A Repeat Visit

When Kelsey was very, very tiny, a jolly man in a red suit came to our house. (You can read about that visit here.)

Last night we were so very fortunate to get the privilege of a repeat visit.


Actually, we got a small preview of what last night would be like when we ran into Santa John at the Alexandra's House party. We saw Santa across the room, but thought we might not bother him since we knew we would see him at Kelsey's house on Monday.

But Santa saw Kelsey too!

From across the room he exclaimed, "Kelsey" in his big deep voice.

She popped up to attention and she began taking steps over to see him. All the way over Santa was so kind to encourage Kelsey in her walking, throwing in a "Ho, Ho, Ho" here and there.

He was amazing. He told Kelsey he had been watching her website, knew ways she had been being a good girl, and he even commented on her latest squeaky shoe video. Mind you, Santa didn't know we were going to be at the party. Santa just KNOWS.

Kelsey visited briefly with him there and he asked her if it would be ok if he came to her house on Monday. She got a very large grin on her face. This girl is very into Santa this year! He also told her that he would be bringing a very special present for her.

(waiting for Santa)

Last night, Santa arrived much like he did three years ago. You could hear the jingle bells coming up the sidewalk...

Only this time, Kelsey was awake and watching for him. (she was sleeping on his arrival when she was a baby)

Santa held her in his arms. He told her about the jingle bells he carried and showed her how one came from each of the reindeer. We also all learned that Fred is the elf in charge of the reindeer and that Mrs. Claus requests that we only leave Santa two cookies on Christmas eve!

He told her to "Always remember that Santa loves you," just as he had when she was a tiny baby.

He gave Kelsey to Mommy and pulled Kelsey's present out of the big sack he carried.
It was a very special gift!

Santa has to cover up when he is on his sleigh delivering presents and Santa decided to share the blanket from his sleigh with Kelsey! (Santa said that whenever he gives away his blanket a nice family makes him a new one.)

Santa's blanket even has jingle bells on the corners of it!!!

Kelsey snuggled with Mommy as Santa took out his big brown book of good boys and girls. Guess who's name was on the first page?


He went over all the ways she has been a good girl, talked about her teachers and friends at school, and how well she was walking in her Kidwalk and talking with her communication device. Santa even knew that her favorite color was purple!

Santa must be taking good notes!

Kelsey was just delighted with all of this information that Santa knew.
Kelsey got back on Santa's lap for a story about how his sleigh came to be and how reindeer came to be the animals chosen to pull it. (He tried elephants first, but that didn't work out so well.) Kelsey responded verbally to Santa as he told her this story.



Then Mommy and Daddy came over for a picture with Santa and all of us.

Kelsey gave Santa kisses on the cheek and I think Santa really liked them.
It was time for Santa to go tend to his reindeer so I told Kelsey to tell Santa "Merry Christmas" with her Ipad. She did. And then she proceeded unprompted on to the "Santa" folder that I had made for her to talk to Santa with.

She asked Santa "How are Mrs. Claus and Rudolph?"

Santa told us that Mrs. Claus was doing well and that Rudolph was busy working out to prepare for the big night coming up!

She told Santa "Thank you"

Santa said that it isn't often that he gets to make happy repeat visits like ours. It reminded us how very fortunate we are with Kelsey's continued health and progress.

Thanks Santa for everything! and Merry Christmas!

Communication update

Kelsey is amazing. Her ability to learn and adapt is amazing. I am a little biased.

Kelsey has known her “left” from her “right” for quite awhile now. This probably has resulted from the weekly therapy she receives and the verbal movement cues we give her. This past fall, she developed enough motor control to make choice selections based on telling her where each toy was located. (We would present both toys in her strongest visual field and then verbally tell her “ball on left, beads on right.” She would then choose which toy to play with.) Her early intervention SLP brought “yes” and “no” cards out and she began answering questions with those.

She has progressed from a borrowed three button device which we programmed to say "yes" and "no" and she accurately answered all kinds of age appropriate knowledge questions --even things I didn't teach her on purpose. She also gets a "kick" out of having a voice. (She also thinks it's funny to say "no" 99% of the time when asked if Mama is a good girl.)

I then sought out a borrowed "Go Talk 4" with 4 choices on each of five levels. She has mastered use of this device and quickly picks up new visual icons and remembers their associated meaning from session to session. We have now sent this back to the agency we borrowed it from.

We received in return a "Go Talk 20" this week to borrow for awhile. (They did not have the "Go Talk 9" available) The "9" would have been more appropriate for Kelsey's motor skills because the squares of the "20" are smaller than her fisted hand. She is not always able to activate the voice output of the "20" because of this, but gets her hand to the desired button and leaves it there so her intent is clear.

She is able to handle visually all 20 icons filled out which is amazing considering her visual impairment. She quickly learned all the new choices we added with the "20" and has remembered them ever since without me going back over them at all.

She also learned to do sentences. (with the "4" we had programmed in one word phrases like "ball", "eat", "play") With the "20" there is enough room that we did "I feel", "I want", "I need" and then various choices for those items.

We believe Kelsey is ready to move on to a more complex device which will allow her to have more self directed conversations. We are planning to get the Ipad with the Proloquo2go software and accessories.

We were excited to trial an Ipad at the Apple store using some free downloadable children’s games. We were amazed at what she was able to do with the device and the size of the icons she was able to access. Because the Ipad is essentially a computer screen, it acts like a dynamic “light box” like she uses in vision therapy. Kelsey was very motivated and seemed to be seeing better than I had even hoped she would be able to.

For now the GoTalk 20 gives her alot more choices.

I am so proud.

GoTalk 4 Videos

We needed to send our GoTalk 4 back that we were borrowing so we took a few videos to remember it!