Signing

When Kimmie was about 18 months old, the doctors were unsure about how well she could hear. She did not respond consistently to sounds or to her name being called. I took Kimmie for an auditory brainstem response test. According to the results of this test Kimmie had a significant hearing loss, not profound, but moderate to severe hearing loss. I'm not sure the results were accurate. Following this test Kimmie was fitted with hearing aids and we began signing with her.

We had already begun to learn sign with some friends who have a deaf daughter. After Kimmie's test results, we began working more directly with her and she began to use sign. When Kimmie was 3 years old and in preschool, her teacher recognized that sign was Kimmie's natural means of communicating. The teacher made a point of hiring for the next year an assistant with signing skills. She also directed us to have placed on Kimmie's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) the instruction that Kimmie required a signing assistant. Since Kimmie was 4 years old she has had a signing assistant with her at school.

Kimmie signs in sentences now, maybe not always complete sentences, but she strings the words together. We can fill in the articles and prepositions that she leaves out to make the sentence complete. Kimmie can spell almost every word that she can sign, or at least string enough of the correct letters together that we can sound out and decipher what she means. Sometimes it gets challenging as we try to remember all the letters and sound them out in our heads.

She is a smart little girl with a fabulous memory.

--Mom

Sleep, or the lack thereof

When Kimmie was little she did not sleep. We tried rocking; it wound her up. We tried just putting her to bed; she cried and screamed. We tried walking her; she fought it. It was nearly impossible to get her to sleep. She would never sleep for a nap, and bedtime was always a struggle.

Her favorite times to sleep were between 5 pm and 10 pm and between 5 am and noon. She would fall asleep in the middle of playing. Once we found her standing in front of a wooden rocking chair, sound asleep with her forehead resting on the seat of the chair. Once she fell asleep while reaching under a child's plastic picnic table. She was standing on the outside of the bench seat and reached over the seat and under the table for a toy. We found her asleep with her tummy on the seat of the picnic table and her head and feet dangling on either side. Many times we found her asleep in the middle of the floor where she had been playing. When the rattle of the toys would stop, we knew to go check on her, and that's when we would find her sound asleep.

--Mom

Sticks

Kimmie loves the magnetic Geomag sticks. These came out just before Magnetix and have a little different shape and design. Kimmie, being the tactile child that she is, will only play with the Geomag brand. It is the shape that she is used to. Geomag is made in Switzerland. Kimmie has red, yellow, green, blue, silver, pink, and lavender. She wants every color of the rainbow plus black and white; however, certain colors are only available in Europe. Hopefully they will soon be available in the US, especially the orange and black ones.

--Mom

Kimmie the Collector

Kimmie is a collector. We first noticed this when she wanted the green Care Bear "Good Luck Bear". We searched everywhere for one. Finally we found it and gave it to her. She hugged it, kissed it, and then threw it aside and signed "blue Care Bear". Every time she received a new one, she would think of another color. I've lost track of how many 9" Care Bears she has. After those she moved on to the larger ones that come with DVDs.

Kimmie also collects stuffed pandas, teddy bears, anything Pooh bear and Geomag sticks.

--Mom

Giggle

Being nonverbal, Kimmie is a quiet little girl. Her sounds consist of crying, a yell that is like a scream, and laughter. Kimmie has two laughs. One is like a cackle and the other is a giggle. Both are completely contagious. When Kimmie laughs, it is like the sun just emerged from behind a cloud to shine again. No matter how tired or sad or frustrated or angry one might be, it is impossible not to smile when Kimmie laughs. When Kimmie giggles it reminds me of an excited puppy whose whole body trembles in anticipation. When Kimmie giggles her whole body wiggles.

--Mom

Our Precious Little Kimmie Girl

Our beautiful little Kimmie girl was born in 1991. Ok, maybe she wasn't beautiful, at least not at first. Her ears were too big for her little head. She was scrawny and red, with a pinched little face. The Sunday after she was born we took her to church. One man blurted out that her ears were very large, then, realizing that didn't sound polite, he commented that she would probably grow into them. I'm not sure she has grown into her ears, but she has grown hair to cover them. And she is beautiful.

--Mom