|
Communication
I've decided to introduce Holly to using recordable buttons to communicate, here are some snippets of her progress.
Holly has being continuing to use her buttons, around 7/8 times a day (mostly for outside), but she is also using her buttons a couple of times a day to make other requests or to talk about what is happening around her.
She has used her training in combination with beach to request taking her training bag down to the beach.
She has used three word sentences 'Holly, eat, come'
Holly has used her buttons to talk about her family 'Cassie outside', 'Lizzie eat'
And she has used her 'Love you' button to apologise when she accidentally scratched Lizzie.
When she asked for 'training' - on the night she usually goes to her puppy training class (she had heard my talking about it earlier) - I told her 'Not today, Mummy too poorly' she went back to her buttons and pushed 'Mummy = by gum - training' then went and sat down looking rather unhappy with me.
She has used her training in combination with beach to request taking her training bag down to the beach.
She has used three word sentences 'Holly, eat, come'
Holly has used her buttons to talk about her family 'Cassie outside', 'Lizzie eat'
And she has used her 'Love you' button to apologise when she accidentally scratched Lizzie.
When she asked for 'training' - on the night she usually goes to her puppy training class (she had heard my talking about it earlier) - I told her 'Not today, Mummy too poorly' she went back to her buttons and pushed 'Mummy = by gum - training' then went and sat down looking rather unhappy with me.
|
Today holly got lots of new buttons, taking her total words up to 14, she was very excited to see us recording and setting up the new words and couldn't wait to test them out. She now has access to the words: Holly, Cassie, Lizzie, Mummy, Walkies, Drink, Eat, Come, Play, Training, Love You, By Gum, Beach and Outside. Bolded words are those she is confidently using on her own to make requests or observations of what is going on around her.
This week she used love you independently in context for the first time, making it her first abstract word. I was unwell and laying on the sofa, Holly was asking for a walk, when I said not today, she then asked for training. I replied with 'training later, mummy's poorly' - after which she pressed 'love you' and got up on the sofa for a cuddle.
Holly has also started to combine words this week and we've had a couple of two word phrases. Mainly by combining her name with something she wishes to do, first was 'Holly eat' and later 'Holly outside'. Although she also combined the words 'play eat' very deliberately, when I asked if she wanted to play or eat, she went back to her buttons and again pressed 'play eat', after going through a few possible options (breakfast, training, treats) she jumped up and shuffled her paws when I said 'Kong' and ran to the kitchen. She actually combined two words to create language for what she wanted when that word wasn't available to her, instead describing what she wanted.
This week she used love you independently in context for the first time, making it her first abstract word. I was unwell and laying on the sofa, Holly was asking for a walk, when I said not today, she then asked for training. I replied with 'training later, mummy's poorly' - after which she pressed 'love you' and got up on the sofa for a cuddle.
Holly has also started to combine words this week and we've had a couple of two word phrases. Mainly by combining her name with something she wishes to do, first was 'Holly eat' and later 'Holly outside'. Although she also combined the words 'play eat' very deliberately, when I asked if she wanted to play or eat, she went back to her buttons and again pressed 'play eat', after going through a few possible options (breakfast, training, treats) she jumped up and shuffled her paws when I said 'Kong' and ran to the kitchen. She actually combined two words to create language for what she wanted when that word wasn't available to her, instead describing what she wanted.
|
|
|
Holly pressed her 'eat' button and when I didn't immediately respond she continued with 'Holly eat', I replied, 'eat soon, mummy's working', she then went back over to the board and pressed 'come, come, mummy, come, come'.
|
|
|
We've moved Holly's buttons onto some foam tiles so she now has a movable button board, this makes it much easier for her to access her buttons and allows us to move them from room to room for her. She absolutely loves this new set up and is more chatty than ever using her words around 10-12 times throughout the day. She has also been given two new words 'drink' and 'love you'. She used drink straight away (and repeatedly) to let us know that her water bowl was empty. It took a day or two before she independently used the 'love you' button. Saying love you and coming for a chest rub and hug.
The new button board also allowed us to transport her words to my mums house went we went round for a day to see if holly would continue to use her words in a new location, this she happily did, using her words at various points throughout the day. We also transferred her outside button onto the board as well, and she continued to use it without any problems.
The new button board also allowed us to transport her words to my mums house went we went round for a day to see if holly would continue to use her words in a new location, this she happily did, using her words at various points throughout the day. We also transferred her outside button onto the board as well, and she continued to use it without any problems.
|
|
|
|
Holly seems to have been reluctant to use her buttons over the last few weeks and has simply resorted to using her outside buttons for all her communication. I've transferred her buttons from the fireplace onto a button board which makes them more easily accessible to her and they can be easily moved into each room. She has already returned to using her walk, eat and train buttons regularly.
Holly has begun to use her buttons to talk about what is happening, not just what she wants. She will push the outside button if Cassie has gone outside, or if someone has gone upstairs to the toilet - it seems outside and toilet are interchangeable to her.
She also went over and pushed her eat button when I was having a cookie and she wanted a piece.
She is consistently using her eat button to ask for meals, train for interaction and outside when she needs the toilet.
She also went over and pushed her eat button when I was having a cookie and she wanted a piece.
She is consistently using her eat button to ask for meals, train for interaction and outside when she needs the toilet.
Holly has been introduced to 3 buttons, we have eat, play and outside, she was most excited to use her eat button and is very confident with it straight away. We are modelling the outside button for her, but as Holly is still struggling with toilet training I expect this one will take a little longer. Her first word was eat.
|
|
|
|
