Story Time

A recent achievement of Matt has been in reading. It has improved a lot in the last 2 months since he joined a class of regular kids. Although previously he could read individual words, he now reads sentences! In the last couple of months, he's begun to read to us. He would get a book, either Spot Goes to School or Teachers Are For Reading Stories and sit down in front of us in his little chair. He would open the books so it faced us and read the lines. An audience is required, so we sit and let him read, correcting him gently when he reads a word wrong. His little sister got the hint and she now sits down excitedly in front of kuya when she sees him get a book from the shelf of kids' books.

I guess Matt wants to do it like the teachers do during story time at school. Just this morning, since I was busy in reading email, he sat down in front of his sister and read Spot Goes to School. She would repeat the lines right after kuya said them. My wife did try to let him read Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs & Ham, but he still couldn't follow it much. The rhythmical repeating word patterns seemed to confuse him. Eventually though we hope that as he expands his vocabulary he will be able to read more complex sentences.

He has terrific 'picture' memory in that he remembers words by the patterns of the letters, not the letters themselves. I remember when he was still very young that he was often able to recognize brand names because they often appear in TV ads. It was easy for him to recognize Sony, JVC, Samsung, LG, Canon or Nokia. We soon discovered that if we change the color and fonts on say the word "SAMSUNG" he couldn't recognize it right away. So I guess kids like him really do read in 'pictures'. Even words are pictures for them.

We are excited that he is learning to read and he is doing it in a social way. We can't help but see that having a little sister has made it easier for Matt to open up.

Matt Turns 7

Today we had a party for Matt. As with any sort of event that we have to accommodate Matt in, we had to make sure the party would be enjoyable for his special needs. We also wanted to make it meaningful. The party had to be short, no more that an hour and a half at most. We also had to have some sort of way to divert his attention away from the music being played on loudspeakers. He actually loves music, but wants to always be in control of what's playing. We've often had to watch him and warn him beforehand at parties not to "turn off the CD". He often gets away with it anyway and that manages to upset some party hosts. And then we wanted the celebration to be meaningful. So key things were that it had to be short, meaningful and the music had to be something he wouldn't want to "turn off".

As a way of accomplishing what we set out to do, we invited kids from the Children's Joy Foundation. We set it up so that guests were informed ahead of time that instead of gifts for our son, they should bring along any donations they would have. We wanted to give these kids a good time and at the same time we promoted their particular organization.

They did share a wonderful gift for Matt. They played songs for Matt, live! Matt had no way to "turn off" the music. He sat attentively while watching these kids perform. In a very rare moment, he behaved so calmly.

Overall, the party was a success. We were able to gather about 10 small bags of clothes and school supplies. A few friends also shared cash for the kids. There were also a few guests who asked if they could have the kids perform at their events as well. So we were able to make it enjoyable for Matt and at the same time meaningful. It was moving to see smiles on these kids' faces. It felt like we were making a big difference, even if just for a day.