Today I will mainly focus on the Fine Motor Skills as Chick-A-Boom is doing awesome in the whole "taking steps " department. That's right. I said steps. As in plural. Super Bear!!!!
Fine Motor:
For months, we have been encouraging Ellie to use her pointer finger. As in "it would be so nice if she could point to which type of cracker she wants" pointing. Or just pointing at what she wants in general.
Remember the egg carton? That has been played with so much that it is now all crinkly and is beyond recognition. It is time for new instruments, I mean toys.
Jan is excellent at coming up with household items for developmental tools. This visit: BOXES
Peg Board:
This is a baby shoe box and I poked holes in using a pen. I tried to make it more enticing with glitter glue and sparkle ink around the holes. Yeah, I think I need to do a little bit better job--it isn't symmetrical which is driving me nuts and it isn't very pretty so I will be making a new one after Bear's bedtime. As of now, Ellie is more interested in shaking the box, but she has tried to put her fingers in the holes. Which is exactly the point behind this make-shift peg board.
Block Box:
This is an Amazon.com box with a square cut out of it. I had to wrap it in pretty paper to get her attention and then cover it completely with packaging tape so that she wouldn't tear off and eat the paper. You all know how much I love packaging tape. I use it on everything. . . really, everything. I do not even own scotch tape so my nieces and nephews had great fun opening up their Christmas gifts. Okay, back to the topic.
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| Hum, I much rather bang these blocks together. Maybe taste them too. |
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| Look! Look! She is putting it IN the box! |
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| In the box |
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| Trying to get it out |
Around Christmas-time, many friends and family asked about what to give Ellie. We suggested toys that would help hone in on Ellie's fine motor abilities and help her learn about shapes. The Ellie Bear is now excellent at dropping plastic balls into a toy school bus, a toy gumball machine, and a toy ball dropper. I refer to the holes as "The Circle" and she seems to get it.
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| Ball Dropper |
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| V-Tech School Bus |
This makes me think of Sandra Boynton's book Blue Hat, Green Hat
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| Oops. |
Red Pants,
Green Pants,
Oops.
(the turkey has the blue pants on his head)
Gross Motor:
Steps! Ellie took 6 independent steps during music class today. She stood up in the middle of the circle and just moseyed on up to Miss Shara and tried to grab the guitar. Of course, come time for therapy, the Bear decided that she doesn't want to walk. Crawling is much more efficient.
Push-pull toys. We have the shopping cart from Awa Grandma and 2 other push-pull toys borrowed from friends. Ellie does not want to walk with them. She wants to walk around the toys while holding on. Again introducing the BOX. We have a large box (actually it is the box the shopping cart came in) that we did get her to push across the floor while walking. It worked nicely during therapy. Now let's see if she will use it without Jan being around. Ellie is quirky like that.
Ellie has to work for her food. She has to sign for it and now she has to WALK to the highchair. It can be holding onto my hands or using the box, but she needs to have a goal or a destination. Some kind of motivation.
Speech:
We had a little set back--with the ear infection, ear surgery, and the Upper GI study, we had to start back at the basics for signing. The past few weeks have been her Robert Plant screaming. Think of the beginning part of "The Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin. Aaaaaah. aaaaah. Oh we come from the land of the ice and snow. . ..
"Eat"
"Cracker"
"Mama" is a consistent word in this household :-) Yay! Andrew is also "mama". I have whipped out the "ME" book to demonstrate "dada", but it hasn't clicked yet. Caregivers = Mama.
She is echoing "lalala" and now "bababa". No new sounds and no new signs, but Jan says that is because she is so focused on gross motor right now. I get it because Ellie Bear is in the I. Must. Stand. All. The. Time. state of mind.
Gross Motor:
Steps! Ellie took 6 independent steps during music class today. She stood up in the middle of the circle and just moseyed on up to Miss Shara and tried to grab the guitar. Of course, come time for therapy, the Bear decided that she doesn't want to walk. Crawling is much more efficient.
Push-pull toys. We have the shopping cart from Awa Grandma and 2 other push-pull toys borrowed from friends. Ellie does not want to walk with them. She wants to walk around the toys while holding on. Again introducing the BOX. We have a large box (actually it is the box the shopping cart came in) that we did get her to push across the floor while walking. It worked nicely during therapy. Now let's see if she will use it without Jan being around. Ellie is quirky like that.
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| Guess I have to give her food now. She walked with the box. |
Ellie has to work for her food. She has to sign for it and now she has to WALK to the highchair. It can be holding onto my hands or using the box, but she needs to have a goal or a destination. Some kind of motivation.
Speech:
We had a little set back--with the ear infection, ear surgery, and the Upper GI study, we had to start back at the basics for signing. The past few weeks have been her Robert Plant screaming. Think of the beginning part of "The Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin. Aaaaaah. aaaaah. Oh we come from the land of the ice and snow. . ..
"Eat"
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| Eat. aka FEED ME NOW! |
"Cracker"
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| Her version of Cracker |
"Mama" is a consistent word in this household :-) Yay! Andrew is also "mama". I have whipped out the "ME" book to demonstrate "dada", but it hasn't clicked yet. Caregivers = Mama.
She is echoing "lalala" and now "bababa". No new sounds and no new signs, but Jan says that is because she is so focused on gross motor right now. I get it because Ellie Bear is in the I. Must. Stand. All. The. Time. state of mind.
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