Weekly Update -- 26 April - 2 May 2010

Yay, I'm 173 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty busy week. During Speech he continued to experiment with pretend play. We had another tea party and we also go to make and eat pretend cupcakes. He seemed to really enjoy making the cupcakes. He got to put the paper cups in the pan, followed by the cupcake, and then he got to put the frosting on and decorate them with icing as well. They have the coolest toys at Children's Hospital! The only bad thing was he kept asking for chocolate afterwards :o)

Masinja continued to work on stringing shapes during OT. He seemed to do a much better job this week but it's most likely due to the fact that we were in a room with minimal distractions. He also copied pictures again this week but he used magnetic shapes instead of foam shapes. He also worked with Duplos. He seems to be getting much better at putting them together and pulling them apart although he still struggles on occasion.

I attended two Parent Connections trainings this week. The first was entitled Handwriting Without Tears. The OT that is on Masinja's team was the presenter. Handwriting Without Tears is an actual writing curriculum that is used as an alternative to traditional handwriting curricula for children with special needs. It incorporates a lot of really cute activities and materials to help make handwriting a pleasant experience for both the child and the parents. I am definitely going to be asking more about this curriculum once Masinja enters school. The second training that I attended was on Separation Anxiety. I went more for myself than for Masinja! He doesn't seem to be having any issues at the moment but I wanted to be prepared for the fall when he will begin preschool. I'm pretty confident that he will be just find but I can't say the same for myself :o)

Masinja had his 35th ECI session this week as well. His teacher brought the vision consultant along to do an evaluation. We will be meeting again next week to go over the results as well as to discuss the results of the school pyschologist's evaluation that was conducted a few weeks ago.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.