Emails With Charlie

I got the idea the other day to see if I could get Charlie to send an email. He can read a decent amount of words, but he’s really resistant to typing and I thought this might be more fun for him than just “talking” to me with the iPad.

So I sat him down and said, “Charlie! Hey! Let’s send Daddy an email!” Imagine my most school-teacherly voice–full of exclamation points and “excitment.” I’m pretty sure Charlie isn’t fooled at all, but I try my best.

I sat him down, held his wrist and asked him to tell Daddy something, and this is what he wrote.

email from charlie

I immediately text my husband and say, “you have an email from Charlie.” A few minutes later he texts me back, “responded.”

Charlie and I go back to the computer and this is what we find:

email-from-charlie-2

I got a little misty-eyed myself.

Milestone? Hell Yeah.

I’m so glad that I decided to write about joy because it fits in perfectly with the amazing thing that has started happening at my house.

I’ll back up a few minutes and say that two things happened at my house: One, I re-dedicated myself to making sure Charlie gets his ABR machine on every day. And, two, the glass on Charlie’s iPad busted and I had to send it off for repairs.

In the interim, we’ve been helping get his Lady Gaga video fix by putting Youtube on the laptop. Unexpectedly, he started doing this:

025

That’s his ABR machine around his waist.

This is a good thing, but he’s been able to do it for awhile. After a few days of this, he started knee-walking at Feldenkrais.

Sunday, he pulled himself onto his feet twice. He did two more times in therapy on Monday.

Perhaps the most-amazing thing is that the therapist reported that he’s doing it just like a toddler would. We need to teach him how to do it the way a five-year-old would, and his legs are incredibly weak, but it blows me away that his oh-so-pokey development continues to progress.

I’m thrilled.

Show Off

I found this picture from August–he’s multitasking.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, then you know that since around June of 2011 I’ve been slowly (the speed of a snail to be exact) teaching Charlie how to read and communicate. We started with giant flashcards and then gradually moved over to his iPad. It’s still very low on his list of things to do, but we regularly sit down in the evenings and review his day and I’ll ask him a few questions.

I’ve gotten so used to the this little ritual that I’ll mention to his teachers from time to time things that he’s “told” me.

One day his teacher asked me if I could bring the iPad to school and show her how Charlie “talks” to me.

I’ll admit that my expectations were pretty low. I’ve heard of other parents trying to show off their children’s skills and not getting very far. But why not give it a shot, right?

I guess I wasn’t paying attention because the day I got there I realized that this was kind of an important meeting. A woman from the augmentative communication department came with her own iPad, I had mine, and Charlie was there with his teacher and probably two of the classroom aides! Quite a crew.

Well, Charlie did his thing. He answered yes and no questions using the four square on ProloQuo, he spelled the name of a few videos he’d like to listen to, he swiped through some musical selections. I even let teacher hold his hand, so she could see that he was moving it, and not me. She could tell! At one point he was typing something and I didn’t know what he was asking, but the evaluator figured it out! Actual communication with a stranger, y’all!

In the end, the evaluator said she is going to recommend that the classroom be issued a Dynavox with capabilities similar to the iPad. She thinks it will be a little easier for him to navigate. We still have to wait and see what the “staffing” meeting decides, but hey! I think this is going better than expected.

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