Pronouns, Balloons, and Books
Sunday, January 5th, 2003Thank you for your prayers for Hannah over these last eight months. God has allowed you to be part of His great work in her life. She continues to take little steps toward re-entering “our world.”
- She calls me or one of her sisters from across the room.
- She happily runs to deliver a message to her daddy or sisters that dinner is ready (or snack time).
- She asks politely for what she wants (“May I please have . . .”).
- She picked up on saying “no, thank you” just by listening to those around her and some gentle reminders over a few weeks. We never drilled it in any of her sessions. She is integrating from her surroundings!!
- She has even picked up “umm” for some reason. She likes to say “Umm, yes, please.” (It’s so cute.)
- She can write several letters from memory and is improving on copying shapes and letters that I draw for her.
Just a couple of other anecdotes that encouraged us:
- A couple of days ago one daughter hurt her finger. As she was (somewhat teary-eyed) showing it to an adult, Hannah turned to another sister and asked, “What did she do to her finger?” I was so thrilled that she (first) was aware of what was happening around her, and (second) used the pronouns “she” and “her” correctly! We haven’t drilled those yet (we’re still stuck on “your” and “my”).
- Today we were driving in the van when I saw some men carrying balloons across a parking lot to afix to a sign. They were on Hannah’s side of the van, but across the street and up farther than where we were sitting at a red light. I asked, “Hannah, do you see the balloons?” and I pointed out the front window. She looked and said, “Balloons.” I thought, “She’s just repeating. Let’s check this.” So I asked her what color they were. She said, “Green”; I thought, “Lucky guess” and said, “And . . .”; she said, “Red”; I said, “And . . .”; she said, “White.” I cheered
My sister-in-law sent me an article on autism that fanned the flame to begin reading to Hannah again. I had pretty much quit reading to her over the summer because she would fight it. So now I’ve challenged the other girls to each read one book to her each day and I’ve started reading a “classic” chapter book to her at the end of our sessions. We sit in a big chair in our session room and I read a chapter aloud. The first couple of days she tried to close the book at the end of each page and said, “All done?” But I gently told her, “No, we’re not done yet” and kept going. Now she sits quietly on my lap for four or five pages of Old Mother West Wind. I’m not sure how much of it is getting through, but I figure as long as she’ll sit quietly, I’ll keep going. Last time we read a chapter about Jimmy Skunk looking for beetles for his breakfast. As we were climbing the stairs afterward, she said, “Beetles.” I said, “Yes, Jimmy Skunk was looking for beetles.” She said, “Rabbit.” I said, “Yes, he met Peter Rabbit.” She said, “Snake.” I said, “Yes, he pulled Black Snake’s tail.” So I’m encouraged that she is taking wee baby steps toward retelling a story on her own.
Please continue to pray about her counting. We’re on the 221st time and she still doesn’t get it.
