Working our way out of the apraxia tunnel
Ashlynn has been saying things lately that are really showing higher level thinking. You’d think this would be glaringly apparent to me, but it really IS crazy how much language gives us an idea of what is going on in their brain.
She’s been VERY interested in her schedule, and where she is going the next day. I still haven’t made our visual schedule, but it’s on my to do list. She usually asks me though while she’s laying in bed to go to sleep,“Mama, what are we doing today?”
“you mean tomorrow?
“yes”
“Tell me that. What are we doing tomorrow?”
“What are we doing, tomahyo?”
And then we talk about it. She loves it when her grandma drops her off at school and I get to take her to her class. This happens on Tuesday and Wednesdays. She used to just keep asking
“you takin me to school?”
I would reply, “Grandma will take you to school and I’ll take you to class.”
I’ve been telling her that since she started school. This week she finally said,
“What are we doing today mama?”
“you mean tomorrow?”
“yes”
“Say that, What are we doing tomorrow?”
Instead of repeating it back to me, she asked, “Grandma take me to school and you take me to class?”
This may seem small, but I was sooo proud!
She also asks me who I work with almost everyday and I usually tell her my coworkers or colleagues.
Well the other night, she said, “who you go to work with, mama? Construction workers?”
LOL
I love it. It makes my heart smile, and in those moments, I know everything is going to be okay.
My last update has to do with school. This is her third year of preschool.
The first year she came home singing (with 1-2 sounds) the melody to the baby bumblebee song. By the end of that year, she was also telling me who her friends were in school.
The second year, she would tell me who she played with for that day, but that was usually the extent of her school reporting.
This year, her third year, she’s identifying the letters of her name all over the place. She also told me the other day when we were talking about arctic animals and that polar bears live there,
“I live in Colorado.”
Me: “Did you just say you live in Colorado?”
Ashlynn: “Yes, my teacher tell me that.”
I sat their in awe. This is the first time she’s ever told me something she’s learned at the school. Heck, this was the first time she said something that she hadn’t learned from me or that I hadn’t heard her say before.
I see the light at the end of this tunnel that is apraxia. To be honest, I’ve seen it for some time now, but I feel we’re getting closer to making it completely out.