Sorting by Color

As I was scouring the web for ideas, I came across The Easiest Toddler Color Sorting Activity. I loved the simplicity yet effectiveness of the activity.

I do have construction paper and various colored pegs and what not around and could have done the activity just as laid out here but I decided to try it with Jack's light box hoping that it would help him to more easily distinguish the colors.

 I pulled out the blue and red overlays,

the red and blue pegs,

and also the red and blue bowls*.

*Jack has fine motor issues and difficulty distinguishing colors so I decided to decrease the challenge a bit for the introduction of the activity. I pre-sorted the pegs into their correctly colored bowls.

Here's the set-up with the overlays side by side on the lightbox.

Here's what it will look like with two of the pegs correctly placed.

Jack seemed to have real difficulty with this activity.



I helped him place one blue peg in the correct spot to get him started.



He really acted as though he did not get what I was asking him to do. I previously mentioned that we were concerned that he might be color blind. At times, he seems to recognize colors in isolation but it's not 100%. Even though he knows color names now, it's hard to tell if he's not paying attention (looking at the object) or he just doesn't know the color.

Off to the web I went to try to understand why this task might be difficult. I found this comparison of what a person with and without colorblindness might see when looking at a color wheel.

See how similar the red and blue appear?

So the big question.....was the activity difficult because he just plain old wasn't interested or is he color blind and finds it difficult to distinguish the two colors?

And I wonder if using the light box and light box materials exacerbated the difficulty of identify the colors.....

I'll take any suggestions especially from those of you who are color blind.

Hodge-podge of Stuff

First up, I recently discovered ABC Jesus Loves Me which has a nice preschool home school curriculum for FREE if you are looking for a specific plan to follow. We do not follow a regimented curriculum but rather work learning experiences into our everyday fun but the site has great information regarding handwriting. Then, a good friend recently introduced me to I Can Teach My Child. There are lots of fantastic ideas on that site! I combined ideas from these two sites to create our own no fuss handwriting practice.

Jack has found immense enjoyment playing dot to dot on his Ipad. When I saw a post on Christmas sticker letter dot to dots.  I thought that the idea presented a perfect opportunity to capitalize on this new found enjoyment.  It reminded me a little of the handwriting worksheets from  ABC Jesus Loves Me.

So I combined the two ideas....
1.  I used a highlighter and wrote out Jack's name at the top of  a piece of construction paper.
2.  On the bottom of the paper, I used the highlighter to draw three straight lines for Jack to practice.

3.  I used sticker dots to create the start and end dots for the letters of Jack's name.
4.  I used larger stickers to create the start and end points for the straight lines.

and added an idea or two of my own....
5. I put it on a fairly light colored construction paper so bright white or some other bright color would not     cause Jack to turn away from it.
6. I put the "worksheet" on Jack's textured clipboard. Back when Jack was still receiving therapy through our local school system, his vision teacher gave us some textured contact paper that we put on a clipboard creating a textured writing surface to give Jack some sensory feedback when writing/coloring/drawing.
7. I used a fat piece of sidewalk chalk as our writing utensil. We have recently been enjoying chalk drawing together and I was hoping that this activity could be an extension of that.

We traced his sticker dot to sticker dot name hand over hand then we did the first sticker to sticker straight line hand over hand. The other two he did readily without any assistance at all. The entire thing took just a couple of minutes. He did not fuss one little bit and seemed pretty proud of himself when he was all done.

Next up, I had a "how-to" idea of my own. I have been trying to find something to put on Jack's jacket zipper pulls to make them easier for him to hold onto while learn to zip and unzip.

I saw this cute little charm on clearance for $2.

Most jacket zipper pulls have some kind of hole on them somewhere.

I attached the charm to the hole in the zipper pull.

He's still getting the hang of it but at least now hanging on to the zipper is not the problem.


Finally, I leave you with a picture of our favorite kind of "sensory" activity.....

We call it pile o'friends and if you look carefully, Jack is in there!

Fishing Rodeo

Thanks to AAPVI (Alabama Association of Parents of Children with Visual Impairment), Jack had his first fishing trip on Saturday. It was sweltering hot and Jack was having a difficult "allergy" day but we still had a blast!

Oaky.... so he really wasn't all that interested in fishing but he humored me for a bit and sat with me.

Uncle Noah WAS all about the fishing. This is just one of the many fish that Noah caught that day. Unfortunately the lighting, the lake, and the color of the fish did not combine to make great pictures so it was hard to see the fish in most of the pictures we got of Noah and his fish.

