Week 19 Progress

Even though Raiyan's been having the chicken pox for the past week, he was still coping really well with his therapy sessions. (Yes, Kerri and Jo are really that great).

The last 2 weeks Raiyan has been learning to master almost the same programmes week after week, only because it is a relatively difficult programme to get a grasp on but nevertheless, he is definitely showing positive progress. At the very least, he seems to be able to know what is expected of him, it's just that he needs to take a moment and carefully think first for what he needs to say.

The kind of things he's working through now:

1) How questions?: so far, he's good with describing how to blow a balloon, how to blow bubbles and how to open a door. Kerri said that it seems easier for him to do this when it's a particular action being done as opposed to just seeing a picture of a boy blowing a balloon. This obviously means that this is something I would have to try and generalise a lot daily;

2) He's beginning to write things and attaching meaning to what he writes. In his old school, where he had to write lines and lines of words, it was such a struggle to make him do it that almost everytime, I had to do his work myself (with my left hand of course!). But now, Jo is teaching him to write with meaning by first showing him an item like a banana and asking him to tell her something about it. Raiyan then says "A banana is yellow. You peel it and eat it" and then Jo would make him write it down in his own words. Which he is beginning to enjoy doing!

3) He had a complete blast playing with his learning ladders buddies during the event on Thursday that he really cried for Adek when it was time to go home. Before, he just wanted to see Adek because he was attracted to the animal figurines he saw in Adek's room (as communicated my Raiyan himself) but on Thursday, he actually said "I want my friend, Adek". Even throughout the afternoon, he was literally inseparable from Adek and everytime Adek was not around him, he'd be shouting out "Adek! Adek!" and when he found Adek, he actually put his arm around Adek and said "there you are!" (Uhuks-hearts melting again..)

4) His drawings are so so so much better than how it used to be. He has also started to draw non-animal items, like a house, a forest, a mountain. One time he actually drew the whole family :) and another time, he drew him and his babah standing in front of a pet store! (hinting are you?)

5) I made him watch the famous youtube video of the 2 brothers where the older one put his finger in his baby bro's mouth on purpose and halfway thru regretted it cos it ended up being painful.. well Raiyan COMPLETELY got the sense of humour behind it and he does a WICKED imitation of the boy saying "Chaarrllaayy Bit Meeyy" (real posh brit accent- this is also encouraged from Jo who also teaches him things like "cor blimey!" and "oh gosh!")

6)He's really good with questions like why do we eat? and why do we sleep etc? He will answer because we're hungry and tired resepctively. Now we are working on doing it the other way round: What do we do when we are hungry? etc

7) His receptive language is almost indistinguishable as sometimes it really feels like he understands everything we tell him. This is indispensable during those almost tantrum times...

Speech and communication wise specifically has been wonderful as well lately. Some examples:

- When we had to drive back in 2 separate cars, I was driving the van with Raiyan and Jeff was driving the other car right in front of us, he kept saying "No, leave that car. Babah sit on this chair (where I was seated) and mama sit on this chair (the seat behind him)"

-When he wanted to stay on with Adek, he kept wailing in the car "I don't want to go to home because I want to be with Adek"

-Everytime Alisha is in his way, he will always say "Excuse Me Alisha. I want to___(whatever he wants to do then)

Aaaahhhh.. now that the launching is over, I am looking forward to blog more about Raiyan and his progress! Till next time!