Makaton Monday ~ Wind

What a great sign for today!! Bruiser gave me the idea yesterday when we took the boys to see my Dad. We were talking about the storm that was forecast and Bruiser joined in and started signing wind.

It’s probably a good thing that it is in fact the school holidays today and Bruiser doesn’t have to go outside. He doesn’t like the wind at all. He dislikes like the feel of it on his face, he hates the sound it makes on his ears. He can’t even bare to have to the windows open when you are travelling in the car for the same reasons. He screams at you ‘tooo indee mumee, tooo indee’ (too windy mummy, too windy).

So today we’ll be watching the elements on the TV from the comfort of our room. We appear to have gotten away with the brunt of the storm. There isn’t much to see from the window. It’s quite calm here, just very wet! The boys, Wriggler especially are quite concerned about the people who live down south. I don’t think they’ve ever seen trees been ripped out of the ground, or power lines down leaving homes without electric. They are in awe of the images of the sea battering the coast with huge waves while they get their head round wind speeds going faster than cars can go on the motorway! 😀

Hope you are all warm, dry and safe!

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WIND

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Bruiser signing and saying ‘Indee’ (Windy)

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ Tree

Last week I went to watch my little Bruiser take part in his first ever Harvest Festival at pre-school.

I knew when Bruiser started pointing out the colours of the leaves on the trees and saying ‘datum’ (Autumn) that they must have been preparing for it at school. I can remember so fondly when Wriggler was at this stage only a few years ago, he was coming home singing all the songs like ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘Big Red Combine Harvester’. But, I knew I wasnt going to get that with Bruiser as he doesn’t sing. He likes singing and signing his favorite nursery rhymes but only as part of a sing-song session, he doesn’t do it randomly when he’s playing or anything like what Wriggler did. Completely out of the blue though about two weeks ago he was driving his toy car up the cupboards in the kitchen and he quietly sang ‘eve fawin down eve fawin down’ (leaves falling down leaves falling down), I knew straight away what he’d said, it was a line from the song Autumn Leaves. It melted my heart, I never thought id hear him sing like that. I asked him to sing it again for me but he refused and signed that he wasnt singing.

When I spoke with his teacher about it she advised that they were indeed singing Autumn Leaves and Bruiser had been showing them the signs for the colours red, brown, yellow, orange and green. They were planning to incorporate the signs into the song. Bruiser was going to be the tree.

Although Bruiser refused to sing again at home, me and Wriggler practiced the songs with him hoping that he would, Wriggler did manage to get him singing and signing the chorus to Big Red Combine Harvester 🙂

Watching him take part in the Harvest Festival was quite emotional. He saw me and his Daddy in the audience but he refused to acknowledge us or wave and didn’t seem even slightly excited that we were there. Whilst thats not unusual, I think he was overwhelmed by all the parents watching. He did do some signing and singing during some of the performance. It was lovely to see the whole class signing away to the songs though. It was great that they had incorporated the signs and made Bruiser feel involved. I know that Bruiser enjoyed it thoroughly because he couldnt stop talking about it when we got home.

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Bruiser at his Harvest Festival

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TREE

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Bruiser signing ‘Tree’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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• You can download some Harvest Festival signs from the Makaton website by following this link

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Linking  up with Small Steps Amazing Achievements and #MagicMoments

Makaton Monday ~ Friend

Bruiser is really enjoying school, FACT!! He does take some time to separate from me and this gets him rather distressed some days but he’s getting better. He’s got a favorite adult he likes to go to now and she is just brilliant with him.

His teacher tells me he is doing really well too. He signs lots and his verbal communication is coming along great and he’s doing  lots of talking. This is great for Bruiser, he obviously feels confident enough to sign and talk with the adults in his setting even so early on.

I remember seeing the look on the practitioners face in the last TAC meeting we had when we discussed his transition into pre-school when she discovered his ‘signabulary’ consisted of over 500 signs!! She was Makaton trained but felt that she was going to need to brush up on it over the summer ready to work with him. Whatever preparation they did at their end though to help Bruiser’s transition it’s worked very well!

