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This Book Is Magic (Great Read Aloud Recommendation!)

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Joey and I recently enjoyed a few weeks of reading This Book is Magic by Ashley Evanson. Much like the books Push Here by Herve Tullet, This Book is Magic encourages the reader to fully interact with the book – tapping the page, waving or twirling fingers in the air, and saying magic words in order to make magic be revealed when you turn the page.

“Wiggle your fingers and say bravo!” 

“Wave your magic finger and say Bippity Boppity Big”

Throughout the book the reader is able to turn a frog into a prince, make books large, cause a boat to disappear, and interact with a lion.

I love books that bring the reader into the experience instead of simply allowing for passive enjoyment of a good story. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story. Yet there are times when we want to engage the listener even more than by simply sharing a good story. 

Books like this encourage a back-and-forth reciprocal communication between the reading dyad- or a “serve and return” as labeled by the Harvard Center for the Developing Child. It pulls the child into the story, while the adult reader must respond to the child’s cues before moving on in the book. These back and forth interactions are essential for development. For children who may not be ready to listen to a longer story, these interactive books can create a bridge to books that require more passive attention.

Joey and I enjoyed reading the book by following the instructions together – he did the motions while I said the magic words. This let us work on matching our actions together and further encouraged us to tune into one another. (Which again promotes interaction and engagement). 

Of course, the book also allowed Joey to work on his vocabulary in his AAC device. The “magic” on each page lent itself perfectly to asking Joey to describe what he saw, and to use prepositions to explain that a book grew BIG or that a lion suddenly came OUT of his cage. 

I highly recommend checking out This Book is Magic if you are looking for a silly, engaging reading experience. 

Happy Reading!

Exploring Chapter Books

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After spending four months with my own rising first grader I feel even more acutely aware of what rising first graders are into – and need to remember to bring age appropriate materials to Joey. My daughter loves the Princess in Black and the Mercy Watson books – both are series of simple chapter books with bright pictures on each page. They are the perfect bridge to reading chapter books – supporting the young listener (or reader) with entertaining and action-filled pages along with the illustrations.

So, in my quest of always offering Joey age-appropriate materials, I brought a Mercy Watson book to his house. 

Mercy Watson, for those of you who do not know, is a large pig that lives with her doting parents – Mr. and Mrs. Watson. Her next neighbors are not overly big fans of living next door to the pig, and frequently call the fire department on Mercy. Mercy herself is generally clueless and is usually on a quest to eat as much butter toast as possible. In other words, the books are fairly ridiculous, repetitive, very funny and exactly what every six year old wants to read and listen to. In my house we love Mercy, and I was hoping that Joey would as well.

It did feel like a risk, so I brought additional back-up books in case he lost interest in the chapter book. (Spoiler alert – he did not.)

The simple, repetitive nature of the book turned out to be perfect for working on our reading goals of answering questions about the story and talking about the text using Joey’s AAC device. What’s more, the print on the page is large enough that if I isolated a high-frequency word Joey is familiar with (like the word ‘look’) he was able to read it by using his device. He was very proud of his ability to do this, and the second day we were reading the book he indicated he wanted to read the book by selecting those high frequency words and then gazing at the book’s cover. 

Within the context of the chapter book we were still able to work on all of the components we normally would use with a single read-aloud. We talked about who was in the story, what the problem was, and what happened first. It made it easier to work on making predictions because Joey is not yet familiar with the whole chapter book – each day I read it to me I am still asking him to make predictions on something he does not know about yet. With a pig getting into trouble there were multiple opportunities to work on prepositions, as well as labeling the emotions of the different characters as they react to the pig’s antics.

Joey laughed at the crazy pig and looked remarkably confused when I tried to explain that the character named “baby” is really an old woman. Not confused in a way that he did not understand – confused in that way every six year old gets when they first meet the character “Baby Lincoln”. 

I am looking forward to diving more into this series with Joey. Every six year old should begin to learn the joy of following a story through multiple chapters and diving into a favorite series. 

Honoring Total Communication

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Before I was back in person with Joey his Occupational Therapist and I touched base. Although each person on a child’s team has a speciality, nothing in development happens in isolation – a child cannot learn to communicate without also developing their motor skills – and vice versa. Typical development occurs with systems relying on one another, and when development is disrupted each system must continue to be addressed. In truth, I think Joey’s OT and I wish we were able to collaborate more frequently. I can always tell when he has made sudden gains in OT because the gains coincide with progress in his communication and academics.

This time, his OT and I wanted to connect over his communication. Unfortunately, an eye-gaze AAC device is difficult to use during OT anytime, but it is nearly impossible during tele-health sessions. And without an ability to effectively communicate his preferences, Joey (and everyone) was becoming increasingly frustrated. 

As you can read here, she began focusing on basic signs so that he would have some way of making requests or expressing his wishes. But she wanted to know – was this disruptive to his AAC work, or was there something better to use during their OT sessions?

