Monday 28/05/90 – Another Training

(3rd Lesson…2nd Visit to Carel du Toit Centre, Cape Town)

After our lesson on Wednesday doing the rabbit hunt, Vanessa had asked me to work on Hughan’s interpretation of his actions and give him the words for his actions (that he would want to say himself) – we had great fun doing this over the weekend.

Vanessa also asked me to write down some samples of sentences I could use when I am with Hughan –

Ball, “the ball is round”, “throw the ball”, “catch the ball”, “roll the ball”, “bounce the ball”.

Jacket, “put on your jacket”, “put your arm in the jacket sleeve”, “the jacket is warm”, “the jacket is soft”, “zip up the jacket”, “put on the hood”.

Car, “the car is blue”, “push the car”, ”the car is going fast”, “stop the car”, “the man is sitting in the car”, “the wheels are going around”.

Banana, “the banana is yellow”, “mummy is peeling the banana”, “mummy is mashing the banana”, “the banana is soft”, “Hughan is eating the banana”.

Shoes, “Hughan’s red shoes”, “put on your shoes”, “put your foot in the shoe”, “mummy is tying the shoe lace”, “Hughan has got his shoes on”.

Vanessa wrote – lovely Sue this is the correct idea.

Today’s lesson we were playing with sand.

Activity : sand play

Aims :

1) Interpretation of Hughan’s babbling and actions.

2) Receptive language – to ascertain what he understands without any visual clues.

We had a lovely long session today. While I modeled our aims – you observed, so as to get an idea of what I was expecting you to do. I am glad it helped. It is often easy to grasp an idea/concept correctly once you have observed someone else doing it.

Your interpretation, especially of his actions, has improved a lot. I can see you made a conscious effort concerning this game over the weekend. You are a lot more aware of the language he is conveying via these gestures and our giving him that appropriate language:

“ Help me sit on the chair please mummy”

“Please can I have the spade”

“Open the drawer please”

He thoroughly enjoyed throwing and catching the bean bags. Here Hughan made lovely eye contact. Good!

You first gave the simple command just with eye contact and then did the action and repeat it the appropriate language at the same time. “Throw the bean bag”, “catch the bean bag”.

Try and give simple commands without any visual clues more often. Remember to do the action and repeat the language at the same time if he does not respond correctly.

Thank you for your hard work Sue.

Please work on the new aims at home.

Vanessa

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)