8/7/09

Lily has been doing great so far, now that we have her back on her meds. I don't know how to taper her off them without putting her through hell, so for now I'm keeping her on them. She has an evaluation in a couple of weeks to test her for preschool and I really want her to have a placement that fits her needs. We can't afford for her to be having an "off" day, otherwise we could get a bad eval. I want to make sure that she is placed where kids have a higher skill level than her so she can learn from them.

Lily is talking up a storm now, though she still struggles with being understood sometimes. She's really trying to overcome her apraxia. She's been able to say big words now (earlier this week she said "I'm accomplished" and today she said "Madame Blueberry") and is starting to say a lot more spontaneous commentary, like "Awesome!" Now sometimes she will actually call my name to get my attention before she says something. The other day when we were at the pool she wanted to hang out by a group of teenagers, so I let her for a few minutes and then swam over to relieve them of her and she pointed at me and said "my mommy" and looked at the girl she had been sitting next to, as if to introduce me.

I've been excited about a couple of things that are starting to emerge for Lily. I've been trying to teach her the concept of "where" as in a location (friend's houses, home, the pool, the store, etc.) Whenever I would ask her "where are we" she wouldn't understand the question, but last week she answered me as I asked her when we got to my sister's house, she said "Aunt Sonia's House!" and the other day I said the same thing when we arrived home and she said "Home!"

I've also been trying to teach her "what do you see?" so she can point to things outside that she sees and share them with me, as I often do with her. She's starting to grasp that question as well. It's difficult for kids on the spectrum to understand "what, why, where, how" among others, but she'll get there.