Hubby and I try our best to get Rayyan involved around the house...helping us with the clothes pegs when we are doing the laundry, helping us to carry things around, helping us to carry groceries, etc...
This is very good for him because not only is he more aware of his surroundings, he is also working on his motor skills and life skills too :)
Another video (you can see Rayyan's face here.. hehe) taken in the car. And in this video, Rayyan tries his best to make the sounds of the different animals :)
My mom has been hospitalised for more than a week now and our schedule has become really hectic. During the weekdays, we go to the hospital every evening after I finish my work. During the weekends, we go twice a day, trying our best to squeeze some activities for Rayyan in between. I am so glad that Rayyan has been very, very cooperative. He doesn't throw tantrums at the hospital and diligently follows us there... And he has also been eating food at the hospital without complaining! Thank you darling for not making things more difficult for Mummy!
We don't have time to do much learning now that we have to shuttle to and from the hospital regularly. We do whatever we can in the car or the hospital.
Want to hear Rayyan recite the ABCs? He can now recite A-Z when we ask him to without any prompts. But a couple of the alphabets sound the same because he has not mastered the sounds yet. But we know he knows the alphabets, just that he doesn't have the capacity to make the sounds.
For example..
c, d, e, g, p, t, v, z - all sounds like 'e'
There are some others which sound similar and do try to hear the 'w'!! He can't do the 'w' properly but kudos to him for trying so hard!!!
Btw, sorry you can't see Rayyan's face in this video. I took the video the wrong way! lol
It has been almost a month since I updated this blog and gosh, so much has happened in a month!! Work is crazy, I am inundated with projects after projects, not to mention the piles of markings that seem to get higher and higher!
To add to that, we have also let go of our maid. It wasn't a last-minute decision, we have been thinking about it since Hubby stopped working. Apart from the usual housework, she didn't have anything else to do as Hubby was handling Rayyan full-time. The fact that she kept many things hidden from us and did things that she wasn't supposed to hastened the decision to let her go.
It has been about three weeks since she left and it wasn't easy at first. Apart from work and daily duties, we have to do the household chores. Hubby and I also take turns to do the cooking. But we feel that we have made the right decision. No doubt we are totally exhausted at the end of each day, the house is a little bit messy at times and the saddest part is that we have to forgo our late night dates :( But you know what, it is so much more satisfying now that we are doing everything on our own. And the fact that we don't have to rely on strangers anymore... well, that's totally PRICELESS! And oh yeah, I must add that we are now members of VideoEzy... hahaha.. So how do I destress apart from watching those in-house movies? By surfing the net and FBing while I do the laundry, or while I wait for the soup to boil or.... yes, I am now a master of multi-tasking! hehe
OK, enough of my ramblings... let me give you updates on my precious little one. Dear Rayyan is slowly improving in his speech. He now tries to follow the words we say (but still in vowels).. He can now say, 'Mummy'... yay!!! He can also call his Daddy (he pronounced it as 'ae-ii')!! He can also say, 'I want more'... His speech is kind of robotic though and he breaks words to syllables... For example, he will say, 'Ai..u-wa..m-ore'! You have to be close to him to understand what he says. And yes, he can say, 'Help me' (ep-mii) too! Just the other day, he pulled my hand to a table and say, 'Ep-mi!'.. I looked under the table and saw a ball, out of his reach. He wanted me to help him get the ball!! I was sooooo happy! Like I said, slowly but surely!!
These days, I have been using the erasable board to get him to read and verbalise the words. You can see this in the video below. This exercise also convinces me all the more that Rayyan can read. If he is merely memorising the words, well, I must say that he has memorised quite a lot of words!!! But well, like I said, the most important thing now is that he tries to verbalise the words, especially the easy ones.
Go Rayyan gooo!!! Mummy and Daddy are so proud of you!!!
And yes, the last part of the video, you will notice that I taught him the word 'penis'. Well, I think that it is very important to teach these kids their private body parts :)
I just have to share this video. It's truly amazing and I cried while watching the video. Reminds me once again how special these people are, how special my boy is...
Rayyan is still working on his vowels and we are now training him to combine two vowel sounds.
For example..
aa+ii
aa+uu
We must admit that when it comes to speech, Rayyan is progressing at a snail's pace and we are indeed very worried about that. But we keep telling ourselves to be thankful for every little baby step that he takes, that a little improvement is better than no improvement at all.
So, thank you God.
Here's a video of me singing 'Sally the Camel'. I try to get Rayyan to say the numbers and since Rayyan can only do vowel sounds, you will hear him say..
five - aaa
four - oar
three - eee
two - oo
Not perfect but we are still very happy with that!! :)
Been a while since I did spelling with him. Glad he remembered most of the easy ones. He got confused with the more difficult ones though but that's alright.
Anyway, I wish I can get him to write out the words. This boy simply hates writing!! When we ask him to follow dotted lines, he simply refuses! He will throw a tantrum whenever I ask him to practice his writing. Helppp!!!
I have prepared the materials for PECS since last year but we have not started it because I wasn't really sure how to do it and I have heard that we have to do it right or else, it doesn't really work. So I started to read the manual and watched some YouTube videos.
Yesterday, we finally started on PECS. Since Rayyan is using PECS at AAS, I know that he has passed Phase 1. Still, we decided to start from scratch so that we can assess how far he is with PECS and ascertain the areas that need improvement.
Phase 1
Goal : Child spontaneously picks up picture to exchange for reinforcer.
Notes
1) Two trainers are required to teach initiation (Communicative Partner and Physical Prompter).
2) No verbal prompts are used during this phase. That means, don't say, "What do you want?", "Give me card".
3)Present one picture at a time.
4) Do not conduct training in a single session. Arrange at least 30-40 opportunities throughout the day.
5) Use different types of reinforcers - food, toys, etc.
6) Modify picture to match child's skills.
How it is carried out :
1) Communicative Partner entices child by showing the item (reinforcer). Wait for initiation.
2) The Physical Prompter sits behind the child and physically prompt once child reaches for item. The Physical Prompter can push child's hand towards picture or nudge elbow.
3) When child hands over card to Communicative Partner, the Communicative Partner receives the card and gives the reinforcer within half second and label item.
When the child has reached the goal of Phase 1, which means, the child can spontaneously pick the card up and pass it to the Communicative Partner without the Physical Prompter having to do any prompting, then the child is ready for Phase 2 :)
Learning Journeys are an integral part of a school life. Even in pre-school, learning journeys are organised and children learn so much through them. Our dear Rayyan took part in a learning journey around the neighbourhood last week. It was part of the CNY activities so the children were told to wear their New Year clothes. They then walked around the neighbourhood wishing all the residents Gong Xi Fa Cai!!! Some walked around with the lion dance costumes and some carried various musical instruments with them, banging along the way!!
Unfortunately, I wasn't there to witness the event but Hubby was there and he took some pictures of Rayyan walking along with the other children. We don't know if Rayyan understood what was going on but the good thing was, he was very cooperative. With Teacher Susi holding his hand, Rayyan walked together with the other children. He didn't cry nor throw a tantrum. He also didn't run or jump around. He even waved at the Daddy when he saw the Daddy taking his pictures!!!! And that made us really, really happy!! :D
Rayyan walking around with Teacher Susi and the rest of his peers :)