None of us communicate solely with one manner of communication. In a basic conversation with someone our gestures and eye gazes can communicate as much as our words do. However, as teachers and professionals we often get caught up in teaching one method of communication and forget to honor a child’s total communication. We become so focused on using certain words or a certain modality that we forget a child may be trying to tell us something in another manner. While sometimes we want to see the child use a specific communication technique – using words instead of crying – we also need to honor that there can be multiple acceptable ways to express our wants and needs. Sign language, gestures that everyone understands, eye gaze, and verbalizations can all serve to signal the message a child wants to get across – in a manner that will allow the child to stay regulated and feel safe. 

I was thrilled to hear that Joey was using the signs appropriately. The first time we were back in person I asked Joey to show me what he’d learned. With the help of his assistant he was able to quickly demonstrate each sign. Now that I know his version of each sign I am able to honor it within our group. When he is having difficulty getting his eyes to correctly line up with his device so he can make a request he fluidly goes into using the sign for please and then pointing to what he wants. Now that we have included total communication into his session I can honor what he wants, help him remain regulated and know that I am hearing him. I can always model using the device to make the request after I have fulfilled it by simply saying “Another way to ask might be” and selecting the buttons. Often, I notice that Joey knows where the words are on his device and would select them if he could, but organizing his body in order to make the correct selection can become frustrating. After a few attempts he will use another communication method. 

The flexibility Joey uses to move between communication techniques is one of his strengths. The more people Joey can effectively communicate with, the more engaged he will become and the more successful he will be.

 

Back in Person!

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On July 6th, after last seeing Joey in the beginning of March, I was finally able to meet with Joey in person. As I walked up his driveway I found myself apprehensive about what I was going to find when we got to work. We had been working so hard during the winter months – tackling those early kindergarten skills of learning high frequency words, counting, phonemic awareness activities, and using his AAC eye gaze device to share his jokes, thoughts, and ideas. 

I had a deep feeling of dread that I am sure every teacher feels as they think about where their students are academically during this pandemic- what happened during those long months? Will we still even have our rhythm? Will we be able to reconnect? What will we need to reteach? 

As I settled into our session I tried to remind myself to go slowly and to focus on my relationship with Joey instead of the academic skills. I tried… but as we got into our work I would find myself pushing ahead, focusing on skills instead of communication. I could feel my own agenda to get back into normalcy. 

In truth, I probably forgot more about where the words are on the device than Joey did. During our first ten minute data sampling he only used his device about 12 times. I began to worry when we finally hit our rhythm. We seemed to find our old back and forth and we both became more comfortable. In our last data sampling Joey used the device over 20 times. He showed me that he remembered many of his high frequency words. And of course he remembered where his jokes are.

More than anything I was surprised at how off my own rhythm was. It was not just Joey that needed to warm up – I needed to remember our patterns, routines, and even needed to remind myself where words were on his device. How did I forget so much in such a short time?

I left our session feeling hopeful and excited. We will take a few more sessions to fall back into our rhythm – and we may need to create new routines and rhythms. He has gone from being newly six to nearly six and a half. We have both grown and changed and our work going forward will need to honor that. 

But the worry about him losing his skills is gone. We will need to keep working to return and exceed where our work was in the winter, but I do not think I will dream about this anymore. It will come back. The skills are there and the capability is there. I am excited to see where we will go from here.

The Day You Begin: Another great book for all types of diversity

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In my virtual Friday read aloud group that Joey participates in I read the book “The Day You Begin” by Jacqueline Woodson. It’s a beautiful book – in both the poetry of the words as well as the pictures. As an adult, I’d read it to myself when it arrived from Amazon and thought “This is perfect.” Of course, reading it silently to your adult self in your head is very different than reading it aloud to a group of energetic kindergarten and first graders on a hot June afternoon. Sometimes beauty gets lost in those moments. 

And yet – Joey surprised me. He appeared attentive and alert throughout the story. Of course, it is always hard to tell over zoom, but over the last few months I’ve become more adept at reading the body language of bored children through the computer screen. 

Woodson’s story begins with “There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you.”….

On the third page she writes, “there will be times when no one understands the way words curl from your mouth”

Although the book is written around the idea of cultural diversity, it applies to anyone – all of us really – who in any moment may be the “different” one. And so, for a child using an AAC device to communicate, and who immediately physically separated from peers because of a cumbersome wheelchair, this book can be a reminder that we are not alone. Everyone has moments of being different – standing alone – feeling separated and suspecting everyone is laughing at you.

Woodson goes on to write, “There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you until the day you begin to share your stories.” The story encourages the readers to share their own identity and story with others in those brave moments of taking a deep breath.

“And all at once” Woodson writes, “in the room where no one else is quite like you, the world opens itself up a little wider to make some space for you.”

Those lines reminded me of the book we made for Joey last year – it introduced Joey to his typically developing classroom peers and shared what made him similar with them – and what made him different. It gave him a presence in the classroom before he’d even entered.

I wish it was easier for Joey to share his story with his classmates – and all of us really. I wish it was as easy as standing up, taking a deep, brave breath, and “beginning”. And yet I hope the message still resonates with him – there is a place for you in the room – and you are not alone.

Saturday Serenade

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