Let me begin this post by wishing everybody a Happy New Year!! May you have a wonderful year ahead of you...one that brings abundance happiness & love... I want to start the new year on the right foot. Like I mentioned earlier, I want to be more positive this year. I have crafted out my resolutions last night and there are nine of them. Quite a handful eh?! I shall not go into details but basically, I want to be a better individual, better mother, better wife and a better teacher.... It has been a while since I made an effort to craft out my resolutions because they are usually the same each year!!! The resolutions are somewhat different this year and I really hope I can be disciplined and work towards those resolutions. Wish me luck!
Anyway, I want to feature one of Rayyan's strengths in this post and feature others along the way. Ok, I must say that my boy is pretty IT savvy. When I first purchased my iPhone more than a year ago, I downloaded applications to keep him entertained like nursery rhymes and simple games and realised that he really enjoyed them. He enjoyed hearing the songs and he enjoyed watching me play the simple, entertaining games like popping bubbles. After a while, I let him try and he was happily popping the bubbles on his own. Then I realised that there were many interesting and educational applications for babies and toddlers and downloaded many applications for him. For your info, most of my applications in my iPhone are for him, not me! There are interesting flashcards, spelling games, matching games, learning alphabets and numbers, doodling applications and many, many more. I taught him how to play and how to get his way around the iPhone. When he was 2.5 years old, he already knew how to flip flashcards using the phone, play simple games and get his way around. Now, he is a pro!!
When he went for his SPD assessment last month, I still remember how the teacher, therapist and social worker were amazed when they saw him manoeuvre the iPhone. They went like, "Waaaaahhh... He is more skilled that I am!! I don't even know how to do that!"... And that was only starting the phone and sliding the screen to get from one application to another, a skill that he acquired many, many months ago. Ok, maybe these people do not own an iPhone but really, if you see Rayyan with an iPhone you would say that he's got STYLE... many people have said so.. :)
Now, he knows how to go to the photo gallery to view the photos, he knows how to go to the video gallery and start and stop the videos, he knows how to play most of the educational games, very well indeed. In fact, he is exploring all the time that sometimes, I don't even know that certain things can be done until I saw him doing it! He is so good that my sis bought him an iPod touch for his birthday. So he is the proud owner of an iPod touch now. But I am afraid that the games are beginning to wear off on him and he is finding them too easy or boring. I must find more interesting educational games for him!
Also, I want to add that through my iPhone, we found out about his learning abilities! Well, he doesn't talk so we don't know what he knows and we don't know if the things we taught him so far got into him but when he was about 2years and 6months, we chanced upon him playing this game where he actually had to identify alphabets and numbers. For example, there is a voice command which says, "Touch the number five." There will be a few numbers shown on the screen and the correct number has to be identified. Well, I was watching him and suddenly realised that he got everything right. And it wasn't just numbers 1-10 but the alphabets too. I then took his number (1-10) and alphabet flashcards and asked him to identify the number and alphabets. He got everything right!! I found out that numbers 1-10 are no problem for him and as for alphabets, he did get confused when you put together 'g' and 'j', 'm' and 'n' but he basically knew the others very well. And since when he knew, we don't know! But we were sure glad we found out! I still remember that before we found out that about this, I was feeling totally depressed and helpless.. He wasn't talking, wasn't responding and was in his own world most of the time. But when I saw him playing that game, I just felt a ray of hope shining down on us. Thank u iPhone!! Thank u God!!
Here are two videos of him manoeuvring the iPhone.. I didn't manage to catch him playing the 'touch the correct number and alphabet' game that I was talking about because he is bored of that now. I will try to persuade him because that is really the turning point for us!
So move over Bill Gates, here comes Muhd Rayyan!! ;)
