To download the AARC/CEEHI/VISIT Spring 2009 Newsletter in PDF, click here.

What is in it:

• Spring Greetings
• Developing Social Communication with Children on the Autism Spectrum
• Simple Play Leads to Communication Skills
• I Smell my Mommy’s Shirt
• Back Page: Summer Time and Deaf Chat Coffee

Spring really is coming, even in Alaska! Now is the time to begin planning and preparing for different activities for your young children as the sun comes out and the temperature warms. Summer guests, family vacations, and other changes come as the seasons change.

One change that we will have at SESA is that Merle Birnbaum, Early Intervention Coordinator and Vision Consultant for the VISIT Program, is leaving us and retiring to her home state of New York. She has been helpful to so many families and young children. She has been a wonderful friend and colleague! We wish her well and will miss her greatly! Good luck and farewell Merle!

By Betsy Kruth, AARC Program Coordinator

As we know, not all communication is verbal. A great deal of information is shared non-verbally. Communication begins long before speech is acquired and is an important developmental time. Through gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions, a lot of communication takes place. Just as two people who speak different languages can communicate, babies learn to communicate long before they learn to speak. People communicate for many reasons: to get someone’s attention, make a request or refusal, or to greet someone or say good-bye. In young children with autism, we see early deficits in these areas of social communication. Continue Reading

By Mandi Morgan, CEEHI Program Coordinator

Spring has arrived and the weather is getting warmer. More and more people are getting involved in fun activities. It is a time to get the little ones up and playing. Playing can lead to great communication skills. It can provide the child with new vocabulary, a chance to babble or create new words or sentences of their own, and it provides a way to develop skills in communicating with others.

Babies from birth to 8 months old enjoy playing through touching, seeing, and hearing. However, if your child is autistic, has a vision impairment, or a hearing loss, it may be hard for them to engage in play naturally. It will take effort from the parent to help the child engage in play and draw attention to the child’s surroundings. You can give your baby at this age safe items to mouth to explore their world. You can vocalize or use sign language and provide names of objects when the baby is engaged in a specific activity. If your baby gazes at a certain object, provide the baby with the proper name of that object. As the baby gets older, he or she will be able to tell others the name of the object. Continue Reading

By Denis Cook, Preschool Teacher for the Visually Impaired

Thursday was a half-day at school. I was working on assessment for the upcoming end-of-the-year reports. I had extra volunteers, so I pulled one child and one volunteer and we tag-teamed him with assessment items. This little guy was Jacob, my very verbal, cherub-faced young man. His older sister, who is also bind, went to the doctor with their parents. When the appointment was finished, they decided to pick up Jacob and have a family lunch. Jacob was at the table working on a verbal task of counting. His mother came in the room and stood quietly by the bookcase that was eight to ten feet away. Jacob finished his task and we were getting another one for him to work on when he turned his head slightly to the right and raised his nose upward. He got a wide-eyed look and said, “I smell my mommy’s shirt!”

I said, “You do?” Continue Reading