Could do better.

I truly could do better keeping up with this blog.
Holidays are truly a stressful time for me.
Z gets over stimulated during this time of year. For Nick and I it's a happy/sad time.
We're happy he "gets" Christmas, Sad he gets overstimulated with it.
This year he's not hyper, he's zoned out. His teachers are trying to help him and I'm always nervous he won't go back to his old self. Though I'm told he will I still worry.....cause I am a major worry wart and I'm a mom.
His PPCD teacher that he had when he was 4 told us a few things we could do to help him out.
I will share them with you.

Tone down your decorations.
Try not to keep your tree lights constantly blinking.
Put them back on a visual schedule (velcro picture kind of schedule, something visual)
Keep things simple, keep things calm.

Anyone who knows me knows that keeping things simple and keeping things calm is tough.
I run all over the place.
But I try to keep our same schedule at home as much as possible no matter how crazy the holiday is AND................. I try not to lose my temper and hold him when he's frustrated.

I truly enjoy the holding part.

Don't know where to go

I started this blog to help others in my situation.
Give ideas on to help the little ones find words, confidence, their voice.
I haven't done such a great job and alot of it is because I find myself wanting to go in two different directions.
I want to give ideas then I want to tell you how I felt....feel.
Having children with any sort of disability is hard and it takes a stong person to make sure their child gets all they need to help them grow.
Bad enough our children don't come with manuals, and now we have a little something more to deal with.
So I think it's best to do both.
Just let it all out there from non-verbal kiddos, crafts, motorsensory issues,
overstimulating holidays, bullies or Really mean kids that aren't quiet mean enough to be a bully.

Right now were dealing with these overstimulating holidays.
Z isn't quite all himself this time of year.
Can't keep his concentration, emotional and all around well like I mentioned before, Not himself.

I've been researching to see what I can do to help him.
Last year was the first time we dealt with holidays overstimulating him and I haven't found a plan to go by just yet.
I just try to keep my patience when the tears flow and my arms open when he needs to jump in.

Though I don't much mind the holding part, who know's how much longer I have until he think's hugging mom is "Not cool."

Where did it come from?

My friend asked me.... why the title "To Catch a Bird?"

Simple.

Deb, my mother in law said we really should write down the activities we did/do to help the boys.
Nick and I were discussing what she said on the way home and he said, he didn't know how we'd start it but he know what we would title our writings.
"To Catch a Bird."

He said having children who were non-verbal was tough.
Teaching them to talk was tougher, as tough as trying to catch a bird.

I loved it, so I used it.

It made me tear up, but we have our little birds by the feathers, just need a bit more to pull them down.

Cookie Cutter.

Okay my dear friend and I found ourselves saying this term more than once.
"cookie cutter."
"Our kids are not cookie cutter and that's A-Okay."
Both our children are Receptive-Expressive.

We know the hard up's and down's but we don't give up.
We are our own self-proclaimed "Mommy Warriors."
Here that Miss. Winfrey, there are tons of us EVERYWHERE!

And it brings me to this.

Just because our kids are not "Cookie Cutter" doesn't mean they can't achieve it all.

While watching a football game with my hubby and father-in-law I heard something that made me do a double take and make my ears grow ten times larger!
I had to soak in all the info I was hearing.

A NFL quarterback, Nate Davis who has such a severe learning disorder was there, right there playing NFL ball.
This non-cookie cutter guy is a pro player.
He learned his plays by looking at special pictures.
I was floored....PICTURES!!!
How many of us are doing that like right now with our kids!?
WOW! That could be any one of our babies.
OUR BABIES!!!

Okay so your reading this thinking...ppfffttt.
I don't want an NFL player.
Well he/she can be a doctor, diagnostician, lawyer.....anything!

That's what I tell Z & E everyday.
They can do anything!!
I constantly tell them "Your brain is so wonderful...I love your brain!"

I get those toothy grins and you know, they know it. They know they have it, they just need a little extra "pictures" to look at to help them along the way.

Here's the link if you want to read more.
And mom's and Pop's don't give up, work with them, they will surprise you.

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/09/03/49ers-qb-nate-davis-embraces-his-learning-disability-earns-nfl/

Hopscotch

These photos were taken in 2007, Z was 4 and E was 3. Both were non verbal and I was working hard to pull words out of their little mouths.

This particular day I decided to take a fun lesson outside with hopscotch.
I let them doodle on the side walk having them repeat the words of the pictures they drew.

Next came the super fun part.

I drew the hopscotch squares with their help and had them help me draw in the numbers.
Next I rolled a rock and demonstrated what was to be done.
Little smiles scrolled across their faces and I knew they got it.

Of course I had to stop Z from running away a couple of times, that child loved to run and when trying to catch him he thought it was a game of chase.
Nope hun just want to keep you out of the streets!



This not only helped teach them about interaction but helped them with grasping. The big chalk was great with the motor sensory in Z & E's little hands.
And lets not forget music.
Yes, I sang.
Anything I could think of while they were giggling and jumping from square to square.
I felt if I could incorporate music in little by little maybe it would be less painful to Zenon in the future.

Afterwards I remember us going in all hot and sweaty for a drink and a snack.

They still love chalk drawing and playing hopscotch with mommy.

Beany Bean Beans!

