Wednesday, October 7, 2009

What has Will been up too?

Communicating!! That is what!!! This is Will's communication station...
His teacher and speech therapist came to the house last week to teach me how to use his PECS boards. We have been doing this at home since last Thursday and let me tell you that it is empowering!
We put the board on a wall in the kitchen for now because Will is just learning. But in the future he can take the board/book with him when he goes places. The idea is that when Will wants something he goes to the board, takes the picture of what he wants and brings it to me. I then give him what is on the picture. His pictures are: Cow, cup, pretzels and various toys. It is amazing. I cried when his teachers were showing me how it worked because I was so proud of Will and also amazed at how well he did. They came in and put the board on the floor and he went straight to it and got the pretzel picture and took it to his teacher! Give the boy a PRETZEL!!!
He has been requesting pretzels ALOT!! I break them into little pieces and hand them to him and he eats them...EATS them!! No spitting! Did you hear that?? Angels signing Hallelujah! It is amazing!! I think that we need to add more foods to the board so that he can broaden his food choices.
He also likes to sing If Your Happy and You Know It. Which we sing ALL. DAY. LONG. But he requests it so we sing it!
I am working on taking more pictures for his board so that he can communicate more! I am so proud of Will and I am so excited about our future communication possibilities!

8 comments:

Christine said...

How wonderful Myssie! I'm crying too! I am so proud of Will. We are about to start the same thing for Nathan. I'm excited to try as Will seems to have gotten the hang of it quite easily. YEAH! and pretzels... EATING PRETZELS.. no kiddin the angels are singing! Way to go, the hard work has paid off. You should be proud!

Jenny V said...

WOW Myssie!! Your post gave me goosebumps, I could tell just how excited and proud you are! That's so exciting that he's doing this now and that he's eating pretzels!! Congrats, I love hearing this kind of news!!

Terri H-E said...

Way to go, Will! And you mentioned the HUGE often overlooked benefit of catching on to communication - the feeling of POWER! It's as important if not more important than the skill of using the communication method itself. I'm so glad Will has begun treating you all like trained monkeys - it's huge! As much as Addie tells us to do the Chicken Dance, the Chicken Dance shall be danced!

So hopeful and happy. Love it.

Anonymous said...

very proud of you Will.Way to go..

Cindy said...

Great job, Will! Eating and communicating are such big steps. I'm so glad to hear you're making such big steps.

Lora said...

That is so exciting! How wonderful to be able to know what he wants, and for him to be able to tell you. Yay!

Kelly said...

Way to go Will with your eating and communication skills! I love watching him progress! Love the Dora video too. Especially Caroline in the background asking if you got it! Kelly F

Jacqui said...

THAT IS SO EXCITING - the pretzels and the pictures! It is really going to deepen your communication with Will and his sense of interacting with those around him!