Making Progress

This week we again practiced Hayder's English. However, we also incorporated things that he learned in school to real life. He got a notice in the mail that his building was being exterminated and he wanted us to tell him what that meant. We went over some of his homework like being able to tell what time it is on a clock. This was a great assignment because it got Hayder to use hand gestures more often than he is used to. He was able to use his fingers to communicate what time it was. He also learned in school some nonverbal communication skills. For example, nodding your head up and down signifies yes whereas shaking your head from side to side signifies no. I noticed that from the time we met last week until this time around his vocabulary had really improved. He was using multiple syllable words, although with his accent it was still not as clear as it should have been but at least it is some progress. We were also helping him work on his hand writing since he will be applying for jobs soon and will need to know how do that. We explained to him the importance of writing legibly because, chances are, if an employer cannot read his application easily, he probably will not get hired. I think for our future interactions with Hayder we will try and have him communicate with us through writing so that way we can work on writing and language collectively. This has been another great and exciting week with Hayder!