Our miracles in progress

Monday, February 28, 2011

Our 3 little Texans!

Enjoy these pictures of the kids on GO TEXAN DAY!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

A miracle that is slowly coming true ...

You know, many of Duchis' therapists at NTS and also Miss Wyche at Silverlake are saying that if Duchis continues progressing at the current rate, she could go to school next year to kindergarten in the standard class. Can you imagine that????!!!! We still need to work a lot to start bringing kids to the playroom to play with her, but only the fact that people are starting to visualize Duchis at school with other kids is kind of surreal ... For now, let's keep showing her in loving ways how to be more flexible and how to play more things with you. She has come a LOOOONG way!! Let's keep inspiring her to grow even more!!!!!

Here are pictures of our Kindergarten boy, Tony, he is doing great!!! He loves going to school, which is so fantastic to see!!! This is at his Chinese New Year Parade!

Summary of Group meeting (February 13, 2011)

Hi everybody,

This was the first group meeting in which I had videos ready of several of you playing with the kids. This time we watched videos of Cari, Jordan, and Shelby with Liam. I think it was a good experience to see each other and see yourselves playing with the kids. Just today I also showed Erin and Maddie videos of themselves. I will keep doing it as much as I can with the time that I have because I know it will help you all to be more effective with the kids.

In addition to the videos, we talked about Liam and Duch and brainstormed ideas. Here is what we came up with:

- We talked about Yulene's exercises and how important they are for the kids. Please scroll down to other posts to see all the videos I took of Yulene's exercises.
- About Liam's potty accidents, the reality is there are many theories why they are happening. Every person I talk to has a different idea. So, we are working on it at different fronts. The important thing is to not react negatively to any accident. We can be loving even when we try don't understand why he is doing something. This too shall pass and all the things we are doing will get him to use the potty again. We know that. For now, remind him to go and he usually just goes. If you don't remind him, he may wait until you leave the room and he will go on the tile. So, please remind him during your session and before you leave the room. Everytime he goes, he gets a little snack (blue chips on the shelf) as a little reward. Also, celebrate him and congratulate him. Don't get frustrated. He is adorable and he will go back to his potty ways in no time.

- Also about Liam, Megan recommended to play with water a bit since he may be liking right now the sound of water. Some ideas:
Barbie pool
Blue pool
Use the sink
Use the bathtup
Use spray bottles
Bring sponges

- About the drawing, feel free to draw all Liam wants. Just remember to be enthusiastic, to really love sharing that moment with him, to mixed it up, to celebrate his talking, to encourage his looking. Several of the videos we had with the team with Megan and durign the meeting were about Liam's drawing with you guys and several of you said that they looked kind of boring. Enjoy the moment and keep showing him new says.

- About Duchis we talked about pushing her in terms of children's games. She can get bored if we always do the same things. Use all the characters she has (little people, sesame street, Barbies, Mickey Mouse, princesses, etc) to play games such as:
Simon Says
Musical Chairs
Hot Potato
Board Games

- With Liam, please DON'T READ HIS MIND. We don't want to be difficult, but he needs to get the message that we don't know what he wants unless he tells us. He may get a bit frustrated at the beginning when he sees that he is not gettign his things without saying much, but he will soon realize that WHEN HE TALKS, WE MOVE! He can do it, that's for sure!!!

- About Duch, she is sometimes getting stuck when having to put things away or when finishing activities. She may start with: "let's put music away, music is away, music is over, music goes to the closet, etc, etc" In those cases, we agreed that instead of repeating to her: "yes, it is away, yes, look it is in teh closet, etc ...." it is better to just moved on and not say anything that she is saying. Just tell her: "YES, now we are doing to have lunch" Or "sure, now we will play with the Barbies, it is so much fun to play with Barbies, etc" Just move on, and she will move on.

- Also about Duch, sometimes she starts telling us "Are you done screaming?" when she thinks we will correct her about something. We agreed to avoid the word SCREAMING and also to answer literally to what she is saying. If she says "are you done screaming?" We can say: "I am using my happy voice and I" and just move on. Don't use the words screaming or whining or crying. Be loving and be patient and help her to move on. All this will help with her flexibility.

Here is another picture!

Video Dusya and Yulene 3/3 (arching exercise)

Hi everybody, I just finished uploading Dusya's videos with Yulene here. Please scroll down and watch them. This is a huge investment Antonio and I are making in time and money to help the kids catch up in many developmental stages they skipped, so we really need your help doing these exercises daily as part of your job in the team. The videos are short and easy, so please memorize the exercises, take notes, bring your notes and do the exercises as part of your sessions. The more we do them, the faster the kids will progress. The feet exercises for Liam also apply to Dusya. And the balancing exercise for Dusya also applies to Liam. Thanks!

This video I had to upload in VIMEO, so please click here to see it:

http://vimeo.com/20126758