Barrier Free

So today I was in the middle of vacuuming my floors and had to do something with the baby so I just dropped the vacuum on the floor... thinking I would get to it later.. no big deal, right?  Anyway, so I made lunch for the kids, put everything on the table, and called everyone to eat.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

"Um.. mom, I can't get to the table"

I look down and my daughter (who is knee walking) is looking up at me after trying to figure out how to go around the vacuum cleaner on the floor.  I apologized profusely and quickly moved the vacuum to a more unobtrusive location.

Things like this happen sometimes but I'm usually very good about keeping things off the floor - organizing shoes so they aren't in the hallways - you know - normal household cleaning stuff.  The only difference in my house, though, is that if I don't clean up or tidy messes all day long, my daughter suffers and isn't able to access parts of her own home.

That reminds me of why we bought the house we did.. we just moved a year ago but it was a while looking before we actually found something appropriate.  We looked at tons of beautiful houses in beautiful neighbourhoods - some of which we would've otherwise purchased - except that we were looking for a barrier free property that allowed easy access throughout the home (in our case wheelchair access).

Here is what wikipedia tells us about barrier-free http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier-free

Think about every house you've lived in and tell me if you think it's barrier free.. or even CLOSE to being barrier free.  How wide were the doorways? 30 inches?  Let's see (calculating standard width of a wheelchair = 25-27 inches plus oh let's say 3 inches per hand if you're holding ONTO the wheels to move it = 6 inches) so if 30 inches is a standard door width and a person in a wheelchair needs 31-33 inches - looks like they're not getting through there doesn't it?  Also - look down at the thresholds of your doorways or where different flooring types meet.  Is there a big bump/step up/threshold piece?  Hmm.. another FAIL.  Take note of the bottom of rounded stairs, do they jut out into the hallway?  Is the hallway wide enough?  Do you have major sets of stairs to even enter the home?  Is there a main floor washroom?  Bedroom?  Things I never even would've considered as factors in buying a home before are now front and center.

Anyway - that's it for me today - peace love.

How do you teach your child to talk?

So - growing up, I never heard anything about teaching your children how to talk.. it seemed like it "just happened" for normal folk.. I suppose it's something similar to how kids learn to sit, crawl and walk - it "just happens" ... or does it?

Honestly, we were never really concerned about T's progression with speech.. I'd been advised early on to not worry about milestones.. it was great advice too.. if you sit and worry that your child isn't meeting each milestone, you will be disappointed and be depressed - guaranteed.  I'm not saying not to be concerned and definitely seek medical advice if your child isn't "keeping up" but if you have your diagnosis and you know to expect delays then expect delays and roll with it.  So anyway, T was seeing a speech language pathologist as part of her therapy team at the treatment centre.  It was one of her favorite appointments as the therapist would play games with her, show her pictures, try to get her to model sounds and words.. it was great fun for her which is key when you want her to participate and see results.

Our therapist suggested that we get on the waiting list for the Hanen course (I mentioned this earlier) called "It Takes Two to Talk" http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/HanenPrograms/ItTakesTwoToTalk/tabid/76/Default.aspx  Both my husband and I attended class every week for 2 hours and we had homework to do.  The idea is that the family/home situation is the best place to teach communication and reinforce good speech patterns, etc.  We started the course with a visit from one of the instructors where they videotaped us interacting with our daughter.  They then played the tape back and analyzed our interactions - giving us pointers on how we could improve communication.  We did a few of these sessions throughout the course and we would also view the video clips in class along with the other parents and we could provide suggestions/encouragement/comments on the other videos as well.

One thing I remember the most was that we had two parents in our class of a little boy who had Down's Syndrome.  They were not shy by any means but they were definitely concerned for their son and his language.  They were concerned that he wasn't meeting the language milestones with the appropriate number of words for his age.  As we watched their video - we were all amazed.  Yes he didn't have much of a verbal vocabulary but he was signing NON STOP.  I swear, this kid had at least 100 words in sign language - probably more at the time than any of the other children.  They were shocked when discussion time came for their video when we (including the instructors) were congratulating them on the fabulous communication they had with their son..  he was able to communicate with them, no one was frustrated, the messages were clear.  One thing I loved about this course is that they support and encourage alternate forms of communication - sign language is just as valuable as verbal and can even be used in combination with verbal language.

To this day if T thinks I haven't heard what she said or I'm not paying attention, she will say the word AND do the sign just to make sure I understand her.  I think EVERY parent should teach their child sign language from an early age - you will be amazed at how much they can communicate with you early on and how less frustrated they will be knowing that they can communicate with you.  I was SO thrilled the other day when my youngest (11 months) signed "more" to me at the breakfast table.. awesome buddy.

It looks like they have this program all around the world
http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/SpeechLanguagePathologistsTherapists/FindaHanenSLPT/tabid/62/Default.aspx

I would HIGHLY recommend finding a location near you and enrolling in the course - you and your child will benefit from it!

Oh - in case you are a results based kind of person.. we're about 2 years after taking the course and working with our daughter and she is age appropriate with her speech now and no issues now at all.. In fact, I think she's pretty grown-up with her speech and very creative too .. telling me she couldn't "finish her orange juice because it lowers my IQ" .. nice try kiddo.

Missing out on a "normal" childhood

Here is a little article that I've read a bunch of times over the past few years.. just re-read it this morning.  It's meant to help others understand what it's like raising a child with a disability.

http://www.our-kids.org/Archives/Holland.html