Jack and I caught our first fish when we had put our cane pole down to get a picture of Noah with his fish. Here I am trying to get Jack to pose with the fish. That poor fish had the misfortune to be spinning around when I put it in front of Jack so Jack gave it a whack with his hand and sent it spinning some more! LOL!

Oma and Opa took Jack for a walk and look what I did!

Jack's favorite parts of the trip were the interesting brick tiles in the stable, the drain in the stable, just generally running to and fro and eating hot dogs and COOKIES!!! All in all it was awesome. Each of these little adventures helps Jack to see how much fun it is to hang out with other people and try new things.

Introducing "Cane"

Jack has a new constant companion. No, no, Irish has not been replaced. Where Jack goes, Irish usually goes too but now you'll be seeing Jack, Irish, and "Cane". I read somewhere that it's good for a child who uses a cane to name it. As typical with Jack, he names things what they are [He's got a plush puppy named Woof woof, a barking plush dog named Barking Dog, etc.]. So his cane is Cane.

A cane? Why does Jack have a cane? He's not blind! No, he is not completely blind. I think my recent Life at Dusk post gives a fair analogy of what Jack's sight is like. The cane is for Jack like glasses are for a near-sighted child, it helps him to better understand what he sees. It helps him to better navigate the world around him.

But Jack already wears glasses! Yes, he does. The glasses protect his eyes. Jack's visual impairment is caused by optic nerve atrophy and cortical visual impairment. The problem is not the image that comes into his eyes. His eyes themselves actually do a great job and only need a slight amount of correction. So the glasses don't really help his vision in a functional way.

Here are a few more articles that might help you to better understand Jack's cane use.

Why Do You Want to Make that Child Blind?

STEP TOWARD EQUALITY: CANE TRAVEL TRAINING FOR THE YOUNG BLIND CHILD

Blind Enough for A Cane?

We introduced the cane late last week. David really got Jack's attention by taking the cane and walking around in our tiled bathroom. David didn't say a word but Jack heard that cane tapping and ran after David to see what was going on. Here's a shot of that first evening.

David's next step as Jack's orientation and mobility instructor was to take Jack on an outdoor walk. Jack is already familiar with our home so he prefers not to use the cane in the home. David knew that we needed Jack to see that the cane actually benefitted him.

David is carrying a bamboo walking stick to simulate a cane and showing Jack how to keep the cane in front of him.

It wasn't long before Jack got the idea.

Of course, he's a little boy and he wanted to have a little fun like his Uncle Noah.

Here's a short video taken during this first cane outing.

After walking around on the sidewalk for a while we decided to try locating and going up and down curbs. Jack is very used to having to stop and shuffle walk until he finds the edge of the curb with his feet. Here's David trying to help him realize the cane can help him find the curb so he can continue his normal pace.

Jack discoved on his own that the cane helped him to "see" that the white lines in the parking lot were flat and not elevated. He was fascinated by this and ran his cane over and over the area.

Here's Jack proudly posing with his cane. He told me "Achoo [it's how we used to get him to smile for pictures] take a picture."

Learning how to manage the cane in the grass.

Tap tap tap on the wall

Using the cane to explore the park

Fun fun fun

He's still a little boy so sometimes he has to be reminded that the cane goes on the ground not waved around in the air.

Still perfecting the technique for uneven ground

Crossing a bridge over the creek

Hey Daddy, come sit with us on the creek bank!

Click for more Wordless Wednesday, Wordful Wednesday, and Special Exposure Wednesday posts.

Where the Beep Beep Went Wrong

You might want to review last week's Where the Beep Beep Went Right. And then the intro....

New to the Life is Therapy series? Here's a quick blurb to tell you what it's about:

Sometimes we parents can get bogged down in the notion that the teaching of our children must be done by professionals. Parents of children with special needs are particularly vulnerable to this idea since children with special needs often have to learn and develop quite differently than children with typical needs. This series centers around the idea that learning can and does occur most effectively through everyday life experiences at home and out in the community--for children with both typical and special needs.

You might remember this and this and this

from last year's Beeping Easter Egg Hunt. I was NOT making the same mistakes this year! If he did not want to hunt Easter eggs or pose with his basket, that was fine. We would just enjoy being outside and he could run along the yellow tape to his heart's content.

