pointing, and our three month review.

finn's three month review is coming up at the end of the month.  
it's hard to believe that he's been in early intervention for three months already! 
but talking with his teachers this week about his progress has been really encouraging. 
yesterday his special instruction teacher said he is like a totally different kid than when we started.  and it's true! 
i'm so glad they can see the big differences even though they only spend an hour a week with him.

it could get a little lengthy and boring to talk about the full span of finn's progress, so i thought i'd focus on one of the many big improvements we've seen because of early intervention and hard work: 
pointing!

pointing is an important developmental milestone because it displays this wonderful thing called "joint attention" which i've talked a lot about. 
it means your baby wants you to see what he sees, and wants to bring you into his world.  
sharing an experience. 
it's all part of the very beginning of learning how to relate to others and the world around you.

when we started early intervention, finn could not point at all. 
when i say he could not, i mean not only did he not point at things, but he physically had no idea how to make his hand and fingers into a point. 

one of the first activities we did with finn was using hand over hand to have him point to pictures in his favorite books as we read it. 
this task was SO difficult for him that we had to adapt it so that he just had to smack the picture with his palm. 
for me, trying to form his little hand into a point was virtually impossible.  he would make all of his fingers rigid or make all of his fingers loose.  he just didn't get it.  so for a few weeks i just grabbed his hand and made him smack the pictures instead of point at them:
"on monday, the caterpillar ate one apple! can you touch the apple?"
< smack >
"yayyy that's the apple! good job, finn!"
< kicking/whining/fighting >

after a few weeks of that, finn started letting me make his hand into a point to point to pictures.  he didn't fight it- he actually wanted me to help him do it. 

then a few weeks after that he made his hand into a point by himself and i just had to guide his wrist to point to the picture.

then, a couple of weeks ago he started pointing to some pictures by himself.  hooray!

i wanted to mention the pointing skill specifically because we have found one tool that reeeaaally is motivating for him and has turned him into a pointing master. 
and believe it or not, it's an iphone app!

finn likes to watch youtube videos on my phone... like disney songs or sesame street songs... and he taught himself how to open them and hit play from watching me do it. 
it's a pretty finite pointing skill to do that, so we thought we'd expand on it. 

his speech therapist told me about the app "peekaboo barn". 
it's a little barn that has doors that open up when you tap them. 
every time the door opens it reveals a different barn animal (i think there's around ten) and it makes the animal noise and then says the name of the animal, as well as the printed word of the animal on the screen. 
finn LOVES this game. 
and i love it, too!  it is teaching him to use his pointing skills, he has to give something to get something... (tap the door in order to open it and tap the door in order to close it for another animal), and he is learning animal names! 
i really recommend it for any toddler, especially one in early intervention. 
finn's face just lights up for this little game, and he will find my phone and bring it over to me so that he can play it.  (bringing us things is another very recent skill that we are loving!)

such a funny little thing like playing a simple game on my phone doesn't seem like much, but when i look back to two and a half months ago at the little boy who literally couldn't make his fingers into the shape of a point, and i see him now pointing his little way through a barn full of animals, i see how far he's really come.

a lot of times in early intervention it's hard to see the big changes day to day, and it's hard to feel like you're making much progress at all, but i think that's why they have the little three month reviews.  
because when i look back that far, he really has come a looonnnnggg way. 

we are so so grateful for our awesome team of early intervention teachers who push finn (and me!) to our limits because they believe in him and know he can do it. 

like i said, pointing is just one of the little examples of his progress. 
we are seeing such big changes with finn across the board. 
little toys that he used to zone out on or flick or spin, he now plays with correctly and brings them to us to show us or ask for help with it. 
he uses a fork, he brushes his teeth, he makes eye contact, he is more comfortable exploring his surroundings and can climb up and down the couches and the stairs. 
these are all things that he literally could not do, was scared to do, fought us over, and completely resisted three months ago. 

i really feel like we were successful in identifying some pretty scary early warning signs and "sticking our foot in the door" before it shut. 
some days i feel like i'm getting the door to open up a little further, some days i feel like it's standing still, and some days i feel like i'm struggling to maintain the little space that i have. 
but when i look back to three months ago, it is so obvious that we have pushed that door open big time. 

finn has to work a lot harder to learn new skills than a lot of other kids his age. 
he doesn't just "pick up" on things and acquire new skills, he has to be taught them. 
even the little things. 
but he tries SO hard and he is so happy with himself when he learns to do something new! 
we are SO proud of him! 
way to go, finn! 
here's to another awesome three months!