even scary. These are just a few things to keep in mind that will help make your experience here even more positive!

Remember, my home is not an orphanage. 

My children are orphaned, but they are also part of a family. They are loved. They are our daughters and sons. Treat our home as you would treat your neighbour's home; knock when you walk in, and introduce yourself to my child before you pick them up or play with them. I know my kids are cute and a selfie with them would make an awesome new profile picture, but please get to know them first before taking pictures, or just run it by us and let us know- we will probably say yes!

Please don't kiss my children or tell them you love them (unless you have been here long term and have developed a loving relationship with them). My kids have experienced a lot of loss and change in their lives. We are trying to teach them what it means to be safe in a family. When strangers come in and excessively cuddle them and say that they love them, it can be confusing. That said, it will make them happy if you wave hello and give them a big high five or a pat on the back!

Don't judge.

We may do things differently than you would. We have 10 kids with extensive needs, and parenting them can be difficult. You come from a world where children with special needs are given a free education and have access to many services that we don't have access to here. Remember that we are not only moms, we are nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and special educators. Sometimes some balls drop and as hard as we try, all our kids' needs cannot be met.

Please be understanding to how crazy this life can be. It's not that I don't want to hear your suggestions- I do! We want to make our home the safest and happiest place for our children. But if you have ideas, please offer them in a loving way. Don't moan and groan about how horrible my kids' lives are and how much more they need. I am the first to tell you that we can't give them all they need, but until they get adopted (if that happens) this is the very best that we can give them and we work tirelessly to ensure that they live rich, full lives.

My kids' history is private.

We are happy to share with you bits and pieces about our kids' histories, but for the most part, we prefer to keep that information private and not dwell on it. Our kids are listening when you ask your questions, and they notice when you talk about them and make sad faces. They aren't objects to be pitied. God has rescued them and brought them to a safe, happy place. Their past is a big part of who they are, but unless it is essential for us to share that information with you, we would rather you just focus on how they are doing now, rather than where they came from.

Above all, they are kids... just like all other kids!

Don't feel intimidated by their special needs. Sometimes they stim, or scream, or drool all over the toy you have out for them. It's okay. A lot of them don't respond to questions, and for those who speak, you might not understand what they are saying to you. It's okay. You may have never spent time with a child with special needs before, and you don't even know where to begin. It's okay. 

My kids love to play. They love to dance, to sing, to ride their bikes, to throw balls, to finger paint, to swim, and to go on walks.

If they aren't interested in a certain game, try something else! Ask us for help, and we can point you in the right direction. Don't be scared to get messy and try something new, like painting the bathroom walls with shaving cream or filling the kiddie pool up with bubbles!

My kids can see your heart. If you are invested in them and want to make them happy, they will pick up on that and will have fun. And our kids LOVE to have fun!!

A Voice: Part 1

The past year our home has been heavily focused on PT. We have four new walkers and all the kids have become stronger and made many gains in their mobility.

I decided that when I went to Canada, I would spend a lot of time researching how to get my kids communicating, and that when I returned, I would really make a focus on that in therapy. I spent many hours researching and planning, and met with a speech therapist friend Narmilee who gave me a lot of advice.

The first day I sat down with Lily and tried out her new Proloquo2go program is a day I won't forget. I think it was an important day for her as she was able to use this program to communicate her thoughts for the first time, and she was so, so excited about it.

Narmilee suggested that I start simple. We began with activities. I took photos of 2 toys in our house; a ball and a baby doll. I made 2 folders, 1 for "ball" and 1 for "baby doll". If she touched "ball", the folder would open up to 3 options (each button with a photo of her doing the action); play basketball, throw the ball, roll the ball. If she touched "baby", the folder would open up to 3 options (each button with a photo of her doing the action); rock the baby, feed the baby, push baby in stroller.

She caught on quickly, and her eyes lit up.

My girl surprised me. Instead of choosing the baby doll that she loves, she selected the ball. I suppose it is a toy that she doesn't often have a chance to play with, as she needs a partner to play with her. When the options opened, she chose "play basketball". We practiced saying "Ball. I want to play basketball" and did the ASL sign for "ball". Then we went outside and played basketball, and she laughed and laughed and laughed. She had been in a grumpy mood that morning, and I couldn't figure out what was bothering her, but this activity totally cheered her up, and when we were finished she raced back to the iPad to tell me what she wanted to do next.

She selected throwing the ball, so again we practiced saying the word, signing it, and then we played a throwing game. As her third and final game, she wanted to push the baby in the stroller, so we went outside and had races across the balcony pushing babies in our several toy strollers. She laughed so hard. When our game was done, we opened the iPad and worked on learning how to spell the words "baby" and "ball" and she typed the sentence "I am throwing my ball". Even our Indian staff stopped and took notice. Our ayahs and nurse crowded around her as she typed, cheering her on and looking impressed with how well she was doing. Ramana used my iPad to take photos as we raced across the balcony, and Lily was excited to be the center of attention and the one that everyone was cheering for.

Shortly after we were done, Tori told me that Lily crawled up to her with a big smile, tapped her shoulder to get her attention, and explained using a mix of sign and speech that she and I had thrown a ball, and she had typed the sentence. Wow!

When she first came to us, Lily spoke only a few words. Now she speaks so many, but is trying hard to say more. Tori and I and our ayahs can understand her sometimes, but most other people don't understand much at all. When we don't know the context (for example, if she just crawls over and tries to tell us something) it is harder to guess what she is saying. And lately, she is trying to tell us a lot.

I am really excited to watch this unfold, and I can't wait to understand all the thoughts that Lily has going on in her head.

This week I am going to add more options to her program, and slowly build it out until she is able to communicate more and more to us. I am also building out a communication program for Nolan and Dinah, and Tori is working on communication with Molly and with Theo in relation to speech and his cochlear implant. Stay tuned for more stories, as I am really excited about where this is going!