Birdie Experiment Weekend!

This weekend was The Testing Weekend. On Friday my Mom (the "Research Assistant") arrived. She got to the house after 8:00pm and I was all like "OMG DO YOU WANT TO TEST THE BIRDS AND GET IT OVER WITH? MAYBE THEY WILL SCORE 85% ON THEIR TESTS AND WE WILL BE ALL DONE! WE COULD SPEND THE WEEKEND AT THE BEACH!"

For serious, I thought it would be super simple.

She was game, so we got them ready, with her behind a shield. The test is a bit of a complicated setup, even without the shield, with many steps for each word set. I showered with both birds in the bathroom to kind of ground and center us - showering is soothing to them, it's a way to settle down and refocus. Then I grabbed Isabelle. When Isabelle studies first, Ellie's accuracy is higher because she's jealous. ;)

We started testing Isabelle... and she was all like OMG BUT WHAT'S BEHIND THE SHIELD??? I begged and bribed her to do the cards - no such luck whatsoever. She picked one wrong card after another, all the while trying to figure out where Grandma went, and how to get there.

So... we tried Ellie. Nothing on CVC words.. she proceeded to toss the treats across the room, one at a time, threw a few cards down onto the sofa, and also wanted to know where Grandma went and how she could get there to pester her.

On Saturday I was still feeling pretty good. My Mom was planning to stay through the end of today (Monday), so, three more days of testing. We've got this! Ellie was 100% no-go, the whole day. It didn't matter what treat I gave her--warm tea, tofu--she was not planning to play whatsoever. Music was interesting for about four composers - hardly enough for a reading study. Then she got bored. Saturday night, though, Isabelle began the tougher test (reading comprehension!). Each set takes a long time, and she got 100% on two sets... so it was a start!

We began again on Sunday morning, and by this time, we decided to remove the shield. My mom would sit, motionless and with sunglasses, within my range of vision. She would not cue me by remaining motionless, and she would tell me what words to say since under those conditions, since I couldn't see the cards. She also decided to adjust the testing procedures to have fewer steps - so it would be faster and less rigmarole. Go Mom with the great ideas!

Still, no go, though. Ellie has been engaging in a 'stereotypical' behavior, meaning, she is obsessively 'anting' - tucking things into her wings. It's a bird-specific behavior, and parrots have been used as models for OCD because of their inclinations toward stereotypical behavior. When there isn't something more interesting to her, she ants. And reading boring CVC words is definitely not interesting to her.

I felt so sad - at this point, Isabelle would be the one in the study, because we were at least making some progress with her. If Ellie didn't make it into the study? That would be heartbreaking! But for my little genius Goffin's Cockatoo, none of this would have happened!

By yesterday afternoon my Mom and I were panicking, mildly. Once the birds master a concept, it is difficult to persuade them to continue practicing it. For instance, six weeks ago, Isabelle scored 85% on 26 CVC cards in one reading -- and Ellie got the same score with 40 words. It wasn't under formal testing conditions... But CVC cards were still a fun game. But not anymore.

Last night I resigned myself to the fact that... learning has always been for my little birds. I understand on special levels the reasons other researchers and trainers engage in seemingly unkind practices--making them very hungry (and sometimes starving them) or scolding/punishing them--to get scientific results. The creatures in the lab perhaps must accommodate science. I refuse to do that - science must accommodate my little 'too girls. And if there's a conflict, science must lose.

Reading is for Ellie and Isabelle. And fudging methods, for instance, if we were to work through the tests without all the blind-sciency rigmarole, since we practice these exercises all all the time... isn't something that will let me sleep at night. The research must adhere to scientific standards.

COMPLETELY DISHEARTENED AND FILLED WITH DESPAIR I woke little Ellie up this morning at 6:30 am. Sometimes we awaken early to read and learn together. Bleary eyed and in my pajamas, I sat with her and snuggled, and then she crawled onto her basket--wanting to learn. My mom moseyed in from the bedroom too, in her nightgown. We didn't even turn on the camera. My mom put on the sunglasses, took her position, and I started going through the CVC cards with Ellie.