Bruiser has even started to make a few friends. I say friends ‘hesitantly’ because these aren’t go to children that he instantly just got along with. Bruiser doesn’t interact like that. Whilst he does occasionally play alongside other children in pre-school, it’s a couple of children on the walk home that he is slowly building little friendships with.  It took a few weeks, but they now ride their scooters together, they play hide and seek in the cemetery, they run around together. He doesnt really talk to them yet but, you can see that he wants to, you can see it in his face and his body language. I’m hoping that as his confidence around other children grows his ability to interact with them will too. One step at a time though!

Last week after we’d left his friends and made our way to our house, he turned to me and signed that they were his friends.  It was someting that I never expected to hear him say, it brough tears to my eyes.

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FRIEND

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Bruiser signing ‘Friend’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Star Of The Week

We are only three and a half weeks into the new school year. I’ve mentioned before that Bruiser has started pre-school. It’s not been plain sailing for him, whilst he was initially excited about starting school and his first week went really well all things considered, the novelty has well and truly gone now. The reality that he has to go every day has not been a happy thought for him. Every morning he’s said ‘me day ome mumee’. He’s struggled to part from me in a morning, he’s cried, he’s screamed, he’s been angry and he’s even refused to get dressed or walk to school some mornings. That said, he has still enjoyed himself once he was there and the separation was over.

I have to admit though that biggest thing that concerned me about him starting pre-school was communication. Bruiser doesn’t communicate when he doesn’t feel confident in his surroundings or when around strangers and for him all those new children and the staff were strangers to him. He’d briefly seen the staff before the summer during his transition process but that was a while ago for Bruiser. By the end of his first week though his teacher reported that he was doing great, he was signing lots with the staff. It was a great relief to hear that, he was feeling confident enough to sign, so that was a great start. Bruiser was happy which means Mummy was happy!

Each week that has passed i’ve had great reports of him signing, he’s even showed them the colour signs of red, orange, yellow and brown to incorporate into their Harvest Festival songs. His teacher has also reported that hes been doing some great talking too! This is Huge for Bruiser. His talking has exploded over recent weeks, more so since the start of the summer holidays. But, I didn’t expect him to be talking so much in school just yet though. He never ceases to amaze me.

This week, Bruiser was awarded Star of the Day and Week for using… LOTS of words and doing LOTS of TALKING!!! He came out of his class beaming from ear to ear proudly holding his certificate and Freddie. (Freddie is a doll that the children get to bring home when they are ‘star of the day or week’, he comes with clothes to dress him and a diary for us to write a short paragraph of what they’ve been doing together.)

Everyone has always commented about Bruiser’s signing, how much he knows, how good he is etc but, now he’s getting recognition for his talking! Slowly and surely he’s getting there. I could not be more proud of him.

They say a picture can speak a thousand words…. this is one of them!

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Makaton Monday ~ Where

Following on from the success of Makaton Monday last week with Why, I thought I would share another similar sign this week. ‘Where’.

This sign for us was another sign that we needed to know from very early on. For Bruiser although we have used it with him and he clearly understood it very well, it’s quite a new sign for him to actually use.

It is though, the first sign that Bruiser has started using with ‘directionality’. Previously Bruisers signing has always been in front on him which is fine for him and the level he is at but, just recently I thinks he started noticing how I sign with him more and more and he has started using signs in the same way. This is a big step for Bruiser! Its clear now that he is understanding more and more about Makaton as a language and the importance of hand placement and directionality and not just as tool to get his needs met. Together with his emerging vocabulary which is now becoming quite vast (although not very clear) his communication in general is taking off at a phenomenal rate and he is becoming more and more confident using his signing and talking!

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WHERE

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Bruiser signing ‘Where’ (using directionallity)

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ Why

Why?

Why?

Why Mumee?

Why?

This is a sign I hesitated to teach Bruiser. I’m sure every parent would agree that when their child starts to say ‘why’ your heart sinks…. The endless repetition of the word and reasons and reasons for reasons. But no, I decided I use it with him. Whilst we have been using the sign for a few months now, when talking to him, Bruiser has only been using the sign about a week. About two weeks ago completely out of the blue, Bruiser asked ‘why’ when I was telling him to do something. It was very quickly followed by why again and again and again to every answer I could come up with and then it was followed by a little giggle like he knew what he was doing to my sanity.

I do actually like the fact that he is now questioning the way of the world and us. He’s showing that he is capable of reciprocal language use and its giving us the opportunity to talk more with him which is so lovely. Up till now he’s never really wanted to just ‘chat’.

I have to say that he’s keeping us all on our toes including brother Wriggler who is also running out of answers himself.

