She understands... or does she..??

Lotte is doing well. Most important, her teacher knows how to "see" Lotte. We're lucky to have her. Lots of progress. She's a little fighter..

Its difficult for outsiders to really "see" the child that has trouble hearing, because these children are masters in faking they understand the message. 

It's one of the things we have been focusing on a lot.. We tell her teachers, trainers.. "Do not think Lotte understands what you are saying. Not even when she says she does."'

We tell them to ask control questions....

Lotte does understand more and more but at the same time she's hiding some of the things she does not understand. When confronted with that, she will do a step back, smile and say "Oh yeh, I dont understand..". But not before..

It's understandable.. Lotte doesn't want to say every time she doesn't understand, and the teachers, friends, and at times us - parents - rather go on with the conversation than check if she did or did not understand.

Sometimes it doesn't harm to move on... sometimes it's important to verify that the message has gone through..

At the "Lotte-Parent-teacher" meeting the teacher told Lotte that if she doesn't understand, she needs to ask her. And if Lotte still doesn't understand, she should ask again.. It's up to her - Lotte's teacher - to make sure Lotte understands... 

Then I told Lotte that it is always OK to ask. In fact, not asking is the first mistake, and just writing down an answer without understanding the question is the second mistake..

Lotte hates making mistakes, so I hope this will be a motivating way of thinking....

Last week she had a math problem with a question like "What tracks does John have to run in order to run 6 km.?" which Lotte answered with "He has to train a lot.."

When we just point at he answer she is very quick to erase the answer... She realises it's wrong, or better said... she guessed wrong. Rather than thinking & asking when she does the exercise she just writes down the first that comes to mind.. 
Her reasoning is probably: If every question has an answer.. homework is finished...

At the end some tears due "trouble" with friends. Some frustration with friend teasing her.
She explained very well how she prefers to play 1 on 1. When there are more she see the other girls whispering and (often rightly probably) thinks its about her.
Then again.. with girls there's a lot of mental stuff going on... difficult for Lotte..
But she also shows wonderful compassion. How she includes other children when she sees someone is by him/her-self. And how she understands that you should not refuse children to play with you if they ask.. and that this is not valid just at school, but also outside school...

Again...
she's doing well... eager to learn, tell & ask in the classroom, eager to learn outside the classroom as well...

Finally a picture of Lotte in her element.. Watching/listening to movies on the iPad with her favorite friend...