Z and E both had motor sensory issues.
Z's a bit more severe than E's.

There's was in a form of their hands, Grasping a pencil was tough. Making the simple task of correctly holding a crayon almost impossible and extremely frustrating on them.

Someone dear to me said writing for my boys was like if they were trying to write on the ceiling with a pencil attached to the end of a bamboo stick...YIKES that does sound frustrating!

So I played games with them to help them ease into the process.

I started with textures. Allowing them to jump in there and get in there with their little fingers!

I started with beans.
I allowed them to transfer beans to and from bowl to bowl.
I eventually took away the measuring cups and stuck my hands in the beans as if sticking my hands in sand.
I giggled the whole time making it seem like I was having a ball.
Of course monkey see monkey do and they jumped in on the fun.
Not only did I let them play I encouraged conversation.
Mommy:"Ooohhh do you like this game?"
Of course Z would just echo.."Do you like this game?"
Mommy: "No I say do you like this game you say, yes."
Z would smile and continue on his beany mission.
You know I never gave up, repetition, repetition.

You don't give up either.














Back to the bean....They made a terrible beany mess but I didn't care. To me this was a step in the right direction.
I was told the touch and feel sends signals to their brain.
So if their sensory felt pain from the feeling they could slowly train them selves with activities like this.
Again this is what I was told, I am not a therapist.
I was actually told to use anything and chose beans, you could also use rice.
Another fun thing the boys loved was crushing leaves.
Their Pop's came up with this one.
On a family walk pick up leaves and let your little one just crush it in their hands. In the beginning I think it bothered Z to do this. But after a while his boy instincts kicked in and he loved it!
We'd walk he'd stop pick up a leaf show us his finding then CRUSH!
I was happy to see he was coming along, even if he did sometimes sneak into the house a leaf or two.

Blowing bubbles

What kid does not like blowing bubbles?

This is an excellent way to help your little one strengthen their muscles around their mouth.
E has articulation issues so needless to say we ALWAYS have bottles of bubbles around!

It's cheap, fun and oh so simple.









Another great excercise is having them blow bubbles into their juice or milk through a straw.
I know kind of gross and who know's how many times I got on to the boys for doing this before I was told it was good for Little E.

So now I let them make, make and make more bubbles.

One little recommendation, don't let them do this to carbonated drinks or into a Capri sun packet.
The Capri sun packet will fill with air and the juice will gush out like a geyser.
Yes, for us it was a lesson learned.

Another a great excercise is Air Hockey....poor man's style.

Take a waded up piece of paper and place in the middle of a table.
Place yourself or sibling on one end of the table and another child on the other.
Each player places a straw in their mouth and blows air at the wadded up piece of paper.
Back and forth until the paper flies over one end that person gets a score.
Keep this up for giggles, fun and most importantly much needed excercise that will help your little one.

Little Pictures all around.

Z & E were pretty much non verbal as little as 2 years ago.
Now....I can't seem to keep them quiet!
Truly and honestly their Chatty Kathiness is very much a blessing in our household.

BUT! Like I said they weren't always verbal.

And one can only take so much grunting right?

With the advice of their speech therapist I made charts, charts and more charts.

I started by researching "Free Boardmaker" on Google.
Boardmaker is a wonderful tool to own if you have a non verbal child.
And if you can swing this pricey program more power to ya!
I opted for the frugal way and it worked just fine with us.

I purchased some inexpensive page protectors and started printing away.
At the end of this blog I will furnish you with the sites I used.

The purpose of these charts is so your child can point to what they want.
If they can't point, take their hand and point for them.
"Do you want this?" "Or that?"
By now you can probably read their facial expressions and know what they want.

If they can point, then keep them pointing to what they want.
Your next step is getting them to say the word.
EX: They point to raisins, next step is having them repeat "Raisins".
Tell them to use their words and slowly and surely they will come around.
Now some kids will never be verbal and they may have to point.
That's okay.

The kinds of charts I put up and where I put them up:

Kitchen: Snacks, meals the boys would ACTUALLY eat, Beverages.
You can also use charts showing dangers, like "hot".

Bathroom: Hand washing, toilet flushing, bathing etc.

Bedroom: On the dresser I placed charts of clothes they had in their drawers, same thing for their closet.

Living area: Basically just picture charts of furniture and television.

These are some of the charts I used for the boys below.

Now this was more of a schedule.

I no longer have the boys "Big" schedule for I gave it to a friend who's son is still non-verbal.

Basically cut and laminate some pictures.

(You can laminate just by placing the picture between two big pieces of clear packing tape or you can find laminate sheets that are 4x6 at your local dollar store.)

Next take some sturdy cloth or cardboard to make your schedule it will look like this.

(Mine was just a cut up piece of paper towel roll.)

Take peel and stick Velcro put one on the cardboard one on your picture and there you have it!

I used this to plan the boys' days.

From the time they woke up to the time they went to bed.

They had their day planned.

This two piece schedule in the photo was one I found in my drawer.

This originally had a photo of a toilet and then hand washing.

Schedules are important because it helps our children have a voice.

If you little one is in a Special Education class and you go visit their room you will see charts and schedules just like these.

Sites I frequently visited.

http://www.tinsnips.org/

http://www.dotolearn.com/

http://www.mes-english.com/

http://www.abcteach.com/

Hope this helps.