help play!

I haven't posted in so long. I think it's because things have been going so well, I haven't needed the blog as much to keep me on track with positive thinking. Today has been great for Penelope, despite the fact that she woke up at 3:30 this morning. She grabbed a quick nap on the way to "work" (I work as a nanny) this morning, and got out of the car completely ready to play. She was super social and imitative, and even played ring around the rosey with the 3 year old, totally "getting" the all fall down & giggle part. I was so proud, I almost started crying.
Tonight before bed we'd read books and she was toddling around from her bedroom to the livingroom (right next to each other) and came in, looked at Dad and I and signed "help". We asked what she wanted help with, she went into her bedroom. We came into her room and she sat down and looked at us and her face just said play all over it. We sat down and opened the toybox and played and laughed and had such a fun time! It was the first time she's really tried to get us to play with her and expressed interest in social activity, instead of just doing her own thing and me trying to get involved.
Since I haven't been posting, here's an update on her progress!
She's consistently verbalizing hiya, Dad, cat, up, "I see (jibberish)", "get it", bath and dog!
Her signs she uses faithfully are music, more, up, diaper, milk, eat, cookie, cracker, help, passy, and her own made-up sign for hungry!
Her receptive language is making headway, and she had her first speech therapy appointment last Friday. We like miss Courtney and even though Penny only made one sound during the appointment, we know she'll warm up.

Feeling very disjointed, had a rough day and am feeling negative about Penny's prognosis, and she doesn't deserve that because she had a late afternoon nap and woke up and was doing great.
She started by pointing at her Dad, and later said "Dada" and pointed at him repeatedly!
She identified her body parts again today, except her nose, which she *can* do. Finally when we asked her to do it for like the fifth time, she shook her head no! We all busted out laughing. Then Dad said, "please, penny, please touch your nose?" and she shook her head no again! We all laughed so hard.
She said two sentences tonight, "I'm getting it" (which she used to say often) and "I see a car."
She finally pointed to something I asked her to ID in a book (a rubber duck) and when she did, and I made her do it again to verify it wasn't a fluke, she did it and was extremely proud of herself and clapped and grinned so widely!
Earlier today, she held up a plastic snake, I made a hissing sound, and she copied it. She usually hisses as fsshhhhh sound and this was a true ssssssssss sound!
Other things she did today: said dog, labeled herself as up while I was doing up & down on my knee, waved goodbye at work!, kicked a ball, held her hands up to be picked up, labeled book, copied "laahh" sound approximately, made an elephant sound imitatively, imitated the cat meowing, climbed on the couch when I said, "come here", signed diaper as a request.

Long Day

Today's been a long day, but Penny has done several things today that were encouraging. She repeated a sentence we thought she'd lost, "I'm getting it!" while snatching the glasses off Dad's face, and she also labeled them, "glasses" imitatively.
She imitated a tickle gesture, made a choice between a reinforcer and a non-reinforcer with a gesture, and ID'd lots of body parts, including her tummy, ears, head, eyes, nose, and toes. While we were "working" this morning, the three year old was marching and Pen imitated her, as well as waving her arms in imitation when Dad was reading the Barney book.
She used some signs today, including help, diaper, and eat (she didn't verbalize this word today),
Dad asked her if she could shake her head no, and she did. She pointed, unprompted, to his mouth. When Dad asked her to put on her "hat" (a box) she popped it on her head.
Penny put a box-top on her toys when asked. She threw a ball when asked. She clapped her hands to show enjoyment.
We received the speech pathologist report and it was very discouraging, so today's blogging seems more important than ever!

receptive day

Today wasn't a big verbalization day for Penny, but her receptive language skills seem to have leaped upwards! She ID'd body parts, including her head, nose, eyes, ears, and toes. Today she discovered her Daddy's bellybutton & he pointed at it saying "belly button, belly button" and she lifted up her shirt spontaneously and pointed to hers! She did imitate the word "eyes" verbally when Dad was saying it, too.
She spontaneously verbally labeled a toy dog and a real cat, initiated and imitated hand clapping, and initiated her silly "hissing sound" which is more like a fssssssssssss.
After she threw a ball, I said, "good throw! Can you throw the ball again?!" and she picked it up and threw it. I gestured to a t-shirt laying on the floor and asked if she could pick it up, and she did! I asked her to put something in a bag, and she did, with some gesture prompting.
She waved to her dad, and said, Dad (this is one she says every day but i always forget to document it) and used the signs: more, diaper, and up.
Her only pure mand (request) today again was "eat"--this time verbally from the backseat of the car when I was handed a fast-food bag. She's basically mastering that one!
Over the past couple of days I've seen such exponential growth that I'm becoming more and more hopeful.

books, finally

Right now Penelope is awake for some reason. She woke up crying about an hour ago and we tried everything, but then I realized it sounded like a hunger cry. We took her into the livingroom & gave her a bowl of food, but that only made her more hysterical, even though she was signing "eat", so I took her into the kitchen and opened the fridge. "EAT!" she exclaimed. We hunted for just the right thing and finally found it in a box of graham crackers. Now she's winding down and watching Little Bear.
The other day I went to the thrift store & picked up more "photo" type books for Penny -- some of them are lift the flap books, some of them have animals and sounds, one is an I SPY board book, and one is a book with Barney & some older kids showing them IDing different body parts. In the past, Pen hasn't been that receptive to being read to, but she's forming a lot of positive associations with these books, especially the Barney one since we read that one standing up & it requires movement. (PS she has no idea who Barney is!)
Today she was receptive to sitting with me on the couch and being read to, and a lot of today's language report stems from that. So I'm going to type the book and the resulting language action out here.
From the I Spy Book:
imitative approximation of the word "Squirrel"
pointing when asked to point to the frog

