Blessed With Yet Another Year

The holidays have come and gone.  We are trying to get back in an educational and productive groove.  OH my it's been a hard pill to bear!  Much more difficult then when I just had to put the kids on the bus after summer break.
I'm bored with the curriculum and what's far worse is having the kids look at me with that "deer in the headlights" look when we're talking about the special sounds some vowels make.  I suppose we'll finish eventually, but wow, I'm definitely going to look for something with a little more interest next year.  I had a fear of not being able to teach the right things and so I opted for a curriculum that I didn't have to put together myself.  Now that I've got a little experience under my belt, I won't be intimidated so easily this year.
The holidays didn't afford us much opportunity for a lot of social interaction.  We visited with family overnight and so it wasn't a whole lot of warm up time, however the girls were playing with their cousins by the end of Christmas night.  Not talking but playing along side them and following them around.  Again.  I call it progress.
I think I'm going to follow a commenter, Dianne's, advice and try the hand over/take over method in helping them to progress into more relaxed exchanges with people.
Here is her comment:

Hi Deanna,
I was just researching homeschooling children with SM, when I came across your blog. I have a 9-yr old with Selective Mutism and she's been making great strides.
You were curious about how to get your girls to spontaneously speak to people they encounter, but I was thinking about how "far along" something like that is for a child with SM. My daughter started to communicate socially first by doing hand over/take over. It's a more gradual step to social communication; like steps one would take reduce a phobia. I would take my daughter out and she would hand money/credit card/menu/keys whatever to the cashier or waiter and the person would hand them back. This really helps... then there are other steps to take as your child gets more comfortable just handing things to people. (Like you giving two choices on a menu in front of a waiter and asking your child to point to one. When she gets comfortable with pointing, you might move on to a verbal reply.) Initiating speech is one of the last steps. My daughter has been initiating in some cases now! We have had to follow these other steps first to get here, though. I'd be happy to give you more info and the name of the SMart center, where they specialize in SM. It seems like you're doing a great job and maybe you already even do some of the social communication steps that we've learned, but I couldn't help sharing because they are so crucial to helping my daughter (as well as my other 4 kids who have varying degrees of Social Anxiety.) I'm off to read some of the earlier entries on your blog :) Wishing you the best. -Dianna P.

The therapist we go to has really never suggested this before, we've always just jumped to nodding yes or no when we're around others.  However this is how they started out with her when we first started seeing her in her office.  So it seems a very natural place to start with others.  Thank you so much for sharing Dianna.

I'm always interested in what others with SM kids have to say.  I invite you to leave your comments if you are a parent to one of these kids.

Much success in your own 2013 journeys everyone.