Nathan & the ukulele (Monica)

Nathan tried the ukulele yesterday for the first time! He started strumming and singing phrases from the Bruno Mars song, Just The Way You Are, and a Filipino song, Tanging Yaman.

I played and sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat to him, since it only requires the C chord. He seemed very excited about how the ukulele felt and sounded.

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Jan 27,2012 ABA

Nathan was excited to see his ABA teacher. He got very excited when he saw the play room. He must have remembered how fun his previous session was.

During the first 30 minutes of Nathan’s ABA therapy, he was asked to fix a puzzle, shoot shapes, pass a ball and sort “the same”. All in Nihongo. I haven’t been working a lot with puzzles with Nathan, but he was really doing good finding the right spot and manipulating the puzzle. Last time he would, grab teacher’s hand to help him or start getting frustrated when he couldn’t manipulate.

Nathan enjoyed the second half of the therapy, which was free play.

Teacher Moroi with Nathan.

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Hello Lolo

During the Christmas break, Nathan’s grandfather came over to visit.

Nathan was up early singing to himself while his 2 siblings were still sleeping. The room was dark and light entered as Nathan’s grandfather opened the door. Nathan immediately recognized his grandfather’s silhouette and voice. Nathan said, “Hello Lolo.”

Lolo barely heard and was not sure who among my 3 kids said something. So once again Nathan shouted, “Hello Lolo!”. Of course that made his Lolo proud.

Nathan has never bothered to greet anyone, unless I prompt him to. Yet his grandfather gets a special 2nd greeting with much gusto. I guess he knows that his jolly old grandfather deserves it.

One-on-one Session January 27, 2012 (Monica)

Nathan and I worked for about 25 minutes today. He asked me to unwrap his cookie without prompting, mentioning my name in the request. He also spontaneously asked for the camera, sunflower and giraffe toys. He became distracted by each toy though. In fact, he was quite tired during dinner and went to bed early.

Earlier, he sang two songs spontaneously with his microphone. He also snapped on his own when I played My Girl using the iPad. Whenever the iPad screen went dark, he’d ask, “What happened to the screen?”

I sang A Whole New World to him, and he actually repeated the phrase “magic carpet ride.” Perhaps he has seen Aladdin before? He also mentioned Paul Bunyan twice. I’m not sure where he learned about the American folk tale lumberjack.

One-on-one Session January 20, 2012 (Monica)

Nathan and I worked for about 20 minutes today. In the beginning, he was all smiles. He asked for cookies six times, with some prompting. Then he sang “Do You Love Me,” “A Wink And A Smile,” and a Japanese song spontaneously, using a bowl as a microphone. I’ve noticed that whenever I sing, hum or whistle along with him, he maintains eye contact. Afterward, he became listless and distracted, playing with the buttons on the piano with his head down. Ate Chris was able to revive his energy though by getting him to play with animals. Eventually, he became very energetic. He was especially excited about strawberries for dinner.