IEP

My toilet training (or lack of) was mostly discussed today. Nursery have been taking me to the toilet every hour, to sit there and hope that something happens. Well, I'm going entire days now without going to the toilet which is not very good or healthy. Goals are to try and increase my fluid intake during the day and not to take me to the toilet every hour, but to let me go on my own, if I want to. It's about me having some control over it. I don't like going to the toilet at home, so mabye this goal will change that.

My rough play is still an ongoing issue. Well, I'm not rough intentionally, I just love physical contact. I'm quite a big boy for my age so I tend to hurt people without realising. I am very sensitive though, if they are sad I will cuddle them. But if I see someone kneeling down outside, that is a green light for me to run and jump on them and tackle them. Some of my friends enjoy that, but not everyone does. I have to learn to respect people's space a little more.

Nursery will be in touch with my primary school to arrange a visit, nearer the transition time. The SENCO at my primary school will also be invited to my final IEP, this will also give her a chance to observe me.

My speech is coming along well. I've now got the hang of the colour blue, now I'm going to learn all about the colour red.

Picnic on the heath

Such a beautiful day today so we went to the heath for a picnic. Had lots of delicious food.. a roast chicken, salads, cheese, olives, bread. Mommy had just dished me up some chicken when a tearaway puppy came and put practically the entire chicken in it's mouth. Very nearly got away with it so had to go in the bin anyway. We should've just given it to another dog, someone may as well have enjoyed it if we couldn't?

Autumn fun day

Once a year nursery has a fun day for all the children in the local community. There's always a lot to do, bouncy castles, face painting (I would NEVER sit still for long enough so don't bother), beat the goalie, cakes, burgers and madness! Had fun, didn't stay in any one place for longer than a minute.

Statement for school

I start school in January 2010 and my statement is soon to be finalised. Everyone submitted their reports about what support they thought I'd need. Mommy wrote one, the CDT wrote one and nursery did too. Mommy and Papa met with the council to discuss the statement. He told them that he sees many statements and feels that I seem to be one of the few children that has improved so much and will continue to, which can only be a good thing. He summarised the report and this is the support I'll have on a weekly basis:

A language development programme which is drawn up with advice from the Language and Communication Team. I need a sctructured approach to communicating using a total communication approach, including Makaton, photos and pictures to support my understanding and expression as appropriate.

Support for the development of my early basic skills including literacy and numeracy. There should be adaptation of the curriculum to meet my specific learning needs. Tasks will need to be broken into small steps with the use of repetition, visual cues and multi-sensory learning to reinforce information.

Individual and small group work to develop my attention control. I need a teaching environment that provides a consistent and structured approach to learning, with the use of visual cues and timetables to support my understanding. There should be consideration of the environment from a sensory perspective, such as limiting the amount of noise to improve my ability to concentrate and offering regular movement breaks, in order to maximise my learning.

Regular opportunities for individual and small group work to develop my social skills. I need adult support for the development of my play skills and to guide my social skills.

Activities and exercises across the curriculum to further develop my self care, motor and co-ordination skills which incorporate the advice of the occupational therapist and physiotherapist as appropriate.

I did it!

I slept in my own bed at mummy's last night, for the first time. It's taken a little while to get used to the new rules, I've tried everything to stay in mummy's bed. I've said I want milk, have a sore finger, hurt my head... nothing worked though. But now that I'm in my own bed I feel very proud of myself and enjoyed self-soothing when I woke up through the night. It's very important for my self-awareness, after all I'm starting school in January so am preparing for that. I know mummy will let me into her bed every now and then, just not every night and all night, and that's ok.

Italy with papa

Back from Italy

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I've been in Italy with Papa for a couple of weeks. I'll upload some pictures soon. Spent last night with mommy and she let me sleep in her bed. I wanted to sleep with all my favourite things, so I took my football, High School Musical dvd cover, upsy daisy, elephant, winnie the pooh and tiger to sleep with me. There wasn't much room in the bed for mommy, but we managed ok.

Went to see my paediatrician today. She didn't do much, just asked how I was doing, listened to my heart & weighed me. She thinks I'm doing pretty well and only need to be seen again in a year, if necessary. :)

The colour blue

One colour at a time. The one I'm focusing on now is blue. Blue for the sky & blue for my eyes. It's also the colour of the inter Milan football shirt.

My new obsession

I'm officially a 'High School Musical' fan. I sing along to all the songs and dance too. I love it so much I even take the dvd cover to bed with me. It's also one of the first things I say when I wake up in the morning, because I dream about it. Aunty Kir bought it for me for my birthday, thanks Kir!

Happy birthday to me !