Lo and behold.... she performed. Card after card she chose mostly accurately with modest results on a fair number! They are not stellar and excellent (I have such high expectations! 100% on the test, please!) but they are passing--and I think they may be the start to publishable research! We still have some work to do, and the researcher who is collaborating with me wants to meet up to look at our data set together. But they are consistent with other published studies with animals... just exactly like the other ones, actually. We need to do another set of at least ten more BUT we got there! And it's with Ellie!

Still groggy, I awakened Isabelle, and held her for a moment. She reached over for her basket to learn together (yay!) and when she saw my Mom, crawled right off and headed for Mom's lap instead. My Mom disappeared after a bit of snuggling, and Isabelle cycled through the (tougher) reading comprehension test - 10 words. No video, but my Mom was behind a shield as well. Her results were lower than Ellie's - not publishable yet - but statistically significant enough to keep going. I think if we do another two sets of ten she'll be in good shape!

So. The weekend was not a loss, my heart is definitely not as broken as it was yesterday, and all in all I'm feeling cautiously optimistic! That said, science is definitely hard work!

...Research to be continued on Labor Day Weekend when our beloved Research Assistant returns. And for the next week, I think we'll be doing lots of relaxing and curling up with fun little children's books! <3

Isabelle Finished Learning the Lowercase Alphabet!

One of our new neighbors came over for a visit yesterday so I could give her some of my moringa tree clippings. I never know how my little beasts will perform in public, but while the neighbor was visiting, Ellie showed off and did a GREAT job on her Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words! I was so proud of her!

After the neighbor left, Ellie and I started working on composers - this time I found some obscure guy (Finzi) from the Impressionist era. She didn't like him, and thereafter picked every wrong answer, then crawled off of her basket, flipped onto her back next to me, and bit my butt. 

Sorry, Impressionist Composers, Ellie is Unimpressed.

Today I gave her the option of learning some guitar composers or Baroque - she picked Baroque, and then picked Bach over Vivaldi. She loves Bach :)

We listened to Inventions and looked at pictures of harpsichords and violins. She kept picking "Violin" I think hoping I'd turn on some Concertos instead. "Turn off the freaking harpsichord, Mom." Of course, I obliged her. We watched another live Concerto played by a symphony on Youtube and then she meandered off to find a drink :)

*****

Isabelle was the superstar of the morning. She reviewed all of her lowercase letters and learned the last six (u, v, w, x, y, z)... and then READ HER FIRST BOOK! I was SO proud of her!!! I kissed her tummy and gave her lots of treats and scritches! <3 I also shuffled her CVC cards so that I couldn't see them and practiced for our blind tests - and she read through them like the little champ she is! 

Oh, Isabelle!!! <3

I so love my little 'too girls!!! 

Ellie Meets Bach

Ellie has largely been in a funk since my Oregon trip. I don't know whether it's:

• That she really likes the neighbor boy who babysits her. He visits while I'm busy and out of town for 4 hours/day and plays with them, and she cries for him when she's outside because she wants him to come over to play. (She hit her hormones this year, so is officially a Teenager.)
• That the fireworks were super scary and she was all Traumatized Creature. 
• That she's still mad at me for traveling so much--although the neighbor babysits, so there is that upside.
• That she's bored because she's kind of mastered reading, and doesn't think stories or CVC flashcards are interesting.
• Some combination of the above

So... Ellie keeps 'anting' - biting chunks out of the cards and tucking them into her feathers and ignoring my attempts to teach her, while simultaneously acting out as Bored Ellie, nipping me, annoying her sisters, acting angry and eating the house.

I've been trying and trying to find ways to reach her--she's quite upset. I tried writing more interesting stories about her fish and her elephant... she ate the cards. I wrote out Dr. Seuss stories on flash cards. She did it half-heartedly a few times, but they don't hold her interest. (She did actually score 100% accuracy, though, go her reading sentences!)

