I am now on holidays, and in Australia, disabled people get a bonus payment at the end of June. Geoffrey and Peter got theirs. What we do, is make sure that we use some of their money to buy them something special for them both. Last year we got them their LCD televisions, and this year we bought them a Wii. They both LOVE it. Katherine, my daughter and her boyfriend came over last night and they played ten pin bowling with Geoffrey and Peter. Peter communicated to Katherine through gesture that he wanted her to help him play against Geoffrey. It was fantastic watching them interact so positively and the games are active.
Geoffrey was able to operate the control easily and picked it up quickly. Peter took a bit longer, hence wanting Katherine to help him. It was funny watching them both and listening to them in their excitement.
What a great buy.
They look like they’re enjoying the Wii. It should count as therapy…PT/OT at least, right? Somehow I doubt I could convince anyone of that in real life
Comment by Umma — July 30, 2008 @ 12:15 am
It could be lots of things… and you could convince me. I think using things like this is great to increase and maintain skills that our kids have learned. It’s age appropriate – at any age depending on the games that you are playing, it’s interactive so encourages communication, either verbal or signing. It can relate to hand/eye coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, problem solving, planning, turn taking, team spirit… just to name a few. I am a big advocate for this sort of stuff being used… well that’s my excuse anyway. Geoffrey was put on a computer at 2 years of age. I have a funny story though… many years back when he was a little tacker, he posted his photo into the floppy disk drive thinking that his photo would come up on the screen. This was before the days of digital technology. He was cute!
Comment by Janine — August 2, 2008 @ 1:53 am