From the My Favorite Book of Animals:
spontaneous approximation labeling of the word "elephant ("ele!")
imitative approximation of the "naa-aa-aaa" (goat) sound. ("aa-aa-aa")
imitative "roar" sound
imitative "woof" sound
spontaneous labeling of the dog
imitative approximation of "meow" ("ow")
spontaneous labeling of the cat

Barney book:
imitative IDs: ears, head, eyes, arms (waving them), feet (marching them), tummy, nose, toes

She also picked up dad's pen and newspaper today (he loves the crosswords) and started scribbling on her own!

signs she used spontaneously today:
help, more, eat, passy
signs she used imitatively today:
cracker

she spontaneously made a hissing sound (while making a snake with her arms?)
and a car sound "vroom" while playing with a bus

One of the most impressive things about today was that she spontaneously signed more and eat, and we asked her "wanna eat, baby?" she nodded her head "yes". She has nodded for about a week now but this was the first time she's used the gesture functionally!

she clapped her hands several times today, both along with us and when she was proud of herself for something!
I feel like clapping myself, we are seeing such exponential progress from today!

eat!

Today was a great day with Penelope. When I was having breakfast, she toddled up and labeled my action, exclaiming, "eat!" we asked, "Do YOU want to eat?" and she said, "eat! eat! eat!" Sure enough, she was already hungry (she usually doesn't eat right when she first wakes up.)
She used the eat sign when we were in the grocery store and we were almost finished. Poor thing had been out in the sun on the playground before we went shopping and we kept trying to get her to sign passy when she was crying in the grocery store, but finally she signed eat (they are close, motor-wise) instead.
She imitated some sounds today, including, clack, and vroom. She also appropriately labeled "in" and appropriately put things in a drawer when we asked her to.
All around a great language day, including a pure mand for eat!

beep beep

Today we took Penny out to this outdoor dining & shopping square, Brightleaf. She was convinced it was her job to be the official greeter, especially of anyone under the age of 5. We thought this was great and encouraging, even if it annoyed or alarmed the other patrons. She couldn't have been more social.
She refused to say or sign for milk or passy today, BUT she did a lot of imitations... for a donkey sound while we were reading, she would throw her head back and say the last part "AW" of the "EE-AW" I was doing.
Then we were playing with trucks and little people, and I had a forklift backing up. Beep Beep Beep, I said, and she moved the truck, "eeb eeb" she copied. We clapped for this one because she imitated the gesture and the sound!
And we asked her to id her toes today and she touched her nose. Dad said, no, that's your nose, can you touch your toes? And she did!
I bought her several books today at the thrift store to help with language, we'll see!

Shake it!

Today Penny showed she receptively knows "shake". If you ask her or tell her to shake with no other cues she will shake her head (like a "no") like crazy. She also imitated her dad's shaking hand when he asked her to shake an egg that she loves.
I was saying on, off, on off, while turning her light in her room on & off. After I stopped the game, she said, "on!". Also, we were telling her to put an object back in a drawer, which she would do then pull it out again, so we would say put in, out, in, out. When we stopped responding, she appropriately labeled, "out" and then inappropriately labeled "in". "In! In!" she said, running around with the object out. But she said in! so I'll take it.
And this is huge: she was crying today, and dad asked her what was wrong, she made a sign approximating "eat"! With no verbal prompting or gestures! When I heard that I almost started crying I was so happy. That means she can express her wants and needs with sign still, something we thought she'd lost.
She surprises me every day.

Squish!

Today Penelope was digging around in the fridge & I asked her to back up so I could shut the door. "I don't want to squish you!" I said playfully & she toddled off, echoing, "squish! squish!". We have this game we play on the couch where we lean on her and squish her and say squish, so I think that's why she picked up on that word happily.
She also imitated the mmmmmmm sound when I was Moooing with a toy cow today, imitated the eat sign when Dad asked her if she wanted to eat, and imitated the word "goat" while I was reading her a book. Dad got her to say "Mil" when she desperately wanted milk, again... so that word has been used two days in a row!
No spontaneous speech today. Some good work and focus with a shape-sorter when I blocked the "easy way" to get things in/ out of it. She also has a small stuffed reindeer she loves that I put in my glasses case and she showed a lot of joint attention and requesting my help with gestures in getting him in/out of the case.
The speech pathologist and her EI coordinator said she has access to too many toys at home (gets distracted), so I sorted them out, put about half of them up in her closet, and when we played I sat in front of the toybox to make sure I controlled what came in and out. Simple things like that I already know how to do, I'm doing. Floortime! I do believe in it.

Today's Speech Report

Today, at nearly 20 months Penelope had an audio and a speech evaluation. Ears look great, according to the audiologist!
Funny thing that happened: During the speech evaluation, they were trying to get her to play with these wind-up toys (and indicate that she needed help with each of them). One was a butterfly that skittered along the table pretty convincingly bug-like, and at one point Pen picked up a magazine and splat! she swatted the butterfly clean off the table.
Words she said:
Go? (where did the butterfly go?) after she swatted it and I showed her it was under the couch.
Up! followed by a double handed reach when she wanted help off the chair.
Off.. when that was next; I was saying "on, off" as I took sunglasses on and off my face.
"Okay let's go". After she loaded up a baby-buggy with groceries -- this may not have had the meaning behind it that we (the speech pathologist and I) heard, but we praised her anyway.
Today at home, Dad was asking her what she wanted, milk or crackers, with each item present. She stomped her feet and whined and then finally said, "mil, mil, mil!".
Also, she was getting whiny in her highchair and dad asked, "Do you want your passy?" with no response. Then he signed passy, and she repeated the sign to receive the passy.
So today she said 4 words, one sentence, and used one sign imitatively.