I turned 4 today, but when you ask me how old I am I say 3, 8 or 9... never 4. I got lots of presents and even got a bike... but think it'll be some time before I learn how to ride it. I wish people wouldn't sing happy birthday to me, it freaks me out... find it too overwhelming. I didn't like it last year either. Thanks to everyone who came, I had lots of fun and loved having an audience when I was breakdancing.

Speech therapy

My therapist comes to see me at nursery school once a week for speech therapy. At the moment we are working on the “voicing” process using a therapy technique called “Metaphon”. This technique starts by teaching the concept of noisy and quiet. We have been talking about noisy and quiet animals, noisy and quiet sounds etc. I'll need to do this at home too. Some things I'll be doing...

Making noisy sounds (banging drums, clapping hands loudly, shaking maracas).

Making quiet sounds (rubbing hands together, softly hitting the drum, blowing air).

Talk about which animals are noisy (lions, elephants, dogs).

Talk about which animals are quiet (fish, snakes, spiders).

If I hear a noisy sound comment on it, and the same for quiet sounds.

The next step in this therapy is to start talking about noisy and quiet speech sounds.

My vision is perfect

I had thorough tests today and have been given the all-clear. They tested my vision first which is perfect. To test if I was colour blind they showed me pages in a book that showed images that were made up of lots of small coloured circles. I had to find a dog, a butterfly, an elephant, a flower, a rabbit etc. I got 8 out of 10 correct which means I'm not colour blind.

My visual perception will more than likely be a cognitive issue so will be working on that more and I'm sure I'll get the gist of it, with a little effort and support.

Speech assessment

I have a new speech therapist and she came to nursery to observe me. The good news is that there is no sign of a 'disorder', only 'delay'. It's just a matter of time before it comes together, I will be having speech therapy in blocks of around 6-8 weeks and should respond very well to this.

I am able to produce all the sounds expected in a child of my age. This shows that I don't have an articulation disorder (inability to say sounds).

I use some delayed phonological processes; therefore I have a mild phonological delay.

I have a good ability to combine sounds in different combinations.

I have a moderate reduction in speech intelligibility (how easy I am to understand). My speech intelligibility is impacted on by reduced speech precision, reduced voice volume, hypo-nasality and reduced intelligibility with increased length of utterance. I appear to have reduced breath control for speech.

Am I colour blind?

I'm being referred back to great ormond street opthalmology for an eye test. I struggle with colours and visual perception so need to find out if i'm colour blind or not. Papa is colour blind, so I could well be.

Swimming with papa

HOT! We need to cool down so papa took me swimming after my hair cut.

Got the chop

Papa took me for a haircut, it's so hot now and my hair was too long. I like it, I feel so much cooler. What do you think?

Italy with papa

The best bit about going to Italy is flying in an aeroplane. When I see one in the sky I always want to fly in it. Anyway, on Friday morning we went out to the centre of Milan to buy books and papa bought some sunglasses. That afternoon I went to the park with papa, nonna and nonno and played football and frisbee and cooled myself down in the fountain.

On Saturday nonno and Elisa took me to the lido, had a swim and played with all the other toddlers. On Monday morning papa and I went for a walk on the navigli and met up with Lorenzo for an icecream. I like Lorenzo, have met him a few times before, hoping to see him in August when I go for my summer holiday.

I ate lots of good food, as usual, my favourite being nonno's home-made pesto pasta.

Challenging times ahead

My visual perception is very, very bad. I may also be colour blind and will need to be tested. Things will be tough for me at school but I'll do my best and will remember to focus on things I love to do, as well as things I can't. I know the school I'm going to uses the phonic system for reading and writing, so that's good. :)

Visual perception is the ability to recognise, interpret and organise visual images.

Pupils who have difficulties in this area may have:
* a poor sense of direction
* difficulties with organisational skills
* reverse words in both reading and spelling (eg. saw for was)
* difficulty understanding abstract maths concepts, paticularly in the areas of shape, space and measure
* problems with comparative language (eg. taller than, shorter than, longer than)
* difficulty completing jigsaw puzzles
* problems with copying from the board
* problems with interpreting and organising diagrams, charts, graphs, maps and other * visual methods of recording
* difficulties judging speed and distance
* difficulty with letter and number orientation
* difficulty with structuring and organising written work
* strengths in logic, verbal and non-verbal reasoning
* enjoyment in using multisensory strategies when learning
* a preference for a phonic approach to learning to read
* a preference to use audio methods of recording information.

Prefer to see Lazytown on the telly

I went to watch Lazytown live today. No thanks. It was way too noisy and they were right there, alive in front of me. I just wanted to go home. Sportacus came on about 10 minutes into the show, was great to see him and I was very excited, but then the audience shouted too loudly and I just had to leave. Maybe I'll prefer it when I'm older. I did get some great Lazytown goodies though, activity book and a microphone that flashes which is great for my rock'n rolling.

Made mummy & I lunch today

Pizza.. yummy!