Music to my ears

In a lovely development this month, Talia has started singing! She doesn’t do it much on her own, but joins in when I am singing at home or in the car.
So far her repertoire includes:
- Old McDonald - she does the animal noises and the e-i-e-i-o
- Galumph Went the Little Green Frog - she says “baaaa” when I say “but” and then sings “ya ya ya” when I sing “la de da de da”
- Pat-a-cake - just the first words, only she loses a syllable, so it sounds like “pack-ache, pack-ache”
- I had a Rooster - she does the animal noises
- Wind the Bobbin up - she says “poo, poo” for “pull, pull” and claps/pats her knees at the correct times

She also claps along to the first verse of If you’re Happy and you Know it, and does the beeps in the second verse of the Wheels on the Bus.

Karaoke here we come!

Play and Learning

At our 12 month corrected developmental review, Talia was showing delays in all areas. We were referred to a number of services at the State Child Development Centre, including physiotherapy, speech therapy and an occupational therapist run programme called Play and Learning (PAL).

Last month I was contacted by PAL and found that it was a programme where an OT comes to your home for an hour a week, for up to 6 weeks, with a box of different toys to help with various areas of your child’s development. The OT will also advise you about anything you are interested in, so what the programme includes really varies from family to family and from week to week. We have now had 2 visits and it has been excellent, not least because recently I have been finding Talia more demanding but not really known what sort of new activities to try with her.

The first week the OT brought quite a lot of toys to help with fine motor skills and shape recognition, including a simple shape sorter where the shapes made noises when you put them in, stacking rings which made music each time you took a ring on or off, blocks with magnets in them which make it easier to stack them, and a couple of jigsaws - one with different shapes (circle, triangle, square etc) and one just all circles in different colours. The jigsaws were wooden with pegs on the back to make them easy to manipulate. There were also some books and other items. It took Talia a little while to get the hang of the toys, but then she played with them all week and by the end of it was much better at putting shapes in the right place.

On her last visit, the OT brought a different set of wobbly stacking rings, a singing piggy bank with enormous plastic coins, a ball and some more books, and toys to encourage imaginative play - a doll with bottle and bed and a set of plastic crockery. The crockery has been a great hit, as I had recently acquired a box of plastic food items. After a demonstration lesson, Talia was soon cooking up a storm, stirring a plastic bowl filled with random plastic foodstuffs and a couple of megablocks… iron chef move over, it’s time for plastic chef! I also taught her to take an imaginary sip of coffee from a little plastic teacup and say “mmmmm”.

The OT also gave me a full set of PAL leaflets, some of which I had already seen at my local Child Health Nurse, but many of which were new and very interesting. These are also available online at http://www.pmh.health.wa.gov.au/health/infant_care/play.htm

Apparently the next visit will include messy play or playdough, so I’m looking forward to it!

We have a toddler!

When Talia started cruising the furniture back in June, I had no idea it would take quite so long before she was really ready to walk by herself.

She took her first hesitant little steps two months ago, and could often be persuaded to walk while holding on to our hands. It was clear there was nothing physical holding her back, but she seemed to lack either the confidence or the incentive to get up and just go, preferring to either crawl (quite speedily, especially if trying to get away from someone who wanted to change her nappy or put her to bed) or wait for her “staff” to come and carry her to wherever she wanted to go.

When we saw the physiotherapist at the State Child Development Centre in mid September, she told us that she regarded a child to be walking properly when they were also able to stand up by themselves in the middle of the room. We passed that milestone on Wednesday last week. I was so excited I clapped and cheered. Talia gave me a big smile, took three steps forward and fell splat on her bottom.

However, the the big day has finally come - drumroll please - as of Sunday 16 November 2008, we have a toddler. Something clicked and she realised it was safe, easy, fun… whatever it was, she’s up and walking and it’s a wonderful achievement. Our only regret is that Talia’s Grandpa, who asked us so many times if she was walking yet, passed away just a few months too soon to see her in motion. He would have been so happy.

A wonder week

Ages ago I read an interesting article about “wonder weeks“. Apparently babies go through predictable stages where they spend a period of time being fussy - unusually clingy and difficult - followed by a period of time when they are much happier after passing through a stage of development.

We’ve definitely had one of those wonder weeks! After several days of extreme crankiness, the last few days have seen Talia

- trying to walk dozens of times a day (whereas beforehand she went for days without trying) and usually managing at least 4 steps per attempt - sometimes up to 8.

- stacking boxes for the first time, including one 4 box tower. Previously she was only interested in destroying any sort of stack.

- standing up in the middle of the room (not pulling herself up on anything) for the first time

- scribbling for the first time (using an etch-a-sketch I bought second hand today)

She has been very pleased with these achievements, with lots of smiles and clapping, and as doting parents we are also very proud of her.

Talking late

According to the development reviews we’ve done so far, communication is the area where Talia is most delayed. Until very recently, her spoken language involved some fantastic babble but almost no actual words. At 12 months corrected she occasionally used “gat” to mean cat, but not consistently, and that was it. She was late to point and even now (15 months corrected) does not nod or shake her head.

Read my lips... no more pavlova...

We have received a referral to see a speech pathologist but are still waiting for our first appointment. In the mean time we continue to talk, sing, read and (to a lesser extent) use sign language with her. We are not particularly concerned, in fact we think it’s likely that she’ll be a complete chatterbox once she does finally get the hang of talking. But there’s no doubt that having a baby who’s a late talker can be a source of anxiety.

In the last month I’m relieved to say we have seen a huge change and improvement in both her spoken vocabulary and the number of words she understands even though she doesn’t try to say them herself. Her favourite spoken words are “boo” which means ball, balloon or bubbles, “woo woo” which means dog (woof woof), “dut” which means duck/swan/coot (our local park has many of them), and “gat” or “tat” which means cat, cow, elephant, giraffe, parent or any other random passing animal which is not a woo woo! She also says “shzz” for shoes/socks, a slightly different “boo” sound for book, “fuff” for flowers, “fish”, “shut” and “gak” for cake or biscuit. In the last week she has started to say “okay” in response to questions. So we are suddenly at 10 words (and more), although interestingly none of them is mum, dad or no, which are supposed to be the most common first words.

Talia’s receptive language has also grown in leaps and bounds this past month. She can find a particular toy or book, and point out all sorts of objects on the pages of books when asked. She is starting to distinguish colours and a few parts of the body, and can respond to simple questions. Even though I know it’s normal, I still find it really quite impressive that she understands so much more than she can say.

I started taking Talia to sign language classes (Signing Hands) earlier in the year, predicting that she would be slow to talk. Unfortunately I didn’t factor in that she would also be very slow to sign! She will indicate milk via sign language, but that’s been all so far. It has been an interesting experience for me to learn some Auslan, and now I have the tools to sign more if required in the future, so that (hopefully) she can communicate with us without too much frustration if she still finds speaking difficult.