Sunday, 01 April 2012

• Language Accomplishments!

  Just wanted to share something I thought about the other day.  I was remembering how only 4 months ago, D had about 20 words she could use spontaneously.  I decided to see if I could think of all the words she knows now.  The biggest difference is probably the fact that it suddenly became very easy for D to learn labels.  Other aspects of language are coming at a slower rate.  She tends to use only a handful of useful verbs to express most things that require a verb tense (for example "go" tends to be functional in nearly every setting).  Still, it is astounding to realize how much language she has acquired in this amount of time.  I especially like some of the phrases she is picking up, how she is combining some of her single words into two word phrases and the fact that she has taken it upon herself to learn emotions/expressions. 

  In my list I did not count two word phrases of single words she has learned to combine.  I only used multiple word phrases in my list if I know that D learned the whole phrase as if it were one word.  For example:  "see you later"  is on the list, because she understands what this phrase means, but did not learn each individual word first.  She does not use any of these words in isolation, only as the phrase, as if it were one word to her.  But I did not include things like "open door" and "eat apple" because she learned these words individually first and we have gradually worked up to combining them.  I also did not include any phrases that she would not use without prompting.  I did not add the letters of the alphabet she can recognize or all of the animal sounds she knows since technically they aren't words, though I consider it the same concept.  I also did not include any purely echoic words/phrases or fill-in-the-blanks.  Ultimately, this list could be a lot longer if I included things of this nature, not to mention the words I just didn't remember.

  Here's the list I wrote out:

  dog, cat, horse, turtle, penguin, rhino, elephant, cow, monkey, pig, butterfly, bird, fish, zebra, sheep, dinosaur, frog, chicken, turkey, chip, egg, hotdog, milk, water, tomato, potato, orange, mango, apple, banana, ice-cream, spoon, bowl, bear, go, on, stop, in, out, open, up, down, eat, more, sing, swing, ernie, elmo, abby, cookie, big bird, cake, mommy, daddy, flower, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, draw, hat, show, poopoo, next, car, choo choo, yummy, wow, cool, bless you, thank you, help, box, food, outside, baby, boy, girl, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, toes, belly, teeth, brush, nigh nigh, bubbles, book, bath, cheese, keys, stars, circle, love you, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, me, move, hi, hello,  bye bye, sad, happy, mad, D (her name), hands, hug, ouch, oh-no, uh-oh, chiar, ariel, boat, duck, ball, barney, piano, ice, guitar, drum, no way, see you later, tree, bite, blow, spin, hair, buddha, airplane, door, papa, rock

  To anyone who has ever wondered if their child would be able to speak, you know what this list means to me.  Only you have lived/are living through the months/years of silence, desperately waiting to hear their little voice, wondering when/if the break through would happen.  My daughter is still severely behind in her language skills.  She is unable to answer people when they say things to her in most cases.  Things need to be said a certain way or a couple of times before she can respond, but the fact that she can come to me and say these things or try to just share things with me using her words, letting me know what she is thinking or feeling is beyond expression.  I know she will keep making great strides and I am so happy to see her accomplishments. 

  Keep going D!!! Mommy is so proud of you!!

  • 11:55 AM
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