March 18, 2010

Passions

Hannah and Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson

During our drive up to Philadelphia the other day, I was thinking about blogging. I realized that I have not spent much time discussing my two biggest passions in the Down syndrome world. What is up with that? 18 months of blogging and I've barely started on the good stuff!

Here they are:

1. Early Reading

2. Oral Placement Therapy

These two ideas are the foundation upon which we built Hannah. Really.

A foundation.

Infrastructure. Concrete. Supportive. Steady. Footing.

Both early reading and OPT (also known as Oral Motor Therapy) have made a huge impact in Hannah's life. Out of all the things we've done with Hannah over the past 12 years, these two changed her life's trajectory.

So I'm giving you fair warning! There are going to be posts about this, and you're going to have homework to do!

Since I've got a million details to which I must attend in the next couple of days, I'll give you a quick synopsis of our trip to Philly.

It. Was. Great.

Encouraging and fun. Even with silly faces.


5 comments:

Tina said...

Oh I am so excited and looking forward to the up-coming posts about OPT and reading. I contacted Sara Rosenfeld Johnson and she has suggested books/DVDs that I should get to start working with Saira for Oral Motor and feeding therapy and I am in the process of ordering them from the U.S., so getting your input on this subject will be fantastic and I know so so helpful! Can't wait

Lisa said...

Can't wait to hear about the reading stuff. We've been doing oral motor therapy with Sheridan since he was almost 3 months old, but I'm still always open to learning some new tricks!

Brandie said...

I can't wait for your upcoming posts! I thought Goldie might miss out on early reading because of her low vision, but she is already naming her letters!

Josette said...

As always, I look forward to your upcoming posts about your "passions" where Down syndrome is concerned. Keep it coming!We're ready...anxiously waiting...

Anonymous said...

Now THAT is the type of picture that every professional should have! Love it!!!

We too are big readers. Gabe is now reading and he's exploring syllables too which I did not realize his teacher was covering until a walk to school this past week. Gabe asked me to "do syllables" with him. (clapping and counting each one in each word)

I am looking forward to your posts about speech very much. Terry and I have been quite focused on communication for a long time realizing that speech would be one of the bigger challenges for Gabe to meet. There are some days that I think he'll never master the "s", "sh", "ch" sounds but we keep working on it.

My incentive comes from when he actually made clear "ck" and "g" sounds after a year of working on them. He pronounces these sounds so beautifully now that it's hard for me to remember when he could not.