Speech delay
I’ve joined a group of mums to answer a Monday question.
As this month is #downsyndromeawarenessmonth each Monday each of us will either write a fact or a myth about Down’s syndrome.
I won’t write out the science of the fact I’m choosing. I’ll just say what the fact is. I’ll also write what quality the fact brings out in us all.
Coraline is not yet talking as typically speech is delayed for children with Down’s syndrome.
It makes us feel, and be aware of, trust.
We tell Coraline where we are going and what we are doing with signs and photos, but even then she may not be sure of what we have indicated. It means Coraline comes with us trusting that where we are taking her is good, and trusting that she’s O.K. because she’s with us, or because we have taken her there.
It means we look her in the eyes, we feel communication, and we feel her reactions. We watch for her responses; we develop another intuition and another sense of communication. We don’t take the acquisition of language for granted. It means we trust her to show us what she wants in different ways. And the big one: we trust language will come when it’s meant to come. We are so used to this reality of Coraline not talking but us reading her gestures, moods, sounds and facial expressions and I think that’s amazing to feel that present with her each day as we experience moments together.
I recently heard one of Coraline’s classmates at preschool say, “I’m just going to stand back under this roof because of the rain”. There is so much knowledge in this sentence and it made me think of the incredible language level of typical three year olds. But back to trust we come. Trust that this is not our journey right now. This will be our journey in the future.
Coraline can currently say “cat” and “ish” for fish. We do, of course, narrate to her what we are doing. We do amazing things with Makaton (sign language), flash cards, speech therapists and such. I’ve learned so much. She learns visually rather than by listening. It has really brought me to think about communication and to appreciate it in all its forms.
To see what others have answered see:
#ourEXTRAordinarylife
#nuestravidaEXTRAordinaria