29 November 2007

A good day for Julia

A few things this week --

On the way home today, I asked Julia the questions that I ask every day. I started asking questions of Julia after school when school started. She had a hard time answering questions, at first answering to calls, or just answering in general. I found that general questions, like 'how was school,' or 'how was your day' were absolutely crazy to ask. Even, 'did you have a good day at school' was way too hard for her. Then I tried 'did you like your lunch,' and started asking that on days when I knew that she should have really liked the lunch that I pack. I could ask her about her soup, or the string cheese, or the apple sauce. This she could respond to. Usually, Julia just parroted back what I asked, but she answered.

These days, I ask about lunch in general, and Julia answers. I ask if she had a good day at school, and she tells me yes or no. I ask about reading and numbers and puzzles and the playground, and usually I don't get any answers. BUT today, today, Julia answer when I asked about reading. She said that she was reading today, a book and she was in a chair. I asked her about numbers, and Julia told me she was working on "8 and 62." Julia and her teacher are working on numbers 1 through 4, so her answer was a bit of fiction, but it was more than a mirror answer. And I feel like this was a big break through.

Christy, Julia's teacher, sent a note home today that Julia picked out the name of her friend, Cynthia, without being asked. Julia also asked Christy which name was Annie's. Julia also got a good report from the after-school people today. They told me that Julia was playing "very appropriately" (which means no teasing, no chasing, no hitting, and no being mean) with three boys.

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