Fun with eyegaze

This week has overall been great. It's had its ups and downs but Molly is doing so weel with her eye gaze and is really enjoying it.

At the beginning of the week Mol was very frustrated with the whole thing. She got upset when she found something difficult and would close her eyes or look away to avoid doing it (she learly understands how it works!). I wanted to work on it with her but I was torn between pushing through it in the hope it would get better or leaving it a few days to see if we could recapture the excitement from the first couple of days.

In the end I decided to keep going, and I'm so glad I did! I made a few grids of activities I knew she liked for her and Lilly and allowed her to choose what we did. This week we have played snakes and ladders, played babies, dressed up, made things and spent lots of time on the bike. During all these activities I had Mol (and often Lilly) make choices or explain what to do using their communication devices. Mol particularly loves being able to say what her doll wants or needs!

This coming week I am hoping to use this enthusiasm and skill on the computer to begin working on academics with her. It will be a lot of trial and error (aka making it up as I go along) but I'm hoping to find a method that will work as she continues to learn both computer and academic skills. She is so clever, we just need to find the best way to teach her.

Yesterday afternoon we took a break from the computer and went with about half of Molly's foster home to the park down the road. Mol cycles all the way there! (I may have helped push in the uphill bits....). She loved being able to cycle to the park and it was great exercise for her. The park itself was great exercise for me! Having carried her down about 50 steps I then took her on the slide, the swings and up and down the grassy hill! It was quite the workout! I'm just sorry I forgot to take a camera.