Weekly Speech Goal 13 Oct - 19 Oct

1.  Big / little  (for understanding)

We are not sure of Matai's understanding of either of these terms and this week we will aim to find out!

• Aaron is going to give choices - big / little spoon, big / little toast at breakfast
• I will also give choices of big and little during routine
• I will set up some play with  - big and little cars, big and little stones, big and little balls, big and little shoes
• I will use playdough to make big and little.

2.  'Matai' - We will try to get him to produce his own name, probably by imitation.

As it stands, Matai calls himself 'you'. We sign 'I love .... Mummy, Daddy, Mia every night.  When it is Matai's turn we say I love 'you'.  Now when Matai runs through the family names, which is quite regularly, he says Mummy, Daddy, Mia and then points to himself and says 'you'.  I know he knows his name is Matai as he responds to it, but I guess 'you' is easier to use!

• Reading his photo books, getting him to imitate, asking 'Who is that?
• Taking care to use third person rather than you, yours etc.
• What is your name?

Preschool Disco!

Just because photos is what I do!

We all had a great time at the preschool disco recently.  Matai loved the lighted floor and being with his friends.  Aaron and I loved having fun with our kids and catching up with other parents.  And the surprise of the night was how much Mia loved to boogie!

Thanks to the Gladstone crew for the effort, we appreciate it.

2 words!

Matai is saying more and more single words, often you have to be his Mum to understand the pronounciation, but nonetheless he is attempting more and more regularly.  We are at the stage now where he should be starting to use 2 words together for words that he knows well, and he has been doing this for a long time with the words 'more' and 'please', often with the sign for  'more' followed by the word 'please'.  However we haven't seen it with other words as yet.

Every morning when Aaron goes in to get Matai out of bed, one of the first words that he says is 'Shower'. 
This morning, Aaron wasn't intending on giving him a shower and so he closed him down pretty quickly.  Matai was persistent however, and kept saying 'shower' 'shower'.  Probably realising that he wasn't having the desired effect, he suddenly very clearly (and loudly) added to his plea saying 'Daddy, SHOWER'!

I was next door, lying in bed, stopped in my tracks!  A very routine and mundane moment that no one else might notice as extraordinary, but for me it was a fab way to start the day (not so much for Matai, he still didn't manage to get his shower!

Weekly Speech Goal 6 - 13 Oct

Straight into it!   Edit 13 Oct

1.  to find out which body parts that Matai can say spontaneously (ie. without imitation needed).

• I will use the drill toy which he likes to drill against himself to encourage him to touch different parts of his and my body, trying to elicit labelling as we go.
• I will get him to wash his own face after meals and try to elicit labels.
• In the bath/shower Aaron will try to elicit labels.

Yes. We got 'hair', 'ears', toe' clear enough to understand. More were said, but not all were understandable. 

We know that Matai understands these words and can imitate them, but the idea is to find out which he can initiate of his own accord.


2.  Understand  - 'pants'

We know that Matai can understand 'trousers' and often imitates it.  However does he understand 'pants'?  My guess is yes.  This is a word that I have heard Aaron and preschool use so I want to check.

• Ask him to fetch his pants
• Ask him to put his pants away
• 'Pull your pants up'
• Read 'Buster' focussing on pants instead of trousers.

Yes - he's all over it, we found this out in just a few minutes!

3. Produce - 'Hello'
Matai says Hello, usually with a wave, however I don't know whether he can say 'Hello' because of imitation or whether he is able to produce it of his own accord.

• Greet him with a wave and wait for a verbal

Well we got a bit of imitating but its not so easy to understand, especially as he doesn't have the 'H' sound yet.  All the focus however has brought out a really loud and obvious 'HI' all the time!!

Highlights this week:

• Matai initiated 'that one'.  He was passing me a book to read to him.
• 'awa' - if you hear this, it means 'stop' or 'no' in Samoan, and apparently it is part of Matai's repertoire now :)

What is this blog all about?

The purpose of this blog is to allow for a shared space where the people who are working, playing, caring for and spending the most time with Matai on a day to day, week to week basis, can see and share his progress and development. 

I will document milestones, share goals and hopefully fill in some of the background of what is happening for Matai.

My hope is that you will learn some information about Matai, Down syndrome in general, get some ideas and be able to share your own ideas, stories and information about Matai as feels appropriate, along the way.

This need for a 'sharing space' has arisen because I am finding that I am often interacting with many people on a weekly basis about how Matai is progressing.  I glean many gems of wisdom from various professionals and often there are important ideas, information and experiences that I wish that other people in Matai's world could know too. Until now I am the only person that holds and facilitates all that information, and I feel that if I share it better, then a 'whole picture' of Matai's progress might help the different 'parts' be able to plan and be more focussed in their work (or play :).

Please know that there is no obligation to read here frequently. I know you are all very busy people!
I offer it as an option and hopefully a way of making your job easier.

These are the people that are currently working regularly with Matai:

Occupational Therapist - Kath Macdonald (fortnightly, Early Intervention, Southland Hospital) -
Private Speech Therapist - Bridget McArthur ( weekly, Shout Speech Language Therapy, Alexandra)
Early Intervention Teacher - Jenny Tattersfield (weekly, Ministry of Education)
Gladstone Preschool - Jacqui and her lovely crew of early childhood teachers (Monday and Wednesday mornings)


Equally important as the above professional services,  Aaron and I have two large extended families here in Invercargill who are very involved in Matai's daily life.  He is lucky enough to have 4 doting grandparents, 7 cousins that we have regular contact with, and many committed Aunts and Uncles.  He is a lucky boy! Some of these family members may also choose to read here as they are just as involved in his development.