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WHY

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Bruiser signing and saying ‘Why’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ To Finish

A milestone for Bruiser on Makaton Monday this week. Bruiser cleared his plate one evening this weekend having eaten all of his dinner!! We’d been out for the afternoon and on returning home he told us he was hungry. With no time to cook him anything before the moment passed, we nipped out for a chippy. He eagerly tucked into sausage and chips and ate every bite. He even complained that there was no peas, now thats another first!! 😀

Proudly showing off his empty plate before signing that he was ‘Finished’

The sign ‘To Finish’ was a major sign for us and Bruiser. Not been able to communicate such a simple word made for a lot of frustration for us all. We were initially shown an alternative sign for ‘Finish’ which we used for wrapping up an activity to signal tidying up time. However Bruiser confused this a lot with the sign for play. Thank you to my Makaton tutor (Bruisers inclusion worker) for helping clear up the confusion by showing us this sign for ‘Finish’ which Bruiser has taken to using really well especially at meal times. We have even adapted how we end activities so we could incorporate this sign as opposed to the alternative again making things less confusing for him.

TO FINISH / TO END

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Bruiser signing that he had ‘Finished’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ Holiday

This weeks Makaton Monday was only ever going to be one sign… Holiday!

As you read this now we are on our first family holiday. Camping!! eeeek 🙂

It was planned rather spontaneously a few months ago and whilst myself, Hubby and Wriggler have been looking forward to it all this time; its something that we only started to prepare Bruiser for this last week. It started with the sign! I only learnt this sign myself a few weeks ago on my Makaton Enhancement Workshop.

Bruiser didn’t fully understand to start with what was happening and every time we left the house, he thought we were going on ‘Oyay’ (holiday) right then! Over time though he’s started to understand and was by the time the day arrived extremely excited to say the very least.

All the planning involved in getting ready to go and preparing Bruiser for it, I realised that I was lacking a few things; signs, Makaton signs and symbols. I was over the moon to discover that the Makaton Charity had done a free resource downloadable on their website titled The Beach. This is the link for it. There are a whole range of signs for different holiday activities including, beach, bucket, spade, crab, pier and more. I was especially excited to see that Kite was one of them. We’ve bought the boys kites to take with us. I’ll be interested to see how quickly Bruiser picks that sign up!

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HOLIDAY

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Wriggler and Bruiser signing ‘Holiday’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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This Is My Child… This Is Bruiser

Bruiser is our beautiful 3yr old son and little brother to Wriggler (age 7). He has the most gorgeous auburn hair and hazel brown eyes. He loves playing with toy cars and rockets in fact most transport vehicles. He is one very happy cheeky little chappy but he also knows his own mind too and this comes across in stubborness. From the outside he appears perfectly normal.

In a nutshell, Bruiser was born 10 weeks early after suffering a near fatal feto-maternal haemorrhage in the womb. He was starved of oxygen during this time and also suffered bleeds on the brain. He did eventually survive the fight for life but we were left with the devastating news that because of the oxygen starvation and bleeds on his brain, he would more than likely be mentally retarded or suffer with cerebral palsy. He would never walk or talk or go to school and would require round the clock care. Bruiser stunned us and his consultants with his development though and to date we have no such diagnosis. However, he does have other difficulties. Ones we weren’t expecting or even remotely prepared for. 

We don’t have a diagnosis at this stage but he is currently been screened for Autism. He has a lot of other difficulties too… delayed development, a severe speech and language disorder, social communication and interaction difficulties, sensory processing disorder, sleep disorder and eating difficulties. Up to a year ago, he was non verbal and even now still has a very limited vocabulary but his talking is coming. He uses Makaton as his primary method of communication, this was in fact his first language! and I have to say, he is a terrific little signer and can boast over 500 signs to his ‘signabulory‘.

Bruiser signing ‘cool’ (SCHOOL)

Bruiser signing ‘ayay’ (Butterfly)

BRUISER SIGNING and saying ‘WO-WEE’ (SORRY)

From the outside it looks like we just get on with it, which we do we have to. But, I don’t think outside people quite grasp the enormity of the struggle it can be sometimes. Dont get me wrong bringing up children is hard bloody work at the best of times for everyone. But for us life predominantly revolves around Bruiser and his difficulties. It shouldnt, but it does. It has to be planned around him, planned five steps ahead of him all of the time. We have to prepare him for everything even every day things like bedtime, bathtime, mealtimes. There is no spontaneity. A simple trip to the shops can result in full on meltdowns because we pick up more than the loaf of bread we told him we were going for.  