Last week I decided to teach her "Talk". We can talk about her feelings using yes/no cards. To explore her feelings about the possible crush (and also secretly test her knowledge and help her learn time) I asked her things last week. Parker (the neighbor) had come over on Wednesday night and Thursday morning to feed/water them because I was too busy with work. So I asked her questions about it.

• Do you like Parker? (yes)
• Did Parker come over yesterday? (yes)
• Did Parker come over today? (yes)
• Did Parker play with you? (no - probably accurate, he was just feeding/watering them, although he'll usually hold Ellie for a while)
• Did Parker pick you up? (yes)
• Do you want Parker to come over tomorrow? (yes - good - he's babysitting them all weekend and through Tuesday since I'm in Pennsylvania)

I figure that maybe, if the problem is her emotions and her crush right now, we can dialog through her feelings. Perhaps if she feels *heard* and *understood* she will feel better. Maybe I can empathize with her and, when he can't visit, ask her what kinds of things would help her feel better, like a nice cup of hot tea. So there - she learned the word "TALK" as an activity resource, and it will be something available to her.

Thursday night I also bit the bullet and decided to start teaching her music appreciation. She loves music, and already knows a few categories - dance, piano, guitar, and Baroque. She really likes Baroque a lot, and often chooses it for us to all listen to. Clearly vocabulary and stories aren't working right now, but I need to find some way to stimulate her brain--for her sake and that of the household!

I had another one of our awkward conversations: "Ellie, Baroque is a style of music. Composers make music. Baroque music is made by composers, too. These are some of the composers."

I taught her vocabulary next.

She nailed them! Then we focused on Bach - we looked at pictures of Bach on my phone, and I explained that he made music. We watched an orchestra play the Brandenburg Concerto #3 - and I wrote it on a card. During the music, I gave her treats for touching the card... and did the same for Air on a String of G.

Then I tested her with the music, and she correctly identified the titles :)  And I asked her who wrote them, holding up Bach and Vivaldi - and she picked Bach!

Their experiments are less than two weeks away! The experiments are supposed to be on simple Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words, such as MEL, CALL, BALL, etc. I'm fairly certain she's going to boycott her experiments... but I might just be able to get her to read composers and the names of musical compositions. Wouldn't that be funny?

"I'm sorry my bird won't read the boring easy words, she prefers Stravinsky."

Oy.

Isabelle: Underestimated Scholar of the Year!

To think I didn't believe Isabelle would ever learn to read! She is proof that with a little bribery and a lot of patience, almost every large parrot can learn :)

Last week I decided we needed to wrap up the rest of her uppercase alphabet, since we're going to be testing soon. She learned V, X, Z and Q pretty quickly - and then I added th, ch, sh, wh, qu, etc. just to make sure she was good to go on basic phonics.

Sweet Isabelle is such a second born. She learns quickly, but probably not as thoroughly as Ellie. With this cutie, I'm in catch-up mode. I only have so many creative brain cells at my disposal, and they seem employed keeping up with Ellie and running a business.  I didn't pair every single letter with a vocabulary word as she learned, she hasn't seen many Youtube videos about elephants or ducks, as I did with Ellie. But, we manage!

And oh does she manage! The Underestimated Scholar Of The Year Award Goes To.... Isabelle!

Having taught her the uppercase alphabet, I grabbed a few of Ellie's library books so she could start reading actual pages. And then remembered.... books include lowercase letters. Which she doesn't know. *sigh*

My poor second-born parrot.

SO. Now we are rushing through her lowercase letters. Not only does she keep up with learning four new letters each day, she excels! She's also reading sentences!

For both Isabelle and Ellie, I've realized that having them pre-read the sentences before having to make a selection improves their accuracy. Also, I'm writing out Dr. Seuss stories onto flash cards. It's a great way to have fun sentences and topics, without the dilemma of OMG ALL THE WORDS ON THE PAGE! Ellie had 100% accuracy last night on one of her stories (8 sentences), and Isabelle did really well in this video too!

Once they've mastered these sentences, I'm going to try to generalize it to the actual book page - they'll probably have memorized the story by then, and I'll help them to be able to read the sentences in the book :)

Here's Isabelle for a whole training. She reviewed a, b, d, and e from the day before, learned f, g, h, and l, then read lowercase words like a boss! And THEN she read a story with sentences!

