Michael must have a very visual memory, because you can tell he "sees" things in his mind as he is practicing letters or numbers, or arranging states or other puzzle pieces. Lately he has been working on the ASL alphabet and numbers up to twenty. As with most of his signs, he can recognize them all when you sign for him a bit easier than he can sign himself. It's hard for little fingers to arrange themselves in all the ways you need for the alphabet, but he is working hard! He is constantly practicing the signs in the car, jumping around on the bed, riding in the stroller on walks, or moving around at the park. You will see him make the sign for "b" and then "4" or "f" then "9" (they look similar) and say them, careful to make them look right. The Signing Time DVDs have actually been really helpful for his speaking vocabulary too, since while I think we do a good job speaking in sentences to him, the very limited ones he has gotten so far have all come from the videos. "Do you hear that? What time is it? What's your name? Nice to meet you!"
Putting together the signs and the letters, he has lately been spelling things out in the style of a spelling bee, even without the benefit of seeing letters in front of him. "R-u-n, run! H-a-p-p-y, happy!" (Other words he can do this with are jump, moon, boy, cat, hat, hot, big, pot, walk, Mama, Dada, baby, and cry.) He loves adding new words that he can spell with the letters on the refrigerator, too. Particular favorite words this week are birthday, cake, party, and fish. We are just amazed by how he's putting it all together, not least because he still will NOT sit still for any length of time at all. He has to be in constant motion. So I guess he hears us when we read to him, but it's not because he's sitting down with us and paying attention. Either he will have to learn to sit still a bit longer in the future, or we're going to have to find a very understanding school for his learning style!
Putting together the signs and the letters, he has lately been spelling things out in the style of a spelling bee, even without the benefit of seeing letters in front of him. "R-u-n, run! H-a-p-p-y, happy!" (Other words he can do this with are jump, moon, boy, cat, hat, hot, big, pot, walk, Mama, Dada, baby, and cry.) He loves adding new words that he can spell with the letters on the refrigerator, too. Particular favorite words this week are birthday, cake, party, and fish. We are just amazed by how he's putting it all together, not least because he still will NOT sit still for any length of time at all. He has to be in constant motion. So I guess he hears us when we read to him, but it's not because he's sitting down with us and paying attention. Either he will have to learn to sit still a bit longer in the future, or we're going to have to find a very understanding school for his learning style!
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