A Party at sunset

The other day we had a fun birthday party for my dad.  I got some great photos of him with all his grandchildren, that doesn't happen too much.  Usually one of them runs off just as I am about to take the photo or something like that.

After cake Lucas and Zoe went out to play hide and seek with me and I managed to sneak some photos of my mom and dad's gorgeous garden as the sun was setting.

This is no longer attached to the ground.  Typical Zoe ;)

I am so happy that tomorrow is the first day of May.  Hopefully many beautiful sunsets await.

Happy birthday dad!

Learning to see by feel

Sophie has suddenly been receiving books in our mailbox from the CNIB library.  I don't know why they started arriving but I think it has to do with her birthday a few weeks ago.  I signed her up with the CNIB library when she was a baby and I was told that she would receive some touch and feel board books for us to borrow, but they never came and it kind of went off my radar after a while.  Then they started arriving recently and we now have about 6 books to use.  I wonder if one of their programs start at age six and we were on a list already.  Regardless, it has been fun discovering what is in the mailbox every few days.

The books are all a bit different.  Some are baby board books that have textural elements and some are books for older kids and they have braille as well as textured pictures and simple coloured pictures.

This page has one picture of an item on it.  Sophie does really well with something like this to look at, there is no visual clutter and the colour is nice and stark in comparison to the background.  She also prefers primary colours.  Sophie is diagnosed as being severely vision impaired so any new things to try to improve her vision is great.

The next page has a textural equivalent to the picture.  It is something that Sophie can feel with her hands to get a feel for the shape of the object she just saw.  This book focused on basic household items.  It is wonderful for learning the names of objects that she sees everyday.

Lucas helped Sophie feel the toothbrush on this page.  Love that open hand.  :)

Then there is a braille page for each item as well.  We don't need that page but for many children and adults this is how they learn to read braille. 

Some of the books are more like stories but have the textural aspect on each page as well so that the child can follow along by feel.

This book had some different raised images that went along with a story.  But it is nice because each page is kept simple with only one object on each page.  It helped model what your day might be like.

I am really excited that we are able to borrow these books for Sophie so that she has some new choices in the journey of helping her to learn to see.  I am excited to see what new items are in the mailbox this week.

Augmentative Communication - one step closer

Yesterday Lucas decided that it had been too long since his last sports injury.  We ended up spending the morning at Urgent Care getting x-rays of his finger.  He was playing football and jammed his finger off his buddies shoe while trying to take him down.  It is the same hand as last summer but the ring finger this time.  Turns out it isn't broken but he tore all the ligaments.  It is completely purple and all swollen, Lucas was pretty disappointed it isn't broken, but he seemed happy when they said the ligaments were all torn (it's all about the bragging rights).  So it is splinted and we have to do therapy on it each day starting in a few days..

Here he is pre injury for formal day at school.   :)  We had to get out his new board shoes and he wanted the bowtie.  He looked like a 90's grunge kid dressed up lol.

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We had a first meeting with Sophie and the Augmentative Communication Service OT at our house this week.  She brought out some head switches and an Ipad with a communication app on it called Sounding Board.  This app has the functionality of being switch adapted.  There are very few that are switch adaptable so it was exciting to see one in action.

We used Step Scanning which involves 2 switches, one for scanning and one for choosing.  Not easy.

 Getting the positioning right for the Ultimate Switch with gooseneck mounting.

We got it all set up and just let Sophie just jump right in. She was a star and made it look like she had been using a head switch all her life.

Focusing hard and figuring out the choices on the Ipad..

Making her choices cycle through by activating the head switch...

Woops, got herself in the eye with the switch the next time she tried. 

 Making her choice with our jellybean switch on her tray (the switch is hidden right in front of the ipad).  This is very complicated and Sophie got it very quickly.  She had to cycle through the choices with the head switch and then choose the one she wanted with the switch on her tray by using her hand.  That is ALOT of coordination for her to acheive in a short period of time.

