Language Development
Last week we had a speech specialist visit with Liam. For a highly communicative kid, his acquisition of words was slowing down and his overall communication style seemed to be regressing, so his developmental specialist thought it would be worth checking in with someone. Turns out his language is a bit delayed, even for his corrected age, but since he's spent the past month learning how to walk, this isn't totally unexpected.
Turns out he's also as cheeky as his big brother.
There is one day that stands out from Nathan's EI meetings around this age. He was having an "I'm not interested in doing anything with you" day and his developmental specialist was trying to coax him into participating.
Specialist: Do you want the Dog, the Bird, the Cat or the Pterodactyl? You don't have to say pterodactyl, you can just point to it.
Nathan: Tehdactle
Specialist (surprised): You want the pterodactyl?
Nathan: No.
Liam this past week with his specialist -
Specialist (to me): You can help him use more words by leaving off the last word in a sentence when reading a familiar book together, asking him about sounds animals make...
Me: I don't think I've ever asked him 'Liam, what does a cow say?'
Liam (playing with blocks next to me): MOOOO ... Knock, knock
Of course, he has not repeated this knowledge since. But he still tells a pretty good knock knock joke.
And now, for your listening pleasure (ie for my own record keeping and amusement) a list of Liam's current words. (as best I can remember)
Mama
Dada
Daddy
Buhbu (brother)
Nayna (Nathan - hasn't used for a while)
Batman
Banana
Apple
P-hee or P-heess (please)
All done
Up
More
Ball
Car
Vroom
Truck
Book
Hi
Bye-bye
And his signs:
More
All done
Please
Change (for diaper change)
Waves HI and BYE
Blows kisses
starting to sign Thank You
comments
You never know what's going on inside these kids' heads! The more little ones I get to know, the more I feel like they'll all figure it out eventually given a nice supportive environment. Of course, it's also fun to have all the early intervention folks around to play with!
Adding the words I forgot:
Yay
Hooray
Moo
Boo
And the songs I forgot:
Ay yai yai yai (canta y no llores)
Happy Birthday (attempting words)
Itsy Bitsy Spider (attempting words)
Twinkle Twinkle (sings the tune)
Baa baa black sheep (maintains it's rhythmic variation from twinkle)
Papageno's Aria (hums the opening lines)
Peter's Theme (Peter and the Wolf - hums)
Cat's Theme (Peter and the wolf - hums)
And NEW since 11/23:
Baby
Owl
Baaa (sheep sound)
Whoo (owl sound)
Pasta
Open
Shut