Mom’s update I started the day with mom and she said, “Oh, I am so happy
to see you!” and started to cry. Mom was already up and dressed but
breakfast wasn’t in her room yet. I set her up with her hearing aid and
then her breakfast came. I fixed up her oatmeal and got her ice water in
her pitcher. After breakfast we did some worksheets. We did calendar
sheets and mom did very well. She really worked hard. It’s weird, but
she can do the work yet doesn’t know where to put the answers. She
really has a difficult time with “executive functions” which are the
skills of organization and the HOW to plan to learn. Next we did a math
worksheet where she has to order the numbers form smallest to greatest.
She also did two worksheets that worked on negative phrases “Is a square
round?” She had to write a phrase related to that statement – “No, a
square is not round.” She caught on quick and was able to do it. Her
processing was a little slow and she needed some prompting, but did
better than I expected. The next worksheet had pictures of objects and
animals and had negative questions, “Which one doesn’t have ears?” She
did pretty well with it. She did process very slowly but was able to get
the answers. Anthony, Con, Anthony Michael and Sam came next. Anthony
was able to get her to stand three times. Two times were great, she
stood up straight and for a while. They brought her downstairs and took
her for a walk around the facility. They went down the therapy hallway.
Dad brought her soup that he made and he heated it up for her to eat.
~Claud
When I arrived to see mom today, she and dad were sitting side by side with the TV on sound asleep!! She had the local Sunday newspaper on the table in front of her; she had been reading it. When she woke, mom smiled and continued to read the paper. Dad woke shortly thereafter. When mom finished reading the paper, she read the Bulletin from mom and dad’s church. She enjoys keeping up on things there. She reads the whole thing cover to cover.
Mom and I wrote in her journal next. She couldn’t remember the date. She knew it was October but thought the day was the 29th (she had to look at the calendar to come up with the 29th). She remembered it was 2011 but she didn’t remember at all what day it was. When I gave her the hint that yesterday was Saturday, mom thought today was Friday. Mom wrote:
“Sinday Oct 30 2011
Claudia wokte me up (Mom thought Jean woke her today)
Jean brought me soup that he made egg drop soup dlitlcous (She didn’t remember this and dad reminded her)
Con Anthony Michael Samantha and all heir family came.
Ant stayed until I went to the (mom couldn’t remember where) downstairs. For lunch (Mom couldn’t remember what she had so dad told her to “just stop and calm down and think a little and it will come back to you”). We had lunch and Kathy and dad came back and we hab lunch. Kathy came back.
We did a page of math next. Addition and subtraction sentences that included pictures. Mom breezed through the computation in her head, but had difficulty with placing the numbers on the correct spot on the lines to make the number sentences. Her spatial awareness was off when it came to writing. For example, in the number sentence: 3 + 3 = ___? Mom would count the 3 objects above the line but then would write the first number 3 above the plus sign and the second number 3 above the equals sign and then put the number 6 on the answer line. She completed 8 number sentences all in the same manner.
I tried to have her complete a simple page of writing numbers next. All the math activities were done with a dry erase marker on the wipe off board. Mom could only make the numbers 1, 7, 9, and 10. It was strange because she has written all the numbers from 0-9 in other various activities but, for some reason, she couldn’t copy the numbers in isolation just for the sake of copying them without context. Mom tried to write all the numbers from 1-15 but she had a really hard time. She began to cry in frustration. I stopped the activity but mom wanted to continue. She kept saying, “I can’t do anything!!” over and over. I reassured her and switched activities. She was sleepy a bit too.
We tried a blank, large dry erase board next and tried to write the number 5. I gave her a direction to say, “Across, Down, Around.” She repeated the directions over and over but she couldn’t write the number 5. She would start out by drawing the first line in the wrong direction and that threw her off for the rest of the execution. I tried to have her make a 5 by starting at the upper right of the number and then draw a line across (to the left) then down then around to the right of the number. She was totally confused and her “wires crossed” and she thought she was writing words and not numbers anymore. Perhaps my shift from writing words to numbers confused her. That, coupled with her being tired. She persisted then on wanting to know how to write the word ‘across.’ Even when I changed activities, she got angry and said she wanted to finish learning how to copy the word ‘across.’ I finally wrote the word, ‘across’ and mom copied it successfully and pleasantly 4 times and then she let me change activities. I gave her a Fiber One bar and the church bulletin again and she was fine.
Dad stayed for the evening with mom and put her to bed.
“…yet I will rejoice in the LORD
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