It Rains In The Bathroom

In addition to this being National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, it's also National AAC Awareness Month. In our little world, these two go hand in hand. Funny how Micah seems to be at the center of so much in our corner of the universe.

For those who may be new here, AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. This would be Micah's Voice, in the fun go-green color.

Shockingly (or not) I have a story to share about this very topic. It was shared by my mother-in-law, who kept Micah and Luke over the weekend.

My MIL and I were just talking about Micah and how he's doing in school. It's hard to answer that question. I mean, there's no doubt that  the boy is a smart cookie. He instinctively knew how to use his iPod Touch without anyone showing him, and that's just one example in a sea of many. Yet, when asked to find the color yellow out of a lineup of 6 colors, he'll mostly point to the right one. The odds of him getting a correct answer diminish some when you ask him about numbers or letters. And that, my friends, is the extent of his school knowledge. He's in second grade.

The very next day my MIL informed me that Micah took his Voice into the bathroom with him Sunday morning. He went over every screen at least twice looking for something specific. He was sure it was on the Health page as that one was explored more than any other. When he couldn't find what he wanted, he went to Weather, then Rain.

Hand up the one who guessed that my boy wanted to take a shower.

It might just be the proud mama in me, but I'm thinking that's rather genius. Thinking skills, right there. Grasping concepts, relating one thing to another. Problem solving.

So where would one put Micah's IQ at? And how much does he really know that he's not letting on? Maybe colors and numbers are too easy for him and he just wants to mess with us. And why don't I have Shower on his Voice?

So many questions, and no voice to answer with.

Have I mentioned lately that I love this boy of mine, even without a voice to answer so many questions?

9 comments:

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

I'm in the process of writing a post on this very topic. Well AAC's not raining in the bathroom. I didn't know that it was AAC awareness month, though. Good to know!

I agree, there is so much information in there if we could just get it out. IQ tests are so unfair in measuring our kids intelligence, too. I remember last year when the school psych said Peanut was in the less than 1%. I cried. Until I went home and looked at her actual score and found she was pretty average with other children with Ds. He was comparing her to ALL children, even the gifted. I think someone should check his IQ.

Annette W. said...

I love your unconditional love. And that you have a story to tell for everything.

Chicory Blue said...

Yay for Micah!

JennyH said...

The title had me worried!

Micah is very smart! and very cute!

Jaimie said...

I love AAC devices, they are fascinating! I had a 6th grader who used an Alt-Chat Plus. That kid refused to identify lower/uppercase letters, but could navigate his device pretty darn well (err...when he wasn't pushing it off his desk because he was mad) and was awesome with a computer.

I got the impression that he knew the stupid letters but was sick and freaking tired of being tested on them. I decided it was a pointless IEP goal to have in the 6th grade and we all decided to move him on to goals that actually mattered.


Jaimie
(a lurker who loves reading about Micah!)

Teresa Dawn said...

The Rain solution was very smart indeed. And he did better with his ipod than I did with mine then (though mine wasn't a touch one)... took me 20 minutes to get it out of the box and then... the first thing I did was accidently turn the entire thing into Chinese so that I couldn't read the instructions! Oops!

Burgh Baby said...

Seems to me who concentrates on knowing how to communicate the things that matter most. He's one smart little man!

Trisha said...

Micah certainly shows that he has a good grasp on things, doesn't he? Rain and shower - absolutely the same when shower isn't on your voice!

Flea said...

C'mon - we've known for years that Micah's bright. :) What a sweet kid.