Communication

Lately we've seen big improvements in Ava's receptive and expressive communication. I have lost track of the number of signs she knows. Last I counted it was 35. Since then she has learned airplane, banana, and dance. When her daddy holds her she signs "dance" because she LOVES to "dance" in Daddy's arms. She raises her hands over her head and lets him swing her around, giggling and squealing. She signs "home" when we pull into our long driveway, and "jump" when she hears the kids outside on the trampoline. She understands and follows a few commands: put it in, give it to Mommy, come here, where is ____?, etc.

Many times she can't do a sign or speak a word for something but she can certainly get her point across with a grunt, an expression or body language (and yes, she even has temper tantrums occasionally!)

We have been working on pointing to her eyes, nose, ears, etc. It took a while, but she is starting to cooperate. Recently she started crawling onto my lap with a book, letting me know that she wants me to read to her. Her speech therapist told me that her speech development was consistent to that of an 18 month old! Considering she was testing at a two month old level a year ago, I am extremely pleased with that report! 16 months of development squeezed into a 13 month period. Not bad.

Remember how excited I was when she made her first babble sound at the age of 4? I never imagined I'd be so excited to hear a "B" sound. (It's funny what excites a parent of a child with a disability. Can anyone relate?) Well I am HAPPY to tell you that not only can she say a "B" sound. She can now say 7 actual words:

1. Daddy ("Gaggy")
2. Cookie
3. More
4. Mama
5. Bubba
6. Good-girl ("Goo-goo")...which she says when she does something she knows we'll be proud of. :)
7. Thank you ("Kay kay")

And here is my favorite of all: When I sing to her at night now, she sings along! Of course not everyone would recognize it as singing, but I am her mother and I KNOW she is singing. Sometimes she even does the little signs that go along, like the itsy bitsy spider, a song they sing at school called "Special Me", where she pats herself on the shoulders indicating she is "special", and of course my favorite, Jesus Loves Me, she does the little sign for Jesus when I sing it to her.

I sure do love that little girl!