*As a quick aside, anybody notice that my kiddo has had another growth spurt?*

So that's it...I did everything right and we had an awesome time with no issues at all that day! Yeah, right!

Not long after he began running around in the grass, Jack started asking me to carry him. I tried and tried and tried to tell him to walk but oh no he wanted Mama to carry him. I thought maybe it was because the sun was too bright and I forgot his sunglass clip ons. When the sun is very very bright he tends to get clingy or he gets rooted to one spot or the shade. I relented and carried him around a bit until we happened upon the trampoline and he declared, "Shoes off, jump, jump!" as he frantically pushed at his sandals.

He slowly worked his way up to a standing position on the trampoline as I snapped pictures

.

That's when I noticed how big (relative to how small they were) his feet are getting. I checked out his toes and sure enough his little piggies were rubbing against the inside of those sandals. No wonder he did not want to walk!

A fairly short time after we started jumping (relative to the amount of time we usually spend jumping on a trampoline every time we get a chance), someone announced that the tactile puppet show was about to start. I'd had my heart set on Jack experiencing the tactile puppet show. I gave him the 10 minute countdown and we went inside where he immediately began fussing about going back outside.

It was a bit loud with the live music and people just coming in for the puppet show. I told Jack that this was new and fun. I told him that I wanted him to give it a try before he decided that he did not like it.

A musician brought a drum over and Jack began banging away in about 15 seconds of pure joy but then it clicked...I guess he thought I tricked him. He began getting all upset again and the musician just did not know what to do. Frankly, I didn't either. I was playing all this by ear. I told the musician to go ahead and move on to the next participant since I did not think Jack wanted to play anymore. I tried for another eternity five minutes or so to get Jack to calm down and feel the puppets but he just wasn't having it.

A sympathetic mom offered that her son also gets overwhelmed in large noisy crowds like that one. While I thought that some of it was tantrum (about wanting to be outside), I had to agree that the environment was a bit overwhelming. I took him just outside the door in hopes that he would calm down enough to return. He did calm down but he wasn't going back and that's when we headed for the swings and he was happy again.

So where's the therapy in all this? Well there was the new experience, the jumping, the running around, the listening to instructions (sort of) but mostly there's the review....overall Jack had fun. I know the parts that he enjoyed the best. In review, I can tell you where I went wrong--too small shoes, no sunglass clip ons, not really giving him clear information about the puppet show and how there would be lots of noise and lots of people. Each time, we try something new it prepares us both for the next time we have that experience and if I take the time to review what went right and what went wrong, then I can do a better job the next time. I'll never anticipate everything. I'll never get everything right. It's part of the parenting journey. And now I'm a little further along on the journey. Each experience better prepares for the next especially if we take the time to think over just what happened.

Next time an event doesn't go like you planned, I encourage you to take a little time and review.

Recent Life is Therapy Posts can be found at:

Boring Life
Spring Break
Code Words
For more Life is Therapy Posts, check out the left side bar.

Now it's your turn to participate. This is where we share our ideas and stories with one another. We're all in this together. Let's laugh together, motivate one another, and stimulate each others ideas. If you have a blog, create your own "life is therapy" post and leave your link in the comments. If you don't have a blog just leave a comment with your life is therapy story.

Life at Dusk

Do you ever think and think and think some more about a subject but find that you cannot wrap your brain around an idea? So you just kind of shelve it and labor along with your limited ability to understand. Then one day something fairly insignificant happens and the cartoon light bulb pops on over your head and you hear the ding ding of the jackpot in your ears?


Jack would live outside if we would let him. We returned home from church one evening and the usual clamoring to play outside began from the back seat. "Okay, 10 minutes!" I declared with a plan to be firm.

We stepped out of our garage into the cooling evening temperatures and I shivered a bit, glad that I had already time-limited this little adventure.

Jack took off for our backyard. I ran after him as my eyes began to adjust to the dim light from our neighbors' houses and the few street lights. I could make out Jack's form ahead of me and I could tell that he had dark colored clothing on but I could not make out the color. When he turned toward me, I recognized the shape of his face and his glasses but I could not make out his facial expression. I thought I saw something in the dark and tried to step over it but my foot found nothing to step over. I tripped over the garden hose that did not stand out in the dark. I found myself able to make my way around the yard but the trip over the garden hose was enough to make me extra cautious lest I fall over any other unseen objects in my path.

