Mommin' It Up!

February 17, 2012February 16, 2012

Speech Therapy App: Rainbow Sentences

I absolutely love all the speech therapy apps I’ve used by Mobile Education Store, and their newest one, Rainbow Sentences, is no less impressive. This iPad app is great for speech therapy, but I’d say it’s really a grammar app – great for any student who is just having trouble in English class with the who, what, when, where, and why of sentences.

Rainbow Sentences has 165 fun photos to create sentences from. The words of a corresponding sentence are below the photo. The words are color-coded b those that go together; the blanks that the words go in are color-coded as well, but you can turn these color hints on and off to change the level of complexity and make the activity easier or harder for your kiddo. As a matter of fact, there are six different levels you can work on or progress to.n I adore the fact that it is so customizable for use with lots of different students, and easy to change when a child is ready to move up a level of difficulty. As just a parent, not a teacher or therapist, this app is very easy to use and facilitate, which I love! The tutorials are quick & helpful.

Another fun thing I love about this app is that after you get so many correct responses, you get to unlock a puzzle piece on a picture – great motivation to get lots of answers right so you can figure out what the mystery picture is!

I have Sophie look at the picture and tell me what’ s happening in the picture before she starts putting the words in the correct order to form a sentence. Then, she goes for it. After she’s done, she can record the sentence and play it back to hear herself. I love this feature! Helps work on her articulation, and she’s hearing herself say a sentence the way it was meant to be said.

Here’s a short video of Sophie playing on her own:

I highly recommend this app for speech, grammar help, or homeschool! I bet it’s helpful for learning English as a second language, too, although since I have no experience with that, that’s just an “educated guess”.

Go buy it on iTunes or the app store! It’s well worth the $7.99.

Thanks, Mobile Education Store, for letting Sophie and I review this app. Great work once again!

February 15, 2012February 14, 2012

Boom! go the developmental delays

OTgraduate — she's just a wee bit proud of herself!

Yesterday my Sophie girl was discharged from occupational therapy. And as you may recall, she was discharged from speech therapy four weeks ago. That same day, she was given her standardized test by her occupational therapist to see how far she’d come in the 6 months since she started OT. Her scores were good, but I had to wait for the supervisor to evaluate her to see what they’d recommend. I was thinking they’d say maybe another six weeks or so of therapy, maybe longer, honestly I was just hoping she’d be done by summer. Unfortunately, due to schedule conflicts and family emergencies, (hers, not mine), the supervisor was unable to see Sophie until last week. And after she evaluated her, she pronounced her “ready to be discharged”. Woohoo!! I was thrilled! I asked if she could come back one more time just for some closure since she loved her therapist so much. And so, yesterday was her official discharge date. I still can’t believe it!

Now, about 19 months after we started this journey to overcome Sophie’s delays, she is testing at or above age level in all areas. She is reading well. A couple of weeks ago her preschool teacher tested her on sight words and she knew them all up to and including third grade. Today her teacher, Mr. G., told me, “Sophie did a beautiful job reading a book to two of her classmates today. It was just beautiful. Ms. M (the other teacher) and I were grinning from ear to ear.”

That’s right people, my girl rules the special school! 🙂 And I know she will do great in “regular” school next year too. I really have no qualms about it. I’ve never been in doubt about her level of intelligence, and here’s a good example. After she graduated from speech, we gave her a present, a Snow White dress-up dress. This got her little mind working, and the next day she said to me, “Mommy, when I graduate from OT I want Hello Kitty pajamas for my graduate present.” Girl was thinkin’. And schemin’.

I’m totally rambling here, I know. But I am really having a hard time putting it all into words. I am so immensely proud of my girl. We worked so hard, we learned so much, but I am SO GLAD it’s OVER! Relieved, proud, thankful. My mom told me when this started, “The Lord made her and the Lord’s going to take care of her.” And that was intensely true, every step of the way , clearly, obviously, completely. God made Sophie just the way she is, and we’ve come through this closer and stronger and more prepared for whatever life may throw at us next. And, I’ve really developed a passion for helping other parents of kids with delays, which I hope I can continue doing.

But I don’t have to drive to appointments, find sitters for the other kids, worry about health insurance, or PAY for any of it anymore! Yee-ha!!!

Way to go Sophie!

February 13, 2012February 12, 2012

Insta-ham

Let me tell you a wittle secwet. Shhhhhhhh. Just act casual, and lean your ears this way.

Emily and I recently got iPhones.

And we pretty much think they are the proverbial cat’s pa-freaking-jamas. We had Droids, and we liked our Droids. When they worked. Which unfortunately wasn’t that often. So when the chance to upgrade to iPhones came, we jumped on it!

And the first app I put on my new phone? Instagram.

For months I had been seeing people post their super-awesome, funky, filtered Instagram photos on Facebook and Twitter. And now, I am one of them! An Instagrammer! I can make myself look good with a filter even when I actually look crappy! It’s a beautiful thing! Here’s some proof: