How does a person learn to read without talking???

How does a person learn to read without talking???  Be honest, when you heard Cicily could read, you asked yourself this question, but were too afraid to ask.  (By the way, you can always ask, I much prefer it.)  This is definitely what I wondered when Cicily was mastering her preschool letters and looking forward to the next step of reading.  So I thought I would explain some of the techniques Cicily's teachers use to know what she's reading and help her learn more.  

 These pictures are of Cicily reading in Speech Therapy.  Cicily's therapist read a story with her and then wrote out two questions for her to answer.  Her therapist just held up the answers without reading them and Cicily pointed to the correct answer without fail.

Her SpEd teacher has cards and a toy duck.  The cards say things like, "put the duck on top of the cup."  Cicily reads the card on her own and then demonstrates that she read the card by putting the duck on the cup.


Cicily's K-1st grade SpEd teacher now teaches reading resource in her school.  So, Cicily gets to go to resource with her and her 4th grade reading group.  They've recently been focussing on prefixes and suffixes.  Cicily's nurse says Cicily can determine if a word has a prefix or suffix with complete accuracy.  Cicily also gets to bring home books from this group that focus on different letter blends. She loves reading them with me and Sophie!  And, she brings home words on flashcards.  We hold up two words such as "about" and "around" and ask Cicily, "which word is about".  She'll point to "about" without fail, unless she's in a silly mood, then she'll point to all the wrong words in a row!  To combat the silly moods, we've had her "teaching" Sophie the words.  Cicily has to point to the right words so she can teach them to Sophie.  Now we get pretty much 100% accuracy from Cicily and learning for Sophie.  :)


Cicily also continues to make sentences from word cards that she reads and organizes into sentences and make sentences on her iPad from words she reads.


I continue to be amazed at how dedicated her teachers and nurse are at helping Cicily learn new things.  Cicily LOVES learning.  It's something she can do and do very well.  And I love that she has amazing people who make it possible.

School Stories - First written sentence

Cicily can read, but doesn't have the fine motor control to write.   To demonstrate that Cicily knows how to put together her own sentence, her teachers put out a bunch of cards with one word on them and Cicily chose one word at a time to form a sentence.  They just started this work today and this is Cicily's very first written sentence.  "Grandma I wish to hug you."  She chose each word carefully and put them in order.  Grandma was "overcome with emotions" when she saw the picture.  :) 

School Stories - Mealworms

Cicily's teacher does some very engaging science units for her class.  In the winter they did mealworms that they got to feed and watch progress through their life-cycle.  At the end of the unit, the class had mealworms left over and nothing to do with them.  So, Mrs. Ruiz asked if Cicily would like to bring them home and feed them to the chickens.  Cis was ecstatic about the idea.  Feeding her chickens is a very favorite pastime.  So Cicily carefully brought the mealworms and beetles home and gleefully fed them to her chickens.  She understands the circle of life quite well!
Maya on the other hand, was very sad about the mealworms' fate.  We had a chat about the measure of living things' creations.  It made some sense to her, but she still didn't want to be outside when Cis dumped the mealworms into the chicken coop. 

School Stories - Lockdown humor

I've gotten to hear this entertaining story from Cicily's nurse and teacher.  Cicily's school had a lockdown drill (where classroom doors are locked and everyone goes to a pre-determined safe "hiding" spot).  So Cicily and her 5 fellow classmates, along with Cicily's nurse, teacher and 4 classroom aides are all locked-down in their classroom bathroom.  Yes this bathroom is large, but not that large when you factor in 6 adults, 6 children and wheelchairs!  So while they are all enjoying their tight space together time, the fire alarm is sounded.  Cicily's teacher says, "plug your ears!" to everyone.  Cicily immediately gets a big smile and yanks off her hearing aids and tosses them!  Apparently she was successful in lightening the mood, which knowing Cicily, is exactly what she was going for. 

School Stories - IEP

Right before Christmas I went to Cicily's school (while she came home to play with Grandma) to have her first Kindergarten IEP.  (An IEP is an educational plan with education and therapy goals.)  I was so excited to meet her new occupational therapist Jessica and A.P.E. coach Jill but a little nervous because I always get emotional at IEPs. 
So we went around the table and Cicily's teacher and therapists all explained what they would like to work on with Cicily for the rest of the year.  I was so impressed with how well everyone knew and understood Cicily. 
Her teacher has been fantastic with Cicily all year!  She did tell me that Cis somehow commands respect from the boys in her class.  I guess they like to pinch each other to mess around, but they never do with Cis!  They'll joke around with her, and her with them and she'll pull on their clothes or chairs, but they don't mess with Cis. 
Her speech therapist described the innovative ways she stabilizes Cicily's body to help her access her speech device. (An Ipad with an app that allows Cis to push a button -such as "book" - and the Ipad speaks, "book".)  And she has learned that Cicily will work hard for a given, set amount of time, but when that time is up - Cis cannot be persuaded to do any more! 
Her occupational therapist said she noticed Cicily wasn't very motivated with standard exercises so she comes up with fun crafts for Cicily to do each week and works on fine motor skills while doing art.  Cicily is always so proud and excited to show these to us when she gets home!
Her physical therapist has gotten Cicily to love using a walker around school.  (She's kind of hated them in the past.)  His secret is they never go "walking" they go on "parade" to the library.  Of course Cis would be motivated by walking to a room full of books! 
They all talked about reading her facial expressions and body language.  They all seemed to really understand Cicily in an impressive way.  I'm continually amazed at how God puts the perfect people into Cicily's life at just the right time.  And no, I didn't cry this year!  (I teared up so many times throughout the day just thinking about it all, I guess I got it all out.)

