Sniffles

Mattie and Jamesie caught a little cold at the start of the week, so there have been a lot of runny noses around here -- but that hasn't stopped them from running all over the place on their tricycles!

Preschool orientation for parents was last night, and orientation for the kids is next Wednesday.  The main change (besides new teachers!) is that the three year olds start 15 minutes earlier (8:45 instead of 9 AM).  We'll have to change our ways -- by the end of last year, we weren't even on time for 9 AM!  :)

Today we met the therapists who will be working with James through the Preschool Intervention program.  There's a speech therapist and an education specialist, and each of them will be in James's classroom twice a week for a half hour.  We went to their office and they did a little play session (without us) to do some initial evaluation and get to know him.  They said he did a great job!  They were especially impressed with his language and how clearly he was speaking ("his speech therapist must have been fantastic!" said his new speech therapist.)  The education specialist said that when she read his IEP, she was surprised there weren't any articulation goals (that is, working on improving his clarity/pronunciation), but now that she's met him, she understands why he didn't need that.  :)  Of course, they always keep an eye on that kind of thing for kids with hearing loss, but it was great to hear that they thought he was doing so well.  They were also impressed with his pre-academic skills (letters, numbers).  Go, James!

Apparently the thing he didn't do for them was do the hand motions along with songs, so they mentioned they'll be working on that, along with the other goals that the IEP team set at the end of last school year.  (I'm not sure exactly why hand motions with songs is an important skill, but apparently it has something to do with coordinating different types of activities, as well as being able to fully participate in preschool activities.)  Our babysitter N was surprised to hear that -- she says he does the motions when they sing songs at home.

Jamesie went to the ear doctor on Wednesday.  (The doctor said his ears looked good, although we're still seeing a little gunk in his hearing aids.  So, hopefully the doctor is right and all is still well.)  Jamesie picked out a sticker to bring home to Mattie, and it made Mattie's day!  It was very sweet. (Later in the day James crashed his tricycle into Mattie's tricycle, and Mattie said, "Bad James!  But good James for bringing me a sticker!  I put the sticker on my shirt over the airplane.  Sticker shirt!")