Flash Cards - Part II

To read the first part, click here.

Last year, I had attended a workshop by Down Syndrome Education International (www.downsed.org) and their model flash card struck a chord with me. So, I wanted the cards to be thick and covered with a sheet just like the ones I saw. I cut out thermocol sheets, pasted the pictures of the alphabets and covered it with glass paper.

Here is a photo of some of a flash cards that I made:



Apart from showing Vignesh the cards while spelling them out to him, I also get to give it to him to explore them. I put it in between his toys so he gets to play with them. The more he sees the cards, the more familiar the alphabets would become. Vignesh, usually tends to tear or crumple papers. Now, this is so thick and also covered with a sheet that he isn't able to damage it.

So, it was really worth having all the tiny thermocol and bits of glass papers flying everywhere . My husband even asked me why I can't go ahead to use one of the ready made flash cards that I had purchased. But, I tend to dislike things that are off-the-shelf. Plus, I had fun preparing them. I just felt like a first grade student again.

Everyday, I continue to show him the ABC zoo game on the fisher-price site. I show him the cards either before or after he sees the ABCs on the site, so that he would be able to understand what I'm doing. I try to imitate the alphabets and the words in the exact manner as it appears on the site . Apart from that, I try to bring the cards up whenever we play games.

Its has hardly been a week since I started introducing these cards to him. Will continue to show him the flash cards everyday. The day it starts to show results, I would definitely be sharing the story with you on the blog.

Here are the links to the peek-a-boo and ABC zoo games the fisher-price site:
Peek-a-boo - http://www.fisher-price.com/us/playtime/games/infantGames_B_BS.asp
ABC Zoo game - http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abczoo/default.asp (choose the option 'infant' to go through the sequence automatically).

My evening stroll

My appa (father) takes me to walk in the mornings and and evenings. Just wanted to share pictures of my evening walk today.

Getting ready for the stroll

Posing for the camera

Oh, wondering why I'm crying

Appa made me sit on a narrow passage!

Still angry with my appa

This is my favourite game

Heres the secret behind my 6 pack abs!

Waiting to grow big and get into the pool

Something is bothering me


Oh, I already miss my amma. Want to get back home!


Back from walk


Now, here a photo of me standing on own, leaning against a wall.

I was kissed!

I'm so excited. Something incredible happened today morning. Vignesh kissed me. A lot of times too. As of now, his version of kiss is a little different . Its grasping my cheek with his wide open mouth. He has done it before too. But, I wasn't sure if he just trying to bite or kiss. But, today, we were standing in front of the mirror and I kissed him. Immediately, he held my hair (just like I how I hold his head or face) and started to kiss me all over my face with a big smile. It felt great! (Of course, it hurt a bit since he was pulling my hair. But, who cares!)

Vignesh, you make me so happy everyday and I love you.

Flash Card - Taking Cues from my son

A quick history. I decided to introduce flash cards early. When I found my son had down syndrome, it only made me more intent. I searched online and read about Glenn Doman's books. It took more than a month to get the books as they had to get it from the US. I was excited when I read the books. But, I was too busy with the hospital visits that I never found time to prepare the flash cards. Thankfully, I found a place close to my house where they offered program similar to Glenn Domans. I attended a one day program and material were almost in accordance with what the Glenn Doman book had said. But, even after I received the material, I have never been able to stick to the guidelines that were given in the book. Either I found no time or I kept forgetting to introduce the material as mentioned in the book. And, I felt very guilty about it.

About a few months back, while I was searching for online games appropriate to Vignesh's age, I was lucky enough to come across the fisher price online games site. ( You will see the connection with the flash card as you keep reading). I introduced him to peek-a-boo and ABC zoo game. He loved them both. I had introduced him to peek-a-boo since it was colorful that he might find it interesting. With time, I found that the game served as a 'Cause-Effect' concept. Every time he touched (or rather banged) the keyboard, there would be color and noise on the screen. He began to understand this and whenever the screen would go quite, he began to bang or scratch the keyboard harder.