But I just miss her so much...

Sophie loves watching Cicily get on the bus every morning to go to school.  She talks about Cis being in Kindergarten and how she wants to go to school too.  The week after Cicily started Kindergarten, Sophie and I were driving and saw a little bus like Cis rides.  Soph got all excited and said, "there's Cissy Mom, there's Cis.  Let's go see her."  I told her that it wasn't actually Cicily's bus, Cis was already in her class at school.  "Let's go see Cissy in her class Mommy," she replied.  I told her we'd get to see her when she got home from school in a few hours. 

Then Sophie got pouty and said, "But I just miss her so much." 



It was very sweet to me.  I'm very glad that Sophie loves her Cicily enough to miss her so much.  It also broke my heart because it made me wonder what I'll tell her on the days in the future when Cicily won't be coming home?

KINDERGARTENER!

She's a great big Kindergartener!!! 

Cicily was very excited about her first day of school this year.  She is in a special education self-contained classroom with 5 other kids grades K-3.  All the other kids are very similar to Cis - limited body control, but able to learn on grade level.  For example: today they worked on subtraction and her teacher put some objects on the tray of her wheelchair and counted them out with her, then she took some away and Cicily had to push the number button on her communication device that corresponded to the number of items her teacher took away and then how many were left.  Her teacher is amazing.  Cicily's already in love and I'm thinking about finding some teacher award to nominate her for! 
Cicily also gets to do P.E., library (a fave), music, and go to a general education Kindergarten class for calendar time.  She rides the bus and gets to be at school for 4 1/2 hours.  So far Cicily has enjoyed making the boys in her class laugh by putting her feet up on the table, wearing purple since it's her and her teacher's favorite color, choosing a prize for working hard each day of school so far, and lots of other great new things.  She's so proud to be learning new things.  Her nurse Tami or her teacher let me know each day what she's worked on and when I talk to her about something new she's learned, she just beams!  I'm so glad she has the opportunity to use her brain in a way that it works- to learn and to interact with new friends.  I hope the year continues to be as great as the first few weeks have been! 

In front of her new school.  She's not wanting to look at me lately when I take pictures.  What an independent little 5 year old - grrr! 

First Day of School - Preschool yr. 3

Cicily started preschool last week. This is her 3rd year in preschool. She was SO excited to get back to her old friends - Miss Tami (nurse), Miss Marli (teacher), Miss Sue, Miss Sarah, Miss Mary, Miss Rocio, Miss Rachel, oh and some friends her own age too! We were so excited that all of her amazing friends will be taking care of her and ensuring she has another fun, safe, and educational year in preschool. I can't say it enough, we love Cicily's teacher and nurse and all the professionals that get to work with her in school.

Preschool Olympics

Cicily's school held their annual Preschool Olympics in Feb. Sophie and Mom got to go watch Cicily "compete" in sack races, bean bag toss, crawl through, paddle ball, etc. Cicily's teacher, aids and nurse were fabulous as always to help Cicily participate in all the action. Cis really enjoyed most of the fun games. At the end she even got a trophy and had her class sing to her.

Happy Halloween!

Here's Cicily in her Halloween costume (she's a nurse), just off the bus from school. They had a Halloween carnival today where she got to play games, carve a jack-o-lantern, have a costume parade, and get a face painting. I love this picture - the smeared pumpkin on her face, the frosting in her hair, even the bright yellow trach vent. That's Cicily, loving life!

Riding the Bus!

Cicily FINALLY got to ride the bus to school today. She's been very excited all weekend to ride in her "bus chair" on the bus. We've been attempting to get her a stroller/wheelchair that is bus-safe since October. She can't sit on a bus seat alone because she's not steady enough, so she needs a chair that can tie down safely to the bus. The chair is medical equipment, so we've tried to order it through her medical supply company that supplies all her trach stuff. Due to an incredibly incompetent person on staff, the order was lost for a few months, and since January it's been approved by our private insurance but fought over by both of her government insurance companies. (I LOVE that we have those government run insurances for her, I really do, but why does everything go horribly wrong when the government gets involved??) So finally a couple weeks ago, Cicily's lovely teacher at school said someone donated this nice chair Cis could use until her insurance companies can finally decide to help a little girl like they should instead of arguing over who's responsible. (If I sound a little annoyed, it's because after I've spent over 60 or so hours on the phone over the last 4 months, Cicily still doesn't have what she needs.) But anyway, thanks to a great family for donating Cicily's loaner chair and to Cis' teacher Miss Marli for matching Cicily up with it!!!

On the bus this morning. After boarding the bus, Cis got a little nervous. I told her to smile for a picture, and she tried, but all she could muster were funny grimaces like this!

Cicily's all tied down and set to go. This is her wonderful nurse Tami that takes care of her at school. She helped Cicily to be happy about her first trip on the bus.

When Cicily came home from school Maya, Lucy and I were waiting outside for her. She saw us through the window and smiled huge and waved. Then as we were eating lunch, we were talking about her riding the bus and she signed "phone" and "grandma". She wanted to call her Grandma and tell her about her bus ride.