Spring Update

Homeschool Assessment

As a homeschooler, we have to complete paperwork to notify the school district that we are homeschooling at the beginning of the year and complete an assessment at the end of the year. A certified teacher reviews Kevin's progress for the year that is in "accordance with his abilities". Once Kevin was school aged and we were considered official homeschoolers we had the Family Hope Center sign off on his assessment each year. But since we haven't been back to FHC in over a year I needed to find someone new. I am very happy with the person we were connected with and she was very interested in learning about Kevin's journey. She was able to read the blog to get a lot of the information she needed. It made me realize that I don't post enough about what we do with Kevin in the box of learning and education. So be prepared to see some old stuff we've done and I'll get better at posting the new stuff as we go along. This will make our end of the year assessments even easier because it will all be documented right here on the blog. I was a little nervous about someone new assessing Kevin because he's nonverbal and I don't have anything to show as far as paperwork (except for his art work :) but I found out I had nothing to worry about and it was very easy to show the progress Kevin has made this year through my updates. 

Speech Therapy

In April, the speech therapist used a game called "Pop the Pig". Kevin loved the anticipation of when the Pig was going to Pop - kind of like a Jack in the Box. The therapist mentioned there were other similar games and Kevin got the game Jumping Jack for Easter. To play the game you spin the spinner to remove carrots and you don't know which carrot will make Jack the bunny jump and pop up! The anticipation is so exciting! There are many words to use while playing the game: PLAY, MORE, GO, STOP, IN, OUT, HELP, TURN, CARROT, BUNNY, YOU, ME, Colors, and my new favorite is using names of the people playing with us: MOM, GRANDMA, UNCLE STEVE, AUNT DAWN, etc. This makes me so happy to have a new kind of activity to do with Kevin. 

At our May session, the therapist had several new games and activities to use with Kevin and his Talker. But every time she started a new game Kevin kept saying NOT - his way of saying no games. He wanted to listen to music which he got to do but he had to work for it by using his Talker of course. They even took a walk through the halls to say hello to people and tell them his name...and spreading some smiles along the way. He has also had a couple opportunities to meet some other kids in therapy using Talkers. It is so cool to see them say hello to each other and introduce their name.

Kevin is wearing a harness that can hold his Talker.
It's still a little heavy for him and he needs help lifting it up to Talk. 

One of my favorite Talker moments recently was while we were visiting a friend in the hospital. His birthday had been the day before and we sent a birthday balloon to his hospital room. As we were visiting, Kevin said HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and I thought how good it was that he said that to our friend with his Talker. But he kept repeating HAPPY BIRTHDAY and I soon realized he wanted the Happy Birthday Balloon! And so Kevin kept himself and us entertained by playing with the balloon during our visit. I love it when he is able to communicate something he wants...and as you can probably guess that's when he is the most motivated to use it. 

When Kevin was getting back on his feet this spring after his foot surgery, 

he had a good opportunity for standing exercises while being a nosey neighbor.

Poor Kevin, he keeps trying to use that screwdriver to get
Santa to talk again...I really wish new batteries would help. 

What!? I'm just bringing up a few toys!
Kevin is very happy to have his walking independence back.

Father Jacob!