We finally got her to push the large, wheeled Fifi car for around five minutes. She did this steadily and steered it well using two hands on the handle. She was able to push it on the grass as well as on the concrete. It got stuck once in a small dip, but she picked it up with two hands and carried it to the concrete and set it down with ease. Then she lost interest in the car and ran back to go up the slope. She walked up it this time with ease and didn’t fall over once. She stopped once and turned to look behind to see if we were following her, then carried on to the bench to sit down for one minute. She got up almost straight after that and made off back down the hill. She looked like she was about to slip over so Rose ran down the hill to catch her but she slipped over herself. Lily stayed upright and laughed at Rose with me.
Kicking a large stationary ball
When I managed to get Lily interested in the ball she kicked it with her right foot (her preferred foot) and chased after it laughing with joy. She chucked the ball up about a meter in the air with both hands and watched it bounce on the grass. She did this for around two minutes before loosing interest with a flock of birds. The birds flew across the sky and she recognised them and shouted “Burds, burds!” and flapped her arms up and down. After this she wouldn’t kick the ball again.
She ran back up to the slope, sat down on the grass and screamed with joy as she saw more birds fly overhead. Then, she said “Come here” to Rose. She slid down the part of the slope going “Weeeee!”. When she got up she fell on her front, but laughed at herself and got up herself using just one hand this time. Lily saw the cars on the road from the top of the hill and kept on saying “broom, brum-broom”. She spotted the “burds” again and tried to fly, smiling and giggling because she loved making Rose and me laugh. She slid half way down the hill on her bum once more, got up and walked down the rest of the hill, stumbling a few times but regaining her balance.
Holding a pencil and drawing
We all went back inside to get some paper and Lily’s crayons. We went back outside to draw and all sat on the floor in the sun. Lily drew mostly scribbles, with different colours. Her favourite colours were purple, yellow and blue. She used her right hand to draw and used primitive tripod grasp, quite near the top to hold the fat crayons. She had only been drawing for about three minutes before a plane, flying overhead, caught her attention and made her lose interest in the crayons. She recognised the plane and more birds and made the connection that both planes and birds fly and they both have wings, by saying “plane and burds do this” and holding out her arms and pretending to fly.
She put the crayons back into the pack using her thumb and first three fingers to pick up the crayons. She got agitated when one of the crayons got stuck and tipped the whole pack upside down, letting all the crayons fall out. She drew for a few more minutes and then when Rose wasn’t looking quickly got up out of her kneeling position and ran to go back up the hill, but came back saying “beesceets”, meaning biscuits. Rose went and got her a biscuit, and Lily happily sat down with it in her left hand, and carried on drawing with her right.
Lily looked up when she realised I was going to take a photo of her, and she sat still when told to by Rose while I was taking the photo, but the minute I lowered the camera she shot off again to go to the back garden. She sat on the bench and smiled for the camera. When she saw the images I had taken on the screen she identified herself as “babe-babe” (baby).
Building towers of bricks
I took Lily inside for this activity. Rose got her a drink of juice in the kitchen, and while her back was turned Lily ran and hid in the pantry, looking over her shoulder at me as she went with a “don’t tell Rose where I am” look on her face and a mischievous smile. Rose turned around to see that Lily wasn’t there, but she heard a giggle coming from behind the pantry door. Rose and me played along with Lily saying, ”Where’s Lily gone?”. When we got to the door where Lily was hiding we both said, “Fe-fi-fo-fum” and then opened the door and growled at Lily. She squealed with excitement and laughed at herself when I made her jump.
She took her juice to the living room, and then came back to help Rose carry the box that had the building bricks in it. Lily used her whole hand to hold each brick and to put it on top of another. This meant each tower she built was unstable, because the bricks weren’t lined up very accurately. However, she did manage to build a tower of six bricks by herself. When she went to put the second brick on top, the tower fell over and she laughed and clapped her hands. She tried again but got to the fifth brick and punched the tower down because she got bored. Then she ran off to her mum and put her hands on her tummy and said “babe-babe” because she knew her mum was pregnant.
Rose asked her if she wanted to build any more, but Lily said “no!” and kicked the brick box away angrily with her feet. We all laughed at her and she smiled cheekily. I showed her the pictures of her on the camera again, and she carefully took the camera (holding it with two hands) to her mum and her brother, Elliot to show them too. She pointed at herself on the screen and said “babe-babe” several times. I had trouble getting the camera off her because she wanted to keep the pictures that were on it. I eventually got it off her by telling her that I wanted to take another photo of her with her bricks, so she gave it to me and sat down by the brick box, and started to pick up some of the bricks while I took a photo of her.
Recognising details in pictures
This was the only activity that Lily was really interested in. I asked Lily if she wanted me to read My Day to her (My Day is a book by Ladybird about the daily routines of different children) and she said “yeh!” and “Rose! Booot, booot!” (book) . As we flicked through the book she recognised things such as dolls and babies, mummies and daddies. On the first page there was a breakfast scene illustrated and when she saw a cat she said “meow”, and she said “awww”, and showed sympathy by stroking the picture in a loving way when she saw the illustration of a crying child. She could recognise the finest detail of food on a breakfast table, and name toast, eggs and “jooce” (juice). Then I asked Lily about a picture of a girl her age eating breakfast “Has she got a bib on, Lily?” she said “yeh, look”, and pointed to the bib.
The next illustration was of children at the park. She got angry when she saw clouds in the sky, and said “clouds, naughty!”. She spotted the small picture of an ice-cream van and shouted “ice-cream, ice-cream!”. She saw a child sliding down a slide and squealed, “Weeeee!”, and stroked her finger down the slide.
Another page was about going to the farm. Lily made all of the different noises associated with the farmyard animals, such as “moo” for a cow, or “baa” for a sheep. She did the same for all of the animals at a zoo, most enthusiastically for the lion that she wouldn’t stop growling at.
On another page there was an illustration of children watching a DVD before bed. I asked Lily, “What are they doing, Lily?” and she replied, “DVD”. When she saw that they were eating bananas and apples and drinking juice, she started shouting “nanas!”, “baps!” (apples) and “jooce!”. She spotted the cat in the corner of the page, and saw the DVD’s scattered across the floor and said “mess”, whilst nodding her head.
The last page was of a toddler asleep in her bed. Lily whispered “shhh, babe-babe asleeps” and pointed at the pictures of teddy bears and “bankits” (blankets).
Recognising family in photographs
Rose got the box of photos and showed Lily an old holiday photo of the family before she was born, and Lily couldn’t recognise anyone because they all looked different to her. However in all the recent photos she could recognise ”Bear” (Holly), “Brad-brad” (Bradley), “Bot” (Poppy), “Marsh” (Marshall), “Daddy”, “Mummy”, “Elliot” and “Rose”. She could recognise herself also and said either “Lily” or “Babe-babe”. She also recognised people when they were quite far away in the picture.
When it was time for me to leave Lily said “bye” and gave me a hug. She showed me to the door with Rose and helped to open it for me. She walked down the path to the first gate and said “bye” lots more, and then waved as I walked away.
EVALUATION
EVALUATION
