Summary of our group meeting (June 16, 2010)

Hi ladies,

I finally get a chance to sit and write a summary of our team meeting. This is our plan for the next month:

LIAM AND HIS COMMUNICATION

I. At the time of the meeting Liam seemed to be talking less (now his talking is coming back). We talked about an email I had received from Megan about the attitude that would be the most effective for us when Liam is not talking too much. Here are Megan's words:

"In terms of Liam, there could be several things going on for him as you stated below (e.g., homeopathy, therapeutic listening, etc, etc). However, if we expected certain changes from him instantly you probably wouldn't need a playroom for him. It takes practice and persistence and often times TIME from the team for him. Simply stick with him...continue to encourage him and be persistent with his spontaneous-ness. It's a challenge for him and it's definitely easier for him to give kisses than go for the words. If he does that...respond literally to what kisses mean: hugs and cuddles and love. Remember, it won't help him to get what he wants if he were to go to school and give kisses as a way to get food. It's certainly cute but not 100% helpful. By helping him to practice at home in a loving and persistent environment you are making it easier for when he IS outside of the house. If we give in, we will never take him to that edge.


I'm curious as to why you think he's nervous and anxious while looking as you do non-verbal gestures. These comments kind of say more about what you may be thinking and feeling versus what Liam is. I understand you and Antonio know him better than anyone but maybe his looks are actually because he's thinking and building the neuropathways to tap into his spontaneous words quicker."

We talked about this and some of our conclusions were:
- We will relax and not worry when Liam is more quite. These are phases that always go away.
- We will be persistant. If this were easy for him, we would not need a playroom.
- We will celebrate. He is making a HUGE effort so he needs our acknowledgement.
- When he whispers at us, sometimes we can whisper back at him. Also, as Megan mentioned in another email that I posted here, if we hear what he says, even if it is whisper, we will celebrate and say: "I heard that!!! This is great!"
- We will give him more space and join sometimes from further away so that he knows that we respect him in any phase that he is.
- When he walks away from us or stands in front of us without saying anything, we will NOT think that he is frustrated, or that he is giving up. We will think that this beautiful boy's brain is working like crazy developing new neuropaths and that every time he walks away teaches him that that method of communication was not the most effective and that he could try another method.

DUSYA AND HER COMMUNICATION

II. Megan recommended to us to know complicate Dusya's communication goals but to just give her time to practice her ability to create more sentences and answer and ask questions to us. Some of the things we talke about in the meeting were:

1) We will continue with the non-verbal gestures instead of questions.

2) If we are in a conversation with Duch, we will ask her open-ended questions and not only yes/no questions, do that she gets to practice her spontaneous language. The orther of questions should be:

A. Open-ended ..........PAUSE .......... if she does not respond then ...

B. Alternatives ..........PAUSE .......... if she does not respond then ...

C. Yes/no questions ..........PAUSE ........ if she does not respond then ...

D. you make a choice and she can always tell us NO :)

3) We discussed that when Dusya cries sometimes she does not know the sentence she needs. For example, when her CD player from the Therapeutic music stops, she used to say "bye bye music” and would cry. I told her the other day that she could tell me that the music stopped and that she wants me to turn it on. So, the next time, she did whine a little, but she did say “music stopped, turn it on”. The other day I was also telling her that she could tell me “I don’t want dinner” and she picked it up immediately and the next day she tried to create an “I don’t want XXXX” sentence with something else. I also showed her the other day how to use “another”, like “I want another lion”. She was using it immediately with other things. So, she seems to be getting language “rules” very quickly. So, when we get the chance to show her how to say something in a more effective way, feel free to model it for her. She is picking it up IMMEDIATELY!

4) Remember that language learning comes from “just playing” so instead of “language lessons” we just need to play with her normally and model in a normal environment.

NEW THEMES FOR LIAM AND DUSYA
 
III. We brainstormed new themes we could try this month. We also agreed to used the same themes that Dusya likes with Liam, like bday party or beach or silly faces. He is ready for more variety besides vehicles, animals, shapes, letters and numbers. Here are some ideas we had:
 
- July 4th theme with flags, picnic and fireworks
- Grocery store with plastic food, basket, grocery cart, cash register and money. Thanks to Kaffie for finding a cash registar at Goodwill.
- Restaurant theme with menus. Ashley was going to try to get menus. I heard that J'eanna was going to try to get a chef hat from the Hotel school at UH :)
- Ballerina. I will get her a tutu at Target and Kelsey and Ashley said they have tutus at home
- Cheerleaders. Shelby said she will leave one of her cheerleading unifors in our house.
- Days of the week / Calendars / Months. Kaffie was going to go to the school supply store to get some of this.
- Beauty saloon. Kaffie found a Barbie head at Goodwill.
- Baby dolls. I got them out of the garage and it seems Duch and Liam are now excited about them. There is so much we could do with babies. The babies can go to the doctor (we have doctor's clothes and equipment), they can go to school, they can go to a party, etc.
- Playdoh. Duch seems to not be eating it so much and Liam seems to like it. Cari had great fun with both kids and playdoh, so we could try it more often.
- Bingo. It seems Liam is liking this. Maddi is introducing him to this.
- Coloring. Even if they only want to do it for a little while, it is good practice for them.
 
Let's try all these ideas for the next month. Megan will come back during the first days of August to help us.
 
I am excited that June is about to end. I don't think I will ever teach 3 classes again in 1 month! July will be great because I will get to spend much more time at home. July will also be great for daddy because he has 2 trips planned. He is going to the Happiness Weekend, at the Option Institute (Home of the SonRise program) and he is going to Spain to see his family and eat the wonderful Spanish food. Abuelito (my dad) will be back to help me when Antonio is in Spain.
 
Let me know if you have any questions about this summary! Have fun with the kids! They are doing great!