Tomlinson (and others) Call to Arms!

Today is Lexie's last day of school (for the summer), and mommy is terrified! I feel like she's just started to make progress, and I'm worried she'll regress over the summer. I've had a few meetings with her teacher, Lori Ruth, over the last couple of weeks, and she's really empowered me with a what we need to be doing and working on to get Lexie on track, both with speech and her overall development, both of which is behind on. I have a lot of faith in her teacher and her methods, because I've seen the kids in class and talked to parents and know that it works. So now we need to have it work for Lexie! Lori has suggested that I recruit family and friends to be "in the program" with Lexie, because the more people who are pushing her to do better, the faster she will, and even one person paddling the wrong direction, even someone she doesn't interact with ALL the time, can hurt the process. So here is what we're working on with Lexie. This is most important to be done at home with me, since that's where most of her time is spent, but anytime anyone sees Lexie they can help out by doing these things. Plus, I could really use everyone "being on my case", asking and making sure I'm still doing what I need to be doing for Lexie, even with the new baby.

1. Narrate everything! As we go through our day, narrate simply what's happening and what's being seen, in a clear voice and easy to understand language. Ex: "Lexie, you're looking at a book. That's a book! Who's on the book? It's a dog. The dog says Ruff Ruff!" or "Mommy is making lunch. Here's your milk. Should I pour the milk? Yes! I'm pouring the milk! Pour!"

2. Give everything a sound. Dogs say Ruff Ruff. Cats say Meow. Cars say Beep Beep. Airplanes say "AAAAAAAh!". Balloons say "Up up up!". A lot of things we've already established a certain sound to, so you can ask if you're curious, but ANYTHING can make a simple, easy to imitate sound. Show Lexie the sound and ask her to do it back to you.

3. DROP THE SIGNS! This is a HUGE one. I talked with a mom whose daughter was barely starting to babble at 4 years old. They were very much into the Deaf community, and we having a hard time dropping signing. She finally sat down with Lori, who told her that she really needed to drop the signs, because at this age, the brain can only focus on either visual or auditory, and visual was easier, so that's what it would do. They decided to have faith and drop the signs, and she started making progress in two weeks! Now her daughter is 12 and reads at an 11th grade level! Their family has picked up signing later, since it's a great language and very helpful, but until speech was solidified, the signs had to go. We must do this with Lexie! Right now it's hard, because you say something to her, like "Let's go to Grandma's!", and she looks at you as if you're speaking Japanese. Or Martian. And you know if you could just sign it she'd understand. But Lori explained that a newborn baby doesn't know what "Go to Grandma's!" means either, but the brain naturally wants to organize things and make things make sense. Just like a hearing baby will eventually learn what "Go to Grandma's" means, so will Lexie. We just have to give her brain the chance to figure things out.

4. Make Lexie be more independant! We all treat Lexie different than we would a "normal" three year old, like Mac for instance. I'm the worst! I spoil her rotten, because she's special and precious and life is hard enough for her. But this is why she is behind, because nothing is expected of her. She can't do things a three year old should be able to do, like put on clothes for example. She has the ability, she's just never been asked to do it. We've treated her like a "disabled child", and that's all she's going to be if that's all we expect from her. Her brain is fully functioning, so we need to start treating her like a normal three year old, and she will become one. This is a hard one for Mommy! If you see me helping Lexie with something she should be doing on her own, or in any other way pampering or spoiling her, tell me to knock it off!! I won't be offended, I'll be grateful, because after three years it's sort of automatic.

Thanks everyone for your support, and I know with everyone's help, Lexie can actually progress this summer, and go back to school in the fall ready to learn even more!