Faith's Mom's Blog

Assistive technology helps students succeed in the classroom. There are many types of assistive technology to help students with different special needs. In the photo to the left, assistive technology called interactive switches allow Faith to drive her power chair and operate her computer at school. Read more by going to Assistive Technology Helps Students with Disabilities.

Yesterday was a big day for Faith - there were a little bit of lights, a few cameras, and a lot of ACTION! At the beginning of the day about four people met with Faith so that she could FINALLY get the right part installed on her chair. These parts enable her to use the same buttons that she uses to drive her chair to work with her computer. Technology is wonderful but it can require lots of patience! Faith working on her computer with help from Ms. Hall That afternoon, the KFYR TV crew came in to record Faith doing some of her daily activities at school. They recorded her doing some work on her computer with her buttons and also driving her power chair. I haven't seen her drive her chair for a long time and I was very impressed by how well she's driving! She is even able to drive herself into the elevator and turn around because she doesn't like her back to the door. The cameraman got in there with her, and I think he was a little nervous she was going to run him ...

We recently received Faith's report card of sorts called, "Annual Goals, Short-Term Objectives, and Periodic Review of Services." Which basically lets us know how Faith is doing with her therapies and special education/academics at school. These are the goals that we set up for her at the beginning of the year when we did her Individual Education Plan ( IEP ).   Getting ready for school   I was so happy to see that in each area, she is making " some progress ." In occupational therapy, they have been working on self-feeding. This has been a challenge for her as it involves fine motor skills. She does have high tone in her arms, so she has to work through that in order to bring the spoon directly to her mouth. Her therapist in this area says that Faith fatigues during this exercise, but that she is really motivated to work hard. One of our goals is for Faith to begin to read. I am so proud of her that she knows all of her letter sounds and at schoo...

We've been waking up to some beautiful scenery with the frosted trees Because of the snowstorms last week, we had a few rough days of getting Faith to school and back. Thankfully, my friend Tina was able to help out with her van and also one of our neighbors, who also has kids at Centennial, was able to push Faith up the hill one day.  Rob and I both think that maybe it's time to get Faith on the bus. I thought it would be easy enough, since the bus goes right by here every day and that all I would have to do is make a phone call and it would happen just like that. Not so fast, I learned! On Friday, I had a meeting with Faith's special education teacher, and she explained that to get Faith on the bus, her IEP team would have to meet and decide that because Faith doesn't have the necessary transportation to get to school, she will have to be picked up by the bus.  Even after all parties agree that Faith needs to take the bus, it is not guaranteed that the bus will ...

There's a blog I read called Caleigh's Corner about a little girl with CP. Her symptoms are similar to Faith's except that Caleigh is nonverbal. One of the posts discussed Caleigh having her own iPad along with a special language app to enable her to "talk." I saw the photos of Caleigh with her iPad and thought how awesome that would be for Faith to have her own. Then, a couple of months ago, during a visit with friends, Faith discovered the Apple iPad for herself. I saw her with an app called Pocket Pond and how she could press the screen to make a splashing noise and the water ripple. She loved it!  She also checked out a piano app where there are the actual keys of the piano. After she was done looking at it, she looked at me and said in the sweetest voice, "mommy, can we please take that little screen home with us?" I discussed the prospect of Faith having her own iPad with her speech and physical therapists and they both agreed it would a gre...