I was thinking about my life in general today. And I came to the conclusion that my life isn't all that bad.
Yep, that's it. Nothing more to say about the subject :)
But, here's some great news. We're going to hit the 70's today in Northern Cali!
Yay!
No rain, just a nice sunny beautiful day!
OH, I'm working on using a sippy cup with Lillian. Not just any type, but the ones with the straws. Specifically, the Munchkin sippy cup that I bought at Target. At my last Ds Support Group Meeting, we had a guest speaker, a Speech Therapist who specializes in the Sarah R. Johnson approach. She has a website, http://www.talktools.net.
Not all speech therapist use her approach and not all think it's effective, but I think it's worth giving it a try if it can't harm her! Anything, that I can do to help improve Lillian's quality of life, is worth looking into! The idea of her methods is to work the muscles in their mouths to help with the quality of their speech when they are older. So, the sounds are more clear and precise.
Back to the cup...I choose this particular cup because the entire top is made of soft plastic. Which you can prime the straw and give your child a little taste of the liquid in hopes they will close their mouths and start sucking.
Most people would say, "Why does it matter?"
Well, it matters because people with Down Syndrome sometimes have a harder time speaking/making the sounds that come so easy for the majority of us folks. We're talking about Muscle tone. In general, most kiddos with Ds have low muscle tone, and that includes the muscles in the face and mouth area. So, by using her methods, we improve the tone and thus improve their speech!
I wish I would have tried sooner with Lil. The therapist said sometimes it's easier to transition to a straw cup when they are babies because they still have that sucking motion, which Lil has lost now. Anyways, there is so much more. Although, Lil isn't receiving Speech Therapy for now, I've kind of taken on that role.
SO....she wants nothing to do with this cup! Figures!
It's nearing my 100th post and I'm hoping to write something fantastic. So, I'm opening up the floor to you all!
I would love to be an question and answer type of post. So, your job is to comment me some questions or email them to me directly! The more the better. The questions can be about Down Syndrome, me, family, military/navy wife and/or living, traveling overseas, my views on parenting. Whatever, be free to ask!