We gave her two choices, two toys that she could play with.  She chose the same toy EVERY time, a new music box that she just received for her birthday.  It was awesome to watch her wait while they cycled through and then make her choice.  If she missed it she started the cycle through again with the head switch and prepared herself to get it in time with the switch on her tray.

Enjoying her choice, her music box :)

 Sophie worked with the switch for quite a long time and was successful in using both switches over and over again.  After trying the Ultimate Switch we tried a Papoo switch for a short time.  It made a noise and glowed red and it freaked Sophie out a bit. The noise was a bit disconcerting for her right by her ear.  But if the switch is embedded in her headrest it could be a good choice.  We think that 2 head switches will be the best way for Sophie to use any devices.  It is too much work for her to get her hands where they need to be to continually activate the switch on her tray.  She does much better with her head.  We will try lots of new switches and placements and find what works best for her.

Lots more to learn, lots to be excited about.  One step closer to knowing what my girl wants and needs at all times. Yay!!!!

Easter lit up

A couple months ago I found some ideas online about Easter egg hunts that were glow versions for kids to do in the dark.  One of the ideas was from Play at Home Mom and I knew that I had to try to do the same kind of idea for Sophie.  Because of Sophie's severe CVI (cortical vision impairment) I like to find things that are lit, glowing or reflective in much of our play.  This glowing Easter egg hunt would be perfect. 

Sophie off to start her egg hunt, you can see one of the glowing eggs on the couch.

I completely lucked out over a month ago and found some LED colour changing Easter eggs.  They are nice and big and have an on\off switch so they should last a long time.  They were also really inexpensive at $2 each.

Lucas and Sophie both got some glow silly putty in their Easter baskets,  I can't wait to see how that looks.  Sophie also received a little light up chick.  The Easter bunny brought some fun things this year!
Sophe hunted for her eggs in the Mustang walker that we are trialing and she did very well.  She had only used it two times before this and she navigated it quite well.

Lucas was a very good Easter egg assistant and helped Sophie put the eggs she spotted into her basket.

This was how the illuminated eggs looked with the lights out.  They rotate through a colour cycle so it was fun to watch them in action.  These will be a regular part of our play now!

The next day Sophie and I got out her light pad and put all her plastic Easter eggs on it.  They glowed wonderfully and Sophie had lots of fun knocking them off.  I put some waxed paper under them and she really responded to the crinkly noise it made.  I think that was what got her really reaching for the eggs.  It also dulled the light a little bit for her.

I put Sophie on my lap for a bit and we played some more with the eggs.  She thought it was very funny to knock them all off and even kick the light pad off our lap. 

Hope you had a fun and wonderful Easter too!

Getting ready for Easter

Sophie and I did a little crafting today.  We were very lucky today that we had a nurse even though I wasn't at work, so it was a day that I was able to get some things done around the house and also have a little fun getting ready for Easter.

Sophie getting ready to paint

I found some vintage Easter drawings to print out and I made some little tags and Easter cards for this weekend.  Sophie also make a couple little cards.

Sophie's finished cards

Sophie helped choose all the colours that she wanted to use and decided that one Easter sticker in each card was sufficient.  She is getting so good at letting us know what she wants with smiles or no type vocalizations.

I had fun gettting all my scrapbooking stuff out to make the cards.  I haven't really scrapped in over 2 years so it was fun to have an hour or so to spend crafting.

I love the vintage postcards.  I found them at The Graphics Fairy via this blog.  I distressed them and mounted them on cardstock.  Of course I had to use stickles on all of them as well.  Nothing is complete without stickles lol!

I hope to make a couple more cards and I will hand them out this weekend to our families when we visit.

I also made some cute little tags that I will use as place cards for the kids.

In other exciting news, Sohie got her yearly haircut.  Isn't she cute!!!!  Unfortunately Sophie has an ear infection right now but today she seemed much happier and was having fun playing.