Suddenly, ding ding ding, a heavy fog lifted from my brain. This is it! This must be it. Jack lives in a constant state of dusk. He's not completely blind. He can see but he has difficulty making out fine details. Without high contrast and good lighting, he cannot distinguish one color from another. He needs high contrast thick letters 2-3 inches high for near work.

It's life at dusk with a couple of additional challenges. The difference in the left and right eye causes Jack not to use his left eye causing depth perception issues. We also learned at Jack's recent follow up with the vision rehabilitation doctor that Jack has cortical visual impairment.

His brain does not always process the signals it receives appropriately. Some days he sees better than others.

Here's a quote I found interesting "When a child with CVI needs to control his head, use his vision, and perform fine motor tasks, the effort can be compared to a neurologically intact adult learning to knit while walking a tightrope." And that is just if a child has CVI.

I guess you'd have to add "at dusk and without depth perception" to the end of the quote to describe Jack's optic nerve atrophy as well as his CVI.

Take a walk at dusk sometime and think of Jack.

Where the Beep Beep went Right

The Series will return....we're still trying to get caught up around here and that includes returning to a regular posting schedule. If you've got a Life is Therapy story, please feel free to either leave a link or leave your story in the comments.

We went to the Beeping Easter Egg Hunt again this year.
This year, I was smart. I had my expectations in line. I knew what his favorite parts would be.....

the HAMBURGERS,

just being out of doors,

jumping on the trampoline,

and swinging.

Come back later and I'll fill you in on what I got wrong...

Jack's Book of Black

I mentioned a couple of week's ago that Ms. Denise (Jack's itenerant teacher) put together a plan to teach Jack his colors so that we could distinguish whether he was color blind or just doesn't know his colors yet.

The first two week's focus color was black. Ms. Denise created this nifty book for Jack.

She brought it to school and had him help her finish the last page.

It was patterned on the Brown Bear What do you see? book series. She made it very tactile with black feathers and black forks and made it interactive by having Jack do the last page. Great work, Ms. Denise!

To see other's Magic Marker Monday posts and to link up yourself, click here.

The Blank Stare--Word(less/ful) and Special Exposure Wednesday

Compare this

with this

.

Obviously, it's the same kid. Look again. What are your impressions? If this is your first time here and you've never met Jack, heard about Jack, or read about Jack, that first picture gives a much different impression than the second picture.

The second picture shows a child who is engaged with the world around him. He's looking at something. He is reacting to something.

But what about that first picture? He is not looking at anything. His facial expression is somewhat blank. He does not appear engaged with the world around him. He just has a blank stare.

Jack has this look. It's hard to get on camera because I'm never thinking about the camera when I see it. I went back through several months’ worth of pictures to find that first one and it doesn't capture the look completely. The look is a blank stare. You might describe it as staring off into space--like his eyes are open but he does not see anything.

Often he is very engaged with the environment around him when he does this. He is just not engaged visually. He may be listening intently or tactually exploring.

Have you ever seen a video of someone who is wandering about in the dark before their eyes adjust? That’s the look!

I worry a bit because the look might make some people jump to conclusions regarding Jack’s intellect. At first glance, he might appear to be completely disengaged from the world. It takes effort sometimes to pay attention and figure out just what he is paying attention to.

It’s difficult to explain to people that Jack doesn’t always use his eyes. But that’s what it is. If I had his vision, I hope that I would find other ways to explore my environment too. Still, he’s not fully blind so to treat him as if he was totally blind makes no sense. He has vision and he uses it. He doesn’t have good vision though so it doesn’t make sense to treat him as if he can see the world like most of us. AND it’s hard to know just exactly what he can and cannot see. It’s hard to know if he is not using his vision because he really can’t see something or if he has just adapted to not using vision that is blurry/unfocused.

Back in this post [editor's note: How ironic! That post was written one year ago today.], I said that I cannot wait until we’re on the other side of Jack’s vision issues and have things figured out. Well, we’re still on this side of figuring things out. I’m not crying for the lack of vision anymore but we still don’t have a solid plan and I still feel like we’re fumbling around in the dark trying to figure out what part his vision is playing in Jack’s overall development and what we should or should not be doing as far as adapting his school work and his environment.


Do you know someone who is legally blind and has vision of 20/300 at best? I’d love to hear from someone who sees like Jack sees.

Don't forget to check out yesterday's Life is Therapy post where you can learn why boring is good and link up your own Life is Therapy post.


Click for more Wordless Wednesday, Wordful Wednesday, and Special Exposure Wednesday posts.