Go Isabelle!!!

Oh Mom! Pretend Fish Can't Like Things!

On Sunday I  spent the afternoon and evening with a childhood friend, Shari. I lamented mildly that I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do next with Ellie. She's reading sentences and is bored - there's no more challenge. I also wrote stories about her toys, but they are all true statements - and it would be weird to write, "Zed swims in the water outside" when he is clearly sitting next to us on the sofa, not swimming.

I thought the concepts of true/pretend would be too hard to explain. The thought of it made me think I needed some wine.

Monday I bit the bullet anyway and decided to write statements that were: TRUE / NOT TRUE / PRETEND.

• True would be: Ellie likes pancakes.
• Not true would be: Ellie likes Isabelle
• Pretend would be: Pretend Ellie is going for a ride in the car.

Today I wrote simple stories for Ellie and put them on flashcards:

• Zed is a pretend fish.
• Real fish live outside.
• Real fish swim in water.
• Zed likes green.
• Zed likes Ellie.
• Ellie likes Barney.
• Zed doesn't like grass.

Then a story for Barney, her elephant.

• Barney is a pretend elephant.
• Real elephants live outside.
• Real elephants are HUGE!
• Real elephants eat grass.
• Barney is a toy.
• Barney likes Ellie.
• Ellie likes Barney.

Then I asked her reading comprehension questions. Here is the video. When I got to, "Ellie likes Barney." She answered "True." But "Barney likes Ellie" - she answered "Not True."

The same happened with Zed. "Ellie likes Zed" was true. "Zed likes Ellie" she answered "Not True."

She got all of the other reading comprehension questions correct - Zed is a pretend fish. Real elephants live outside...

So, a few possible (if strange) conclusions:
1. Ellie trusts her own judgment above what she's reading
2. More interestingly - Ellie appears to understand that things that are pretend do not have the capacity to "like" anything. Only "real" things can "like" things. And I may be wrong - but I think that's a very advanced concept, actually!

Joe was really funny. I was in the middle of telling him the story...
Joe: Wait - you told her that her fish and her elephant like her? Why would you say that? They're fake!
Me: STOP IT!!! SHE'S OBVIOUSLY YOUR BIRD CHILD AND YOU ARE BOTH SMARTER THAN I AM!!!

Isabelle, My Tiny Dancer

This little girl. I love her so! She started learning how to read in March/April, and has mastered all of her uppercase letters now, knows digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, kn), can read words and sentences.

She's essentially caught up to Ellie - except I feel her education is lacking in vocabulary. Ellie's had nine months of vocab practice, and Isabelle only two... and that, fleetingly since I focused more on letters and words.

If Ellie is my buddy, my (awesome) challenge, my little friend, Isabelle has my heart. When I think of the beautiful moments that make life ridiculously special, so many of them are comprised of Isabelle. She is innocent and sweet, curious, expressive. Unlike her sister, she's easygoing and resilient. There's not much that a kiss, a snuggle, and a little chat can't fix for her little heart.

The other morning I was too busy to do their lessons. Her learning basket/station was on the sofa where we work together, and she hobbled over to it (she's one-footed). She sat for a half hour on her play station singing, talking, dancing, twirling... she brought her toys there, she pretended to slay dragons, all poofy and scary monster cockatoo style. She was just so very happy to play on her learning station, oblivious to the world, talking to herself and passing the time, waiting for me to join her for lessons.

My heart just melted and I gave her so many kisses and hugs.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to teach her next. Like Ellie, her accuracy rate on short words is decreasing from boredom. Tonight on 56 words it iwas 71.5%. (Previously it had been 85%.) I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and teach her lowercase letters... by then hopefully I'll have figured out this pretend story thing with Ellie, and can just apply it to Isabelle too.

Last week I asked Ellie a bunch of questions. In our interview, she declared she didn't like Isabelle.

Apparently the feeling is mutual! This is hilarious.