Dont even get me started on the people who stare and pass judgement at our apparent inability to control our child and total lack of parenting capability when Bruiser is having a moment. 

Id like to say we have a support network of people, family around us to help us out but, unfortunately we don’t. Me and Hubby do this all by ourselves, 24/7, 365 days a year. We’ve never had a day or night off! Life for us is very emotionally and physically draining, including big brother Wriggler who I feel like I have neglected over the last couple of years. So much attention and focus is on Bruiser that he doesn’t always get what he needs from me and his Daddy. Quality time is what he craves and it’s so difficult sometimes. He gets dragged around with us to Bruisers regular appointments, therapy sessions and meetings. Even something as simple as listening to him read his school book at night is an impossibility some days. He has recently started attending his own groups though to help him better understand Bruisers difficulties. He attends a Sibling Support Group run by Barnardos. He has loved going to this and meeting new friends who have siblings with similar difficulties. He’s learnt loads and although he has always been brilliant where his brother is concerned and never complained about anything ever, he is now even more caring and understanding with Bruiser when they play. He helps him so much. He gets him talking and copying his imaginative play. A lot of credit for Bruisers recent explosion of development can be given Wriggler. He is an amazing big brother and they have a wonderful relationship.

It is our experience as a family of a child with additional and special needs that I am supporting the Mumsnet ‘This is My Child‘ Campaign for children with all difficulties. The aim of the campaign is support the parents of children with additional needs and to inform others by busting the unhelpful myths about special needs.

This campaign needs everyone’s support so please contribute where you can and join the online forums, blog about it, tweet, goggle+ and facebook your support. It all helps to make a difference. If just one person did this after reading our story we would be forever thankful.

It Started With A Pea!

You might remember my post a few weeks ago ‘Taking It One Nibble At A Time‘ about Bruiser trying new foods, even if it was the smallest nibble imaginable. Those tiny nibbles have progressed to bigger nibbles and in some cases spoon full. Spoon full of vegetables no less!

It’s not that Bruiser disliked vegetables, quite the opposite. He was weaned onto them all and loved eating them all. That was until his sensory difficulties took over and eating became problematic. Since then he hasn’t touched anything other than banana and occasionally a small slice of apple.

It all started a few weeks after the nibble of those cheese on toast stars. I did the unimaginable and put peas on his plate along with the cheesy mashed potato balls. I was pushing my luck here, normally he would reject the whole meal when something unfamiliar was put on his plate and more so because the colour wasnt in keeping with his beige/yellow/orange food preferences. After psyching the plate of food out for a few minutes though, he sat down to the table. He kept touching them and then quickly withdrawing his fingers and then going back to them. Before I knew it he was trying them only one a time and it appeared that he liked them! He gave up after a bit and sat back. I asked if he was going to eat the other food and he signed NO! quite assertively. Pushing my luck again, I put a few of the peas on a spoon and proceeded to put them to his mouth and he ate them. In the end, he ate every pea!! He left everything else on his plate on this occasion but he ate the peas. I wasnt about to push it any further though. He had done great and I was very proud of him.

Since then he’s tried Strawberrys! and Apples… whole (but the apples have to be red!)!

Sunday lunch the other day was quite comical. I was serving the food out on the kitchen side and he was taking food off his plate and eating it. It’s such a joy to see him tucking into food at the moment and more so enjoy it, even if his diet still remains very limited in colour and texture.

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Makaton Monday ~ To Swim

To Swim isn’t a new sign for Bruiser, he’s used it for a while now ever since he started pretending to swim in the bath. Just recently I started using it to help him understand where I was going on my aquafit evenings. But this week was the first time he actually got to go swimming!

It sounds awful that at three years old he hasn’t been swimming before but, because of child/adult ratios at the swimming pools, time constraints and his sensory issues when sometimes he can’t stand to be wet, not to mention that he hates his fingers and toes going wrinkly, I just havent been able to take him. That doesn’t negate from the fact that he was VERY EXCITED!!

