Talking with your child (if they are using words)

She can talk the talk…

(Warning: contains serious mummy bragging!)

What an amazing difference a year makes.

At one corrected (15 months actual) last year, we thought she might possibly be trying to say “cat” - but it was neither clear (”tat”) nor consistent (”tat” sometimes referred to random non-catlike objects) so we weren’t sure.

As it turned out, she was trying to say cat.  Since then, her progress has been astounding.

This week we had her 2 year corrected review, and at 27 months of age her results are almost unbelievable.

Language development - 98th percentile for corrected age - 92nd percentile for chronological age, “representing a developmental age equivalent to 31 months for receptive communication and between 37 and 39 months for expressive language skills.”

Things she has said in the past week that made me stop and write them down I was so impressed:

- Oscar sitting on the chair, on the pillow
- There’s another little corn tin
- That’s pretty groovy
- No want Talia’s rocking horse at Mothers’ Group, no want Talia’s rocking horse with Talia’s friends
- Mum draw pink octopus like this octopus
- No want lying down
- No want talk to daddy
- There’s a beetle inside treasure box
- There’s a lizard up on the branch
- Mum washed Talia’s dog and bones ‘jamas
- That’s very good Talia

We have not only caught up with language, we’ve kissed the language delay goodbye and leap-frogged quite a few full-termer friends!

Talking with your Baby

This is from a handout I was given by a speech pathologist.  I’ve been doing fairly similar things, based on the Baby Talk book by Dr Sally Ward.   So far so good!!

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Talking with your Baby (12-20 months or with very few words)

Make Listening Fun!!
- Spend some quiet play time together -with the TV and radio off
- Show where sounds are coming from
- Use sound making toys
- Speak more loudly and slowly
- Use rhymes and songs

Keep sentences very short (1-2 key words)
Not: “Let’s have a bath before dinner”
But: “Bath time! Hot water. Love bath! Splash!”
Repeat words to help them learn
E.g. “Here’s your drink. Big drink. Mummy drink?”

Match -
your words with what your child is looking at/playing with.
This is the way your child learns that words go together:
- Point to and name the objects played with
- Talk about what they are doing moment by moment
- Follow what they are doing. Comment on what happens

Respond to what your child does
- Repeat what they say
Baby: “ball” (pointing)
You: “Oh! Yes. Ball. Want ball” (give ball)
- Add another word: “Push ball”
- Avoid questions and directions as it interferes with their learning. Don’t try to prolong their attention span. Join in with what they want to do.

Audiology and speech pathology appointments

Earlier this year we had a 2 appointment day at the Child Development Centre.

Audiologist This was a follow up from the appointment last June, to be sure that the “sluggishness” in her ears at that time was only due to a cold and nothing worse.  (She’d been referred for the first appointment because at 4 months corrected she wasn’t making any consonant sounds.)

Talia was upset to return to the clinic but calmed down and turned to hear all the sounds played, which was a relief.  They asked if I wanted them to do a physical examination of her ears but knowing how much she hates anyone touching her ears (major screaming session), I decided not to worry about it. No need to see them again, hooray!

Speech pathologist This was a first appointment after a referral made in (drumroll) May 2008! Can you tell they don’t have enough SPs in the public system here? I would have gone private if I was really worried, but figured Talia would catch up in her own time.

I had a lovely surprise before we went. They had sent a form asking how many words she said spontaneously (ie not just copying you) and I had filled it out in December but now went over it again in mid January and was able to circle a heap more words. I thought it was going to be about 60 words, but including animal noises, names of characters etc, it was more like 90. In perspective: 15 months - no clear words. 18 months - less than 10 words. 21 months - 90 words. So proud of my little cherub.

At the appointment Talia was brilliant, played with all the toys, even came out with a new word while we were there. The SP said she was well on the way to the 2 year average which is basically (a) 50 words and (b) two word sentences. We didn’t have 2 word sentences at that stage, but apparently they usually consist of object + describing word or doing word, and Talia knew lots of objects but said very few describing/doing words. So that’s what I have been trying to concentrate on while I’m playing with her . The SP also said Talia was great at commenting and understands what’s being said, but wasn’t so good at using language for “social purposes” - for example she didn’t call for attention or make requests much using words. So that’s something else I said I would be trying to work on.

We agreed to have a follow up appoinment in 3-4 months time, and that is now scheduled for 14 April - next week.  Since the January appointment Talia has more than doubled her vocabulary.  In fact I’ve stopped trying to keep a record because she is learning words faster than I’m remembering to write them down.  She knows a lot more verbs and adjectives, and uses words to make requests.  (So much nicer than saying “eeeeuurghh” when she wants something!)  She can make sentences of up to 4 words and constantly amazes me with what comes out of her mouth (in the vocab department!)  It’s a great joy to me to see her improve so rapidly after a slow start, especially as it was the area of development where she was most delayed at her 12 month corrected assessment.

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This is the main part of the report we received after our January appointment.

Your child has strengths in:

• pretend play - imitating
• comprehension - following instructions, understanding questions and concepts

We found your child needs help with:

• Developing language for social purposes eg calling, requesting
• Increasing action and describing words

She said the magic word!

Most children say “mum” or “mama” or “mummy” as one of their earliest words, apparently.  Not our little bundle of joy - her first word was cat, followed by woof-woof, book and duck.  I understood that these were all very important concepts, but I started to get impatient when her vocabulary expanded to include shoes, bike, chook, daddy, milk and okay but still didn’t include anything that was a name for me.  I use the word mummy all the time, and if I asked where mummy was, she would point at me - so I knew she understood the word and what it meant. But months passed and if she wanted me, she just said “euuuuurgh!”  As if that wasn’t bad enough, Talia went on to count from 1 to 10, her vocab expanded to over 90 words and she had words for orca, frog and dolphin… and would occasionally point at me and say maaa.  Then just when I thought my ego couldn’t take it any longer, out it came last Thursday - clear as day, with a loving smile that made my heart melt - MUM!