Getting ready for “Hannah School”

Ever since Hannah’s yearly DAYC evaluation, I’ve felt very defeated in terms of her progress.  Especially in the cognitive and communications areas, which really did not advance at all in the past 4 months. 

I keep asking myself that with all this therapy, why was there not an advancement in this area?

So when I went to last week’s OT session, I told our OT that I don’t want to work on feeding issues for a while since we have made huge strides in that area, and I want to work on her cognitive, fine motor, and other skills. 

She brought out a chunky knob puzzle with farm animals on it, and we spent half the time using the puzzle both as a fine motor skill workout and as a chance to learn animals and animal sounds.  It was completely over Hannah’s head, but she liked looking at the pictures. 

A lightbulb went off in my head at that moment.

Because Hannah doesn’t have the ability to imitate naturally and because she has to be taught EVERYTHING and doesn’t learn on instinct for the most part, she has only learned exactly what she has been taught.  She has done well with that so far even if it takes months just to learn one concept.  At least she is learning!

I’ve been in a rut with her because I wasn’t really sure what to do with her, so we would play with her toys a lot (cause/effect, etc.).  But it has been the same toys over and over again.  She hasn’t really minded, but I knew that I had to do something new.

So I decided that I’m going to take my “dream” of being a teacher (even though I’m just one semester shy of my certification), and I’m going to put Hannah into “Hannah school.”  I found a couple good websites on activities for young toddlers, what they should be learning, and the different areas that a normal daycare would work on at this age.

I’ve put together a very comprehensive list of activities in each of these areas as well as other ideas.   I went to the 99-cent store yesterday with Abby, and we bought a ton of things to use in our “school” that were on my list.   We then came home and reorganized our living room (which is Hannah’s playspace), brought down a little cabinet, and we stocked our supplies for school.

My next plan of action is to come up with my December monthly goals for Hannah.  Taking into consideration that her acquisition of learning is very slow, I’m going to be very realistic in what I hope to accomplish in that first month (I will post it here when I do it). 

After my monthly goals are set up, I’m going to come up with a weekly “lesson plan” of activities that I want to focus on when we are at home, each working towards a monthly goal.   I am not going to go overboard because she does have other appointments and therapies, so again, I’m going to be very realistic.

This is going to be a “family” project because I can get Abby involved in many of the projects after school when she is interested (which will help get her more involved), and since my hubby will be working from home come mid-December, he is excited about taking some time during the day to be involved (even if it is just for 15 or 20 minutes to work on one of the “lessons.”)  Ethan thinks it will be fun, but he is really indifferent about the whole thing except I know that he loves playing with Hannah.

I’m very excited about this whole thing.  Even though she has five to six therapies a week, I’m starting to feel that they really don’t get into the heart of what she needs.   Once a week for 45 minutes on a concept is not going to help her teach, even though I do try and reinforce what we learned that week.  So I’m going to utilize the therapy time to help learn from the therapists more about what we can do and pick their brains to really reinforce what they do with other projects. 

Honestly, I hope some day to feel confident enough to maybe cut back on some of her therapy visits each week, even go bi-weekly.  But I’m not there yet, not even close.

Bottom line though is Hannah.  As long as she enjoys her “Hannah school,” we will do it.  Once it becomes too much for her, then we cut back, stop, or whatever.   I just want her to progress and have fun doing it.