I don’t know what he was expecting but I think it exceeding his expectations. He thoroughly enjoyed every minute, even the slides when the water completely submerged him at times. He didn’t seem to mind that his fingers and toes were wrinkly, in fact he was quite amused that all mine and Wrigglers were too. He loved jumping into the shallow end with Wriggler. As for the waves, he loved the repetitive motion of the water making him go up and down.

Bruiser is a born swimmer though. He walked from the shallow end no end of times and he just kept going and going until he could no longer touch the bottom and then he’d tread water trying to get even further.  When I helped him put his legs out he attempted to swim and wanted me to let go.

He didn’t stop signing ‘To Swim’ and ‘Water‘ all the time we were in the pool. I think its time to get Bruiser enrolled for swimming lessons!

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TO SWIM

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Bruiser and Wriggler signing ‘Swim’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Im linking this post up with #MagicMoments this week. Another first for Bruiser and also some quality time spent with my Boys.

Makaton Monday ~ To Eat

Makaton Monday with a twist this week; it is especially for a little boy who loves and enjoys to look at the pictures, signs and symbols that I share on my blog (thank you to The Makaton Charity). Please join me and Bruiser in saying a big Hello to Makoto.

Bruiser signing and saying Hello Makoto

‘Hello’ is one of the first of signs we taught Bruiser. I wonder if Makoto can sign ‘Hello’?

Makoto lives in Japan with his Mum Dad and Sister. His parents run a non profit organisation called the ‘Wai-Wai Kids Club’. It is especially for children with Autism, Down-Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. The Wai-Wai Kids Club Npo also support, UNICEF -Japan, World Vision -Japan, Save The Children -Japan, WWF -Japan and the Care House for Orphans in Yokohama SeaCoast Church. You can support and follow them on twitter at @kankanonmai

Hello to all of Makoto’s friends and the all the staff there.

Makoto has Down-Syndrome and with his friends, he loves to learn Makaton. He can do some signs; Mom, Dad, You and Me. Ive seen a lovely photo of him signing ‘You’ on twitter. His parents tell me that Makoto’s most favorite Makaton symbol to use is ‘To Eat’ together with ‘Dinner’ and he likes to put it on the board. I wonder what Makoto’s favorite food is? Bruiser likes to eat chicken nuggets and fries from McDonalds!

Given that one of Makoto’s favorite symbols is ‘To Eat’ I thought I would share the sign for it today. Bruiser likes to sign ‘To Eat’ too and uses it a lot with the sign for Chocolate and Ice Cream.

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TO EAT

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Bruiser signing ‘To Eat’

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Have a wonderful week Makoto #keepsigning

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ Lego (Toy Bricks)

A new sign for Bruiser. ‘Lego’! Not that new that we havent used it previously but before this weekend I can honestly say I don’t think Bruiser has used it.

We introduced the sign to Bruiser in readiness for this weekend as we were invited to attend the Launch of the Lego Galaxy Squad at the National Space Centre. It was a wonderful day out for us and the children. It’s no secret that my boys love Space but they also love Lego too (and so do Me and their Daddy ;)) 

(I’ll blog about the day in more detail later this week)

Despite still having very little fingers Bruiser developed a love for Lego from an early age. Wriggler his brother is always playing, building and creating with it and has built himself quite a collection of Lego consisting of Transformers, Spiderman, Superman, Ironman. He even had a Lego advent calendar at Christmas! Bruiser though usually likes to take all the wheels out of the box and attempt to make a car or other transport vehicle which then needs a garage and that’s where I come in 😀

The sign is relatively simple for little ones to grasp and Bruiser in true Bruiser fashion only needed showing once!

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LEGO (TOY BRICKS)

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Bruiser signing ‘egho’ (Lego)

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ To Win

‘Me win’

‘No, me win!’

‘ME WIN!’

What is it about winning and going first that children love and why do they suddenly one day decide that everything in life is a competition? Is it a stage of development?

Bruiser is just going through this phase. The constant competition with Wriggler over going up stairs, getting dressed, going out of the front door, walking into a shop, eating breakfast, pretty much everything, yes its fun I suppose initially but it always ends in tears because Bruiser wont accept anything less than winning.

This is a very new sign that we have introduced to Bruisers signabulory. It seemed appropriate to introduce it given the recent competitiveness with his brother. Turned out though he already knew it! Nothing new there then 🙂 Yes his key worker had introduced it to him when they were preparing him for sports day at nursery. So that will be what the arm in the air waving it around was all about on the day then.

