Happy Fifth Birthday!
Zoë's had a lovely birthday. She had a really good early intervention session in the morning and then lunch at McDonald's, complete with a big play in the McD's playground. Then her dad came home and brought her a new DVD. He gave it to her and said, "Happy birthday!" She was very interested in the "new DVD" (her words!) and today asked for it. She said, "Want a DVD." I answered, "You want a DVD?" and she said, "New DVD. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...." (singing the song). I was greatly amused, to say the least (and no, the DVD doesn't have the Happy Birthday song on it anywhere at all; she understood that it was a birthday present).
She's saying more things all the time. She said to her speech therapist, "I want box," which was something of a first. She also said, "Whatcha doin', Nanna?" and to me she's started saying, "Hello, Mom," (with an American accent; her speech/accent is a combination of Australian, American, what sounds like "Deaf Accent" and some pronunciations that sound surprisingly like a New Zealand accent, go figure).
Her behavior has been very good, as well. I'm thinking this is partly because we can finally get liquid iron supplements again (she's been taking basic vitamin supplements and it's not high enough in iron) and partly just that she's passed a milestone of development.
So, well, she's still not Neurologically Typical, but she's doing very well, and improving all the time. It's only a matter of time before she can pass for Neurologically Typical (although she'll always be eccentric, like, hey, most of the rest of the family, heh).
Trains and Grandparents and the City
Zoë had a big day out today. Her grandparents had to go into the city to run some errands and do a spot of shopping, so they took her with them on the train and a few trams. She absolutely loved the train and the trams (but only while the tram was moving), and she was apparently very well-behaved with only a few scuffles (such as wanting to get on the train when it was the wrong one). She had fish and potatoes for lunch and just had a wonderful day.
She's been chattering and singing all day, and when I was asking her about her day she chattered to me (I don't always understand her, and it's hard to get her to repeat herself). One thing she said that I did understand was, "I eated today," which rather shocked me. It's a full sentence, and she constructed it on the spot! True, she got the verb tense incorrect, but it's an irregular verb, so what can you expect? The point was that she told me something in a complete sentence. I was extremely pleased.
I've also noticed that she'll accept food on her plate even if she doesn't want to eat it. She used to have fits if you put something "icky" on her plate. Now, she knows she can just leave it alone and eat the bits she wants. This is a good improvement, as is the fact that she's more willing to eat new foods. We've gotten her to eat all kinds of roat meat, including beef, when previously she wouldn't eat red meat of any sort!
In short, she's made very big strides this year, and particularly in the past couple of months.
We've also gotten word that she's been approved for six hours a week of educational assistance at her pre-school. She's got more than six hours of pre-school a week next year, but I'm sure they'll work it out. This is good, as it not only helps Zoë and the school, it sets the precedent to show that she does need the help. She'll have to be re-assessed after six months, but that's typical. I'm sure she'll still qualify, given her history and patterns.
I'm hopeful that by the time she finishes next year's four-year-old course, plus the ongoing speech therapy, plus the early intervention, she'll be able to go to prep (kindergarten) with assistance. That's the plan, anyway...
Big improvements all around
Zoë's doing really well. Her comprehension has increased dramatically, and while her expressive speech is still lagging, she's doing very well with it, considering. She's started to form spontaneous two-word phrases to describe things, for example. Her vocabulary is still quite small, but I'm not sure if it's that she doesn't know the word or she actually can't get the word out of her head and into her mouth (I see her struggling sometimes with trying to talk).
Her behavior has improved on many levels, including being able to recover herself better when she loses control or has a tantrum. She's more compliant these days, on a general level.
She's also doing very well with toilet control. For a while she was wetting her pants on a regular basis, but I'm not sure why. Stress? Change in routine? Testing to see how long she could hold it? Dunno, but she seems to have gotten around that now.
Overall, she's doing very well in terms of improvement. We've got a long way to go in some areas, particularly expressive speech, but this year has seen a great deal of maturing and growth and that's a very good thing, indeed.
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