Books and Tickles

 

Dominic's interest in reading has just exploded over the past couple of months.  I have discovered Dr. Seuss books at our local library that I don't ever remember reading when I was little.  I love the Dr. Seuss books because they have a lot of repetition, which is the best way to learn to read.  We are very fortunate that we have a library within a few miles of our house. They have a color coded system so you can look at the spine of the book and know if the reading level is correct.  At Dominic's last Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting in October (a once a year meeting to discuss his goals and objectives), they told me he is "fluently" reading at a first grade level.  Even though he is about halfway through third grade, I am a proud mom.  That was something I could have only dreamed about back when he would throw books across the room, slap them shut in my face, yell and run away! Something I thought of last week to get him to want to read even more was that if he read me a book he would get tickled.  He loves to say, "tickle me on MY belly!" Today, since his school has off, we have been doing a lot of "books and tickles." In the picture above, he is reading his favorite Dr. Seuss book from the library - it's called, "I Wish that I Had Duck Feet."  It's kind of a silly book, but I like it because he knows all the words and it's over 50 pages long.  Given that Dominic has Autism and ADHD, I give credit to any book that can keep his attention long enough for him to read all those pages and not get super frustrated :)  He rarely gets upset these days when he doesn't know a word.  He'll usually just point to the word he doesn't know and say, "what's this?"  It will only take one or two times and he'll remember.  We have been pulling books out of the bookshelf today that were Lauren's favorites when she was little and Dominic can now read them. It is so incredibly cool to watch that. I can't wait to see what book he'll want to read next!