Today, after getting what appeared to be a fairly decent night’s rest, Lily popped down for breakfast and started counting the fire makers (lighter sticks) in the package on the counter. She indicated, as she touched each, that there were a total of 5. Then she counted the ginger bread cookie cutters (4) and the packages of seeds (5) + two more plants in soil, so that made 7. Indeed.
Until now, Lily has demonstrated her ability to count in digit increment. She counts ascending and descending. She has also demonstrated an ability to most of the time reliably count a sum of up to 3/4, and she will count by assigning the digit to the item well beyond 10. However, before today, she hasn’t shown a reliable comprehension of total cumulative amounts. It would appear as though her restful night was very productive.
She chose to watch Word World early this morning and the episode I randomly selected was one in which the dog wants something that starts with a “b” and the entire cast spends the duration trying to figure out what it is. At once point the Sheep decides he wants a baby bottle, dresses him up, gives him a binky, blanket, and basket full of b’s.
Lily asked for the episode to be shown again when it finished, and I assumed she was interested because of the “baby dog” aspect. Which, she was, but it didn’t stop there. After the show completed for the second time, she drug out her foot tall foam letters and made the word “ball”. So, I asked her to trade B for F, then T… She got my game, as we’ve played this one before… It took her a minute of hunting before she produced an H and C, and then informed me that she had built two more words on her own and they that were indeed words, she was certain of it. (This is the third or fourth time she has generated additional words without my request or assistance.)
Then, after the show, Lily turned into a kitty cat. This one she’ll have to explain.
A short while later, she brought me a game to play. She chose Memory (24 cards, 3 different sets), and we proceeded to set them up on the floor. The first round I, more or less, set up the playing field. She indicated I had placed a few of the cards (face down, there is writing/branding on the back) “not up side” and that she would set them straight; she proceeded to correct each and indicated they were then “up right”. And while she’s known the difference between an upright and inverted or otherwise modified letter for a long time, in the past when an entire word is displayed, she has shown less sensitivity and awareness. Today she seemed keenly aware that the entire word, which she had me read to her, was upside down.
She continues to demonstrate excellent recollection of the cards; it took her about 4 minutes to complete the game and I think I had maybe 2 turns. We discussed the rows, columns, the idea of the grid (which she all but arranged on her own for the second round), and even multiplication. I commented that she’d managed to find all the matches really fast and that there were a lot of cards. She asked how many. So, I counted the rows and then the columns and explained the product of the computation in the most simple of terms. She acknowledged me and showed comprehension on a very intriguing level (and one I can’t quite give words to).
Yet, what I found even more interesting was how she decided we should play round two. The first round was traditionally played, but she modified things significantly once we began playing again. Instead of trying to uncover and recall the location of identical pictures on the cards, she matched logical scenes. Instead of finding both dogs named Hundley, she found Hundley and his person (Bellman), she matched “George wearing the big yellow hat” and “The Man WithOUT a Yellow Hat” – George had it, etc..
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Later we created foam musical notes and she helped me cut/glue them together. We discussed their time related names, and how they stick to the lines called a staff. We worked on this for probably an hour and eventually, I placed a sheet on the piano with a few notes on the lines and gave them their proper letter name. She proceeded to play them, in proper order and rhythm, on the piano. She knows (for the most part anyway) what the names of the keys on the piano are (having them written on ours helps, but she actually does have awareness of them and accurately demonstrates as much about 60% of the time.
This activity was much further reaching than can be explained here, quickly anyway. Her comprehension and connection of music related activities (including listening) is transforming daily. She has discovered she can make my sax quack quite loverly. She prefers to play my cello now to her own violin, and she often will either play the piano (and sometimes sings along with it), or she’ll ask me to play either solo or with her.
Kitty cat… she is now a cat. Bunny gone wayside… Jane tomorrow… cuddly, snuggly kitty cat today.