Last night we had FOUR verbal "unexpecteds" from Joy, just between supper and bed.
First was during the meal, when I was coaxing her to eat some sweet red pepper. "Peh-puh!" she imitated me, unasked. And then gave a great big grin, apparently loving the way the word felt, exploding through her lips. Lots of "peh-puh"s and giggles for the rest of the meal, and ate the whole helping!Then a little ways into her evening therapy session, she led her barista-dude over to the gate by the basement stairs and signed "open". "Oh, do you want to go downstairs?" he asked. I don't know as how I can properly represent the version of "downstairs" that she echoed, but it was definitely an unsolicited imitation.
Then after the session was over and she & I were hanging out on the living room couch, she reached for the buttons on the fleece cardigan that I wear around the house. She's fascinated with those buttons, but had never named them for me. I said nothing, she said "buh-buh"!
And last but not least, we had a spectacular unexpected while getting ready for the bath. Joy has been on an anti-potty kick lately, preferring to throw herself to the ground or anything else but sitting on the seat -- and here we'd been planning a big potty-training push over the summer. So I did a little experiment. Brought in a candy treat, and when she threw herself to the floor I caught her eyes and told her, "First potty, then candy." And she let herself be led to the toilet to sit. Then I told her, "We'll count to ten!" And I counted out slowly, "One, two, three..." and when I hit "nine," she finished up for me with a great big "TEH!"
This is even more amazing in that we almost NEVER count all the way to ten with her. Most often we'll go to three, in a one-two-three-GO context.
What else does Joy know, that I don't know she knows? (Or should I say, what Elvis does she know?)
5 comments:
Four feels magical! But most likely, the result of your hard work - seems she's been absorbing all this time. Wonderful! Barbara
Oh I LOVE this. Just love it! You and Joy have me grinning like, well, a grinning fool. I love these 'explosions'. While we have had a fairly different journey in the area of being verbal, Perky was sort of verbal all along but until about 2 years ago it was hard going to understand and for him to communicate pretty much anything. But we always saw him go through what I called 'explosions' - lots of things seemed to connect for him at once and he would come out with such unexpected things. My favourite was over a year ago when he did his first 'long sentence'. I was settling him in bed and he said "excuse me Mummy can you please give me a hug?" Up until that point he had spoken in about 4 word sentences. So it blew me away of course. I know Joy's path is her own but I wanted to share this with you, as I see parallels in the speech journey and in the being sort of blind-sided by what she knows compared to what you had thought she knew. I am still remembering to never underestimate Perky. He keeps amazing me. And it is absolutely true that these 'unexpected, times four' are testament to all your work and Joy's work and the people around you who contribute to her learning. Well done and congratulations to all of you!
Oh. My. Goodness. That is so wonderful and exciting and amazing and fabulous. I think there is alot going on in that beautiful "Joyful" little head and it will all unfold like the precious petals of a flower, little by little. :-D
LOVE this! You kow, the best approach is to ALWAYS expect the unexpected withour kiddos! :-)
Yay for Joy...this is awesome!
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