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TO WIN

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Bruiser signing ‘TO WIN’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ Green

Green… Bruiser’s favorite colour. How funny that Bruiser should discover a butterfly, his favorite creature sporting his favorite colour!!

I’ve previously shared the sign for Butterfly and I have to admit, its one of my favorite signs and considering the complexity of it, Bruiser can sign it wonderfully too.

Bruiser found the butterfly fluttering around the kitchen. In fact we’ve had quite a few these last few weeks coming into the house and generally wreaking havoc as Bruiser chased them around the house trying to catch them to ‘talk’ to them! Because that’s exactly what he did with this little green one.

He signed to the butterfly that it was a butterfly. He told it, it was ‘green’. He told the butterfly it was his friend. He then proceeded to push it around the house on his trike.

He was so loving towards it which is unusual for Bruiser as he’s normally only affectionate with inanimate objects. He kept signing to me that it was green. ‘It geeen mumeeee, geeen’ 😀

I will point at this point that the ‘Butterfly’ was very dosile, probably due to the heat (can you blame it) and that it was not harmed at all while Bruiser explored and played.

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GREEN

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Bruiser signing ‘GEEEN’ (Green)

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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I Live In Hope

Communication and social interaction is something that comes naturally to most children and adults alike and something that we all take for granted. For Bruiser this is something of a challenge.

Bruiser currently attends a nursery setting at our local children’s centre. With the help of his inclusion worker and his key person in nursery, together using Makaton, they’ve managed to get him interacting with the other children and he has role played along side them and they pretended that there was a fire and they were the firemen and they put the fire out. This for Bruiser is HUGE! I’m actually gutted that I wasnt able to witness this interaction for myself because outside of the nursery setting, his brother aside he doesn’t interact much if at all with other children.

At the weekend though, we went to a close friends birthday party at a local farm. These situations Bruiser can find quite difficult and he usually toddles around on his own doing his own thing. This party was different though as group participation and interaction with other children couldn’t be avoided.

I was incredibly proud how he coped with it and although at points he was on the brink of a meltdown, between me and his Daddy we managed to avoid it happening at all.

The icing on the cake for me though was watching him eat (yes eat!!) ‘some’ of the party food at the table with the other children and then completely out of the blue he turned to the little girl sat next to him and said “my mumeee dare” and pointed at me.

I welled up instantly. It was monumental. Id seen it for myself that he was capable of interaction like that and the best bit was that he did it off his own back, no support or help from anyone was involved. It was spontaneous.

(im crying typing this)

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This for Bruiser was one teeny tiny step but it was a monumental achievement and im so incredibly proud of him.

I Live In Hope

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Makaton Monday ~ To Run

Its only appropriate that this weeks sign is ‘To Run’. Last week Bruiser took part in his Sports Day with his friends at nursery. They had been practicing for weeks. I had been preparing Bruiser at home, reminding him of the signs for ‘Run’ ‘Jump‘ ‘Kick’ and ‘Yellow’ (he was on the yellow team) and he was using them. He was very excited.

Everything looked in doubt for him though on the night before. On his way home from collecting his brother from school he came off his scooter and landed face first on the floor, an hour later in A&E we found out he’d broke his nose 😦

Being the Brusier that he is though he wasnt about to let that get in the way! He took part in all the races. He really caught me by surprise when he knew what to do for each of the events too. He participated in the wheel barrow race, beanbag throwing, running, penalty shoot out, his favorite the obstacle course and the race he won, the beanbag on head race!

He was brilliant. #proudmummy moment!

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TO RUN

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Bruiser signing ‘To Run’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Taking It One Nibble At A Time

It’s safe to say that meal times aren’t the most relaxing times in our house. Stressful would be an understatement most days. That’s because Bruiser doesn’t eat much, if at all. When he does eat it’s usually one or more of the following; chicken dippers, fries, sausage, yorkshire pudding, honey nut cheerios, rice crispie bars, crisps, yogurt, chocolate. It’s just occurred to me writing this, that I can count all the items in his diet on two hands!!

It’s not always been like this. He was weened onto all foods successfully, there wasnt anything that he refused. His favorites were rump steak with mash and veg and spag-bol with garlic bread. He loved food!

