The Optimist Club in Jamestown sponsored a Jr. Deaf Club event at a local camp on Chautauqua Lake. It was absolutely wonderful to meet a group of parents who have "been there and done that." All of the deaf and hard of hearing youth were older than Nolan by at least 5 or 6 years, but it is nice to have the shared experience and collective knowledge in how to get the most out of our early intervention/special education services.
We had hot dogs, talked, and the kids all played wonderfully together. I didn't get any pictures because we were too busy just relaxing and talking to the other parents. There were a variety of communication methods used (all the kids were oral, but most also used some sign as well). We get to meet again in late August, this time at a park near our house.
In the meantime, we have been exploring various local places and learning lots of new vocabulary words (mostly for Matt, but Nolan picks this stuff up while in my front pack). Here are some new words for the week:
From Panama Rocks:
Matt: Slippery, boulder, roots, moss, fungus, streaming light, sharp, crevasse.
Nolan: Rock, tree, chipmunk, light, dark (and all the other words overheard).
From the zoo:
Matt: Rotate, tunnel, camouflage, exhibit, chimes, smelly.
Nolan: Ice cream, dirty, warthog, polar bear, mister.
From the Overlook Park:
Matt: Colorful, mushroom, poisonous, slimy, steep, drenched.
Nolan: Well, Nolan slept for most of this little hike!
We're having a great time exploring some local hiking trails and getting the kids introduced to the woods. Let's just hope we hold off the introduction to poison ivy for quite some time!
3 comments:
Leah,
I realized we haven't typed each other much lately, but I do drop in on your blog when I can. I'm so glad to hear that things are going well for the moment. The boys are so cute! I really admire all the hard work you manage to do and stress you handle so gracefully.
-Camille
That sounds like such a great experience. I've never spent any time in real life with other parents of deaf or hoh kids. It would be amazing! And that 2 x 2's class you wrote about sound awesome as well! Good for you! Glad to hear that Matthew is making so much progress these days too.
Hi Camille! We really do have to get the kids together the next time we're out in California- maybe a Disney or Six Flags trip (if Magic Mountain is still operating, lol).
Matt is coming a long way, but stil has DEFINITE articulation issues (still speaks Klingon 90% of the time). He has some tummy issues, too- sometimes I wonder if the two are related.
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