Argumentation starts....

Yesterday, Lotte had cleared up her room but had left some clothes lying around.
When her mother came in, she mumbled about the clothes, and then Lotte said

"But mommy, look - cleaned up!!"

One of the first times she has argued in her defense.

Other things pop up. How simple tasks are now interpreted. Her mom asked her to get a bag for the needles of the christmas tree. She normally would use plastic shopping-bags and knows where they are. But for bio-degradable waist we use special bag. Located on a slightly different place...

She drew her own conclusion, and brought back the correct bag.

Later on her mom asked for bags to put the christmas-tree lights in. She asked for 3, and Lotte brought back the correct bags AND the right amount.

In a way, this is not remarkable for a 4½ year old, but we have allways noticed that compared to other children of her age, she understood less. Not directly because a lack of communication, even though that has allways been there, but more because "normal" hearing children will pick up so much more information by just listning, by being part of the situation, that they "mature" quicker.

This maturing is now happening in Lotte as well, and it is directly linked to understanding speech. She is making good progres. Much to do with the (all-hearing) kindergarted she is in now.

Reading with Lotte.

One of the most important things to do with children is to read to them.
It will give them a feeling for words, for rhytm, rhyme, pronounciation etc. There's a direct link between the amount of reading a child gets (read to or reading themselves) and the performance at school.

Today Lotte's mum was reading from the "Mijn eerste Van Dale", a book with rhymes for little children, going through the whole ABC...
Lotte loves to do this. Loves to learn new words.

The book is obviously for all 3 children, but for the others we also bought the "Junior Spreekwoordenboek" a dictionairy with uhh. (cannot recall the english word.....) proverbs. (Thanks to this website)
It's great for them. Stimulates them to read, search for info elsewhere than on the internet.
They love it and read with grandma (who's staying with us), learning all kinds of new proverbs.


In addition... (the ease of the internet allows you to click on yet another item to buy) we bought the "Van Dale Praktijkgids voor Spelling". Not living in Holland, we have to make sure the kids can write proper Dutch.

Happy New Year !!

!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Well everyone,

A new year has started. A new year where this blog will be used intensively to brainstorm about Lotte's progress.

I feel a bit guilty regarding my other two children, since they can see Lotte's blog growing by daddy's efforts, whereas their's is not. I created a blog for both of them, but the animo is not there... too much effort.

But I explained to them that the blog is not just for Lotte, but to share information with many others that want information about how other parents are dealing with a child that is deaf.

They don't really understand this, but they accept that it's more daddy's blog than Lotte's blog.

I hope people will continue to visit here, and hope they will put in comments when appropriate. It's great to read a small (or large) comment from someone far (or not so far) away..

Cloggy