One day though all that went, he started gagging on it, refusing it and forgetting how to feed himself (he’s had to learn that all over again). He’s had issues with certain textures of food and colours, the temperature of his food and he now needs to know that his food is clean and not hot before he will attempt to eat. For the last year we have been following a Messy Food Play Therapy programme recommended by his Speech and Language Therapists. Its been painstakingly slow to see results but he has gone from playing with dry foods albeit hesitantly to playing with messy food, baking and even tasting the food from his fingers.

So we’ve gotten this far but his diet was still somewhat restricted, he was still refusing to try new foods. This makes meal planning for the family very awkward and near on impossible some times. The other week though, it occurred to me that we could use his obsessions to our advantage. Bruiser is obsessed with ‘Twinkle Stars’ (spikey mikeys from greggs). He loves making star-shaped cakes and biscuits. Could making other food into stars make him want to eat it?

Last week, I made the family cheese on toast for lunch. I cut Bruiser’s into stars using a pastry cutter and gave him 2 on a little plate. He looked at them and immediately commented that they were ‘twinkle stars’. That was a good start, usually he’d say no to food he doesn’t eat being given to him and put his hand over his mouth or run away! He sat with it on his lap while he continued to watch a cartoon, he kept looking at it though.

Eventually he started poking it with his fingers and signed that it wasnt hot. He then picked one up and looked at it, closely examined it more to the point. Then put it back down. He did this a few times before holding it in front of his mouth. Very very slowly he started moving it towards his mouth until it was touching his lips. Me and Hubby were staring at each other giddy with excitement smiling away hoping he would take a bite but also trying not to draw attention to what he was doing. It seemed like it took forever but he did it, he opened his lips ever so slightly and took the smallest nibble out of one of the star spikes.

Hallelujah!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

That was it though, he put it the rest of the ‘twinkle star’ back on his plate and signed that he was finished. 

One little nibble 🙂

It was such a small step and probably insignificant to most people but for us, for Bruiser, it was an Amazing Achievement and I wanted to share it with the world!

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Makaton Monday ~ Prince (Charming)

Last week Bruiser learnt a new sign! Obviously he’s always learning new signs all of the time but given that his ‘signabulary’ now consists of over 500 signs, new ones are becoming something of a novelty for us!

All week at Bruiser’s nursery, they were celebrating Bookstart Week and the theme this year was Traditional Fairy Tales. Friday was party day though and the children were invited to dress up a traditional character from a book!

I was wracking my brain wondering what to send Bruiser as. Dressing up isn’t something Bruiser does much and it’s always on his terms so I knew it would have to be something familiar to him without too much dressing up involved. Then it came to me, dressing up in something of Wriggler’s would go down very well. I dug out some clothes that Wriggler had out grown, Bruiser bless him thought he was dressing up as Wriggler. It took a while to convince him otherwise because as far as he was concerned he looked like his brother 🙂

Bruiser went as Prince Charming… and Charming he most definitely was!

Prince Charming

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PRINCE

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Bruiser signing ‘Prince’

Bruiser signing ‘Charming’

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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Makaton Monday ~ Bus

We went on a Bus ride. We went to catch a big one. It was a beautiful day. Bruiser wasnt scared! Quite the opposite actually because we were going to buy a new scooter and he was literally bouncing of the sides of the bus with excitement!!

What is it about Buses and toddlers? Bruiser loves them! I wonder if it’s the novelty factor… I can count on one hand the number of times Bruiser’s actually been on one. We usually walk everywhere or go in the car if its further afield.

I told Bruiser we wanted to catch the no.22 bus and he was off looking for it. He didn’t stop signing ‘Bus’ pretty much all the time we were out! But he was heartbroken though when we returned home and he realised that our adventure had finished. Best not leave it too long for the next one because even now when he sees the no.22 bus go by he signs and says ‘my bsss’ (my bus) 🙂

‘Bus’ is a sign Bruiser has used since we started using Makaton. The simplicity of it makes it easy for little ones to grasp. Despite the sign being not that dissimilar to the sign for ‘Car’ he knows the difference and has no problem interpreting the sign when we use it. Bruiser can take it further as he can sign ‘double decker bus’ and will even throw in the colour too!

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BUS

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BRUISER SIGNING ‘BSSSSS’ (BUS)

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Sign/Symbol used with the kind permission of the © The Makaton Charity 2012

For any help or advice in respect of Makaton, please contact the Makaton Charity directly.

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