Communication

[lollardfish]

It's been a long time since I wrote about Nico's development. There are ten thousand things he does better or he's learned how to do or he communicates about. But there's also a dirth of massive leaps of development: He doesn't walk yet, he doesn't really talk or sign yet, he doesn't self-feed with a spoon (that's my list of the top 3. My wife may have others).

But there are ten thousand things he's learned to do. Signs and sounds and coordination and playing and snuggling and so much more.

And every so often, there are glimpses - he forgets to hold onto something and just stands up for a moment; he picks up a spoon, dips it in his food, then pops it into his mouth; or he speaks.

On Halloween, we went up to one door and a couple came out, the woman holding her baby. Nico said, "Baby" and was very excited about the tinier person.

Today, we were listening to Bare Naked Ladies' classic song, "Popcorn." I was saying "Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop" (as the song goes), and Nico started to move his mouth along, saying "Popopopopopopopop." After, we clapped and I turned it on again. When we got to the popping part, I said pop a lot, then said, "Your turn!" Nico responded, "ay tur." It was unmistakeably him saying, "My turn," something we say to him a lot.

So it's still a struggle to get him to replicate his speech, but it's coming ... it's coming.

Comments

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

I said pop a lot, then said, "Your turn!" Nico responded, "ay tur."

Excellent! Do you realize that this means he gets pronouns? If he were simply repeating it would have been "ur tur", but he converted your "your" into his "my"!

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know! There's a rote level to it that "your turn" is followed by "my turn," but I do think he knows that "my turn" and "me" is ... him. And that he's supposed to say "my turn" when it's his turn.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

I've always been impressed by how quickly and well he understands such concepts. These can be challenging for kids who have no known disability and seem to take much longer to really develop an understanding of certain concepts. There have been some that seemed actually young for his age without considering down syndrome as a factor, to me which is a neat thing to learn along the way, a reminder that all kids regardless of whatever box they may get grouped into can not be defined by such labels.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think his understanding of concepts seems often pretty sharp, but because it's receptive speech rather than active speech or action, it's hard to measure.

He's a lot of fun though.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

He reacts in ways that certainly seem to indicate comprehension doing what you ask him to with different things. He also just gets that look in his eye that he gets it. Maybe that sounds weird but kids do have body language that indicates they have no clue, that the wheels in their head are turning and that gleam in their eye when it clicks.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what gleam you mean.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Pronouns are tricky. The little lovey uses "hims" instead of "his." I of course find this insanely cute.

K.