Foster Further

 Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. I hadn't realized it's been so long. This time the gap is a good thing. Not too many frustrating things I need to write about to put them out of my mind.  It's cold out so Jane is back into doing a half hour sensory path I made for her in the house every day now. (When it's warm I feel the trampoline and outside play accomplish the same sensory inputs.) I'm trying to teach her much more precision now that she's 5, especially with her cross-body work which is where she really struggles. She has very little awareness of where her body is in space, has difficulty processing verbal commands, etc. So, teaching her just to do one single toe touch was a 30 minute process the first time and often needs updates.  But, she won't benefit from doing the exercise wrong so I try to pick one of her 9 different cross body actions every few days and monitor it.  Lately she's been working on crawling up the stairs. Ye...

Today I renewed the Sensory Path I implemented last winter for Jane. It'd gotten neglected over the summer when I could just send her out to the trampoline and to play in the backyard to meet her physical needs.  Today I redid all the station prompts (pages with clip art images on them so she can remember what to do without reading). I eliminated some things that were no longer available and added a few new ones. There are five pages of prompts--each a different kind of movement--placed in 3 different rooms.  Why did I do this today? Because she came to talk to me, and stood there talking to me for a good five minutes, with something in her mouth. I finally asked her what it was and only then did she become aware and then, ashamed. It was a toenail. She was sucking on her toenail that she'd just chewed off her foot.  I can't even begin to explain how gross this girl is sometimes. It's like she reverts to an animalistic state when unsupervised for too long. Lately she...