Some Small Progress

Over Christmas Break, we decided Darin would take Devin's hand and make her grab her own toilet paper.  At first, she fought him tooth and nail.  She threw a fit and Darin put her in her room with her new Kindle that she got for Christmas.  After a day of this, with Darin forcing her hand to grab it, she slowly relented.  Each time she made a small improvement/less resistance, we let her use her Kindle.  By the end of the first week of the new year, she was grabbing her own toilet paper.

Next step is to have her pull up her own undies.  We tried to use the same method, but the problem here is that she will take off her undies.  I guess we need to keep it up.  I'm not strong enough (physically and emotionally) to do it on my own.  I hate to do this, so I leave it up to Darin to do it.

Yesterday, she told me she'd put on her own undies if they were all black.  She has two pair (one has mysteriously disappeared) that she puts on herself.  So I scoured the internet looking for black girl undies.  Not much luck. I found some black spiderman undies, but they are boys.  Not sure if I want to go to that length.  A friend suggested we dye her others black.  Sounds like a great idea.  I hope she will like them.

The home/hospital teacher came last Thursday.  I've got to say, I'm not impressed.  They sent us a middle school teacher who just gets her worksheets off the internet.  Some of the worksheets she brought were 1st grade math, some were 3rd grade math.  She's in 2nd grade.  She didn't seem to get it when I said I wanted Devin to use the same textbooks that they use at the school.  When she goes back, I want her to be at the same place.  I asked her to coordinate with Devin's teacher at school.  Not sure how that will go.  I wish they would allow me to be her official teacher, but they said it would be a conflict of interest.  No one has more interest in her future than I. 

Update:
I forgot to mention that we have been using the ABC/123 stamps.  Wow!  Devin can now do her own writing!  It does take a while.  Devin seems to be, by nature, slow.  With just about everything.  I am really trying to be patient with that.  I'm excited about the stamps, but I'm nervous about her taking them to school.  I don't want her to lose them.  They are a lifesaver when she needs to do writing.