Heres are the links to the peek a boo and ABC zoo games:
Peek-a-boo - http://www.fisher-price.com/us/playtime/games/infantGames_B_BS.asp
ABC zoo game - http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abczoo/default.asp


This really helped him in the ABC zoo game since this was interactive and the keyboard has to be typed to move from one letter to another. Most of the times, he keeps pressing the keyboard until the entire alphabets and the ABC song is complete. Now, in this ABC zoo game, for every letter, an animal name starting with the alphabet along with the noise made by it is displayed. Both visual and audio parts are good and easily attracts and withholds Vignesh's attention. I would highly recommend it to others too.

Once he reaches 'Z', the next keystroke would get the ABC song that he loves. I sing this song along with the voice in the website. So, once the song begins, Vignesh would turn around, see me singing along, give me a smile and get back to staring the monitor.

And, something wonderful happened about 2 or 3 weeks back. Whenever he reached the letter 'Z', he got excited and turned around. Previously, he used to do this when the ABC song began. So, this meant that he knew what was coming next. That he was identifying the alphabets. (though I'm not sure how many he identifies and what it means to him at this point). I began to notice his behavior everyday to make sure that it was not a coincidence. I'm happy to say that it isn't. I'm so sure that he identifies at least the alphabet 'Z' if not more.

This gave me the idea. Since, he is familiar with the animals on the site, why not prepare the flash cards using the screen shots from this site. That would make it easier for him. Thus began the first step towards preparing and introducing ABC flash cards to Vignesh.

Ok, before I make this post too long and boring, let me take a break here and continue with the story tomorrow. Will post pictures of the flash card tomorrow. Sorry for such a long post. I just wanted to share all the details.

Its my life!

Lots of happiness

Lots of love

Moments of Fun

And, moments of tears

Toning my muscles

And, flexing my brain

With a little rest

There is never a dull moment!

I lead a complete life just like anyone else. You see my 21st chromosome doesn't really make a difference (except ofcourse, making me a little more cuter)!

Everday Brags

Finally, its raining and getting cold here. Oh, we have been having a very hot summer since February this year. Once the rains began last week, everyone around seems to be excited.Just checking the status in various networking sites shows how happy the people in chennai are about the weather change. And this weather is making me even more lazy. I just log onto the computer for a few minutes everyday, check my emails, visit my favorite blogs and thats it. I laze around most of the day.

Thanks Lianna, for reminding me that I haven't posted anything for a long time. (BTW, she is hosting 'The Buddy Walk Bootie Give Away' till November 6th as a way to celebrate down syndrome awareness week. To enter the contest and win a pair of cute booties, just visit her blog by clicking here. And when you visit her site, just don't miss out on the videos of Gabriel picking up the winner. The videos are incredibly cute)

Time now to brag about Vignesh. He has grown taller and I'm so happy. He was stuck at 68-69 cms for nearly 6 months since January and as advised by a doctor, I increased his protein intake. He is now 74 cms and I'm just hoping the soy milk would continue to do the magic.

And, he just loves standing. He can stand leaning against the walk for more than ten minutes. When I make him sit, he just reaches out for my hand and using the support stands up on his own. Last two days, he is resting his hands on a pillow and trying to stand on his own. He needs a little more effort n practice on that one though. However, he still refuses to move his feet when we try to make him walk.

Today morning I had left him with his feeding bottle in front of him. He picked it up, placed it correctly in his mouth and even held his bottle horizontally, trying to feed himself. Now, thats was exciting to watch. But, when it comes to solid diet, he would not even try to put it in his mouth. He would bite his toys but if he knows its a biscuit or some other eatable he would drop it down and open his mouth so that we can feed him.

For sometime, I had also been worried about his pincer grasp. He wouldn't try to hold anything tiny. But, his grasp seems to have improved. When I place my tiny earrings in the arm rest of his chair, he immediately picks them up and throws them away (he likes to have his chair neat. He would throw away anything that we place on the table attached to his chair).

Oh, how I love bragging about my dear son. But, got to get back to preparing flash cards. Will be back soon with the flash card story.

Steve Jobs - Inspiring Speech

I came across this video a few months back. Its a video of Steve Jobs Stanford commencement speech. Its an old video. For those who haven't seen this already, its really worth watching the it. Its very inspiring and provides an optimistic view of life.



One of my favorite quotes 'Every story has a happy ending. If it is not happy, it isn't the end of the story'.