Baa Baa Baa (My Proud Mama Moment)

At Gymboree Music class today, all the children were told to take turns singing into a play microphone to Old MacDonald's Farm. The whole class (i.e. the teacher & all the parents) would sing the song and each child would take a turn making the appropriate animal noise. Julia's animal was the sheep, and when it came time, she said a very clear "Baa baa" right on cue...I was so proud! Now I know it's just a little thing, and she's getting to be nearly two, but (aside from just being cute seeing her holding a microphone in front of an audience) let me back up and explain why this is a really big deal for us...

Julia started speech therapy last Friday. Despite being an incredibly "talkative' child, Julia's language development is not on track for her age. Apparently, she's put all her energy into staying ahead of the curve for physical activity (walking early, running early, climbing on every available surface, including full size ladders and other things that freak her mother out...you get the picture), and meanwhile she hasn't put much focus on learning how to formulate real words. Don't get me wrong. She babbles constantly & she's definitely trying to communicate! We just have a lot of head shaking, finger pointing, and other hand gestures to go along with her "words" which are just vague representations of what she wants to say (some of it sounds almost like Pig Latin, e.g. "ish-fee" is fish).

I'd been mentioning that I was a bit concerned about her language development at every doctor's visit since about 12 months old, but I kept getting told "all kids develop at different rates, just give it time" and with the medical system being what it is here, I couldn't just book in to see the specialist right away (GP has to refer to a pediatrician who has to refer for a hearing test and THEN a speech pathologist!). I was starting to feel like just a paranoid mother getting worried over what the books say is "normal", but I trusted my instinct and kept pressing the GP. We finally got the referral to the pediatrician.

Now doctor's appointments are usually all of 5 minutes long, and no toddler can be expected to act like her usual self in that amount of time (Julia usually just stares at the doc like he's an alien). But this time, I asked a million questions (trying to take advantage of the time with a specialist), and while the doc and I were talking, Julia got distracted playing with a big box of Legos in his office. She became completely comfortable and started "talking", so he was able to see exactly what I was describing, and he immediately referred us to a speech pathologist.

Leith Johnston, our speech pathologist, is fantastic! Julia actually enjoyed the (2 hour!) session, probably due in part to the fact that there were great toys there...not the usual doctor's office toys (you know, books without the last 5 pages, second hand mechanical toys that no longer do what they're supposed to do, etc.). Leith spent the first hour talking to me about Julia's milestones and observing while Julia had free run of the toys, and then she spent the second hour on the floor with Julia while I did the observing. Julia was very attentive and was attempting many more words than usual. Leith said that Julia is right on target in her understanding of words (yay!), but that she has "low oral tone" (muscles in her mouth and jaw are weak). We left the session exhausted (Julia slept the whole way home and for 2 hours after that!) but with some very concrete suggestions for how to work with Julia.

Matt and I have been really working hard with Julia all weekend, though a lot is about changing the way we talk to her and not vice versa. Which leads me to the excitement at Gymboree today...

I was worried that Julia would be the only child in the class not "singing" for the group or that her sheep would say "daa, daa" (for Julia, "b's" have usually been "d's"). Instead, all but one other child was overcome with shyness and said nothing, while Julia confidently said her very clear, "baa baa". I am one proud mom!!

[I know the photos don't go with the post, but I thought they were cute!]