An ever growing list of words.

I would imagine that under any circumstance, parents find their children's development miraculous. You'd have to be completely not paying attention to miss this breathtaking evolution...the growth of the baby blob to a moving, communicating, opinion holding, skill mastering human being.

As parents of a child with hearing loss, this experience feels intensified. We are hyperly aware of Amichai's language development, which has made us take particular notice of all areas of development as well. Even when it may appear that we are just hanging out, the De Lowe family is working in our organic dual language 'curriculum'. It is imbedded in our daily life. I am grateful that we have found a balance-as we watch our amazing son take both languages by the horns and explode with growth, we become more aware of the benefit of working speech and signing home therapy into daily activities, rather than taking time out of each day to do it separately. We see that Amichai has incorporated this language-focused way of life into his sense of how the world works: a fire engine goes by and he points to his ear to tell us 'I hear that'. We look at books and he 'reads' to us, signing and speaking fluidly and interchangeably, as he notices us do. Every game is filled with language, every adventure a chance to express himself and interact with the world through varied modes of communication.

Every day, we are more and more at ease with this process. Six months ago, we couldn't have imagined our son ever communicating verbally or in sign. We were all working so hard toward it, but it was difficult to wrap our brains around the fact that it would ever happen.

And then he exploded. About a month and a half ago. First, it was signing. He used one sign, appropriately in context, and we responded accordingly. He got what he wanted (more!) and all of a sudden, it clicked: Amichai suddenly got the concept that words, spoken and signed, were attached to things and ideas...and that he could use them to express himself!

A whole new world. It's like it all clicked at once...his receptive language grows exponentially every day (he responds appropriately to most things that we say or sign to him) and his expressive language is steadily increasing alongside it. I wanted to share the current list of words/exclamations/sounds in both English and ASL that Ami uses regularly and correctly, without prompting:

In ASL:
Car
Clean up
Banana
Orange
Ball
Flower
Mama
Ema
Cat
Dog
Monkey
Lion
Bear
Book
Up
More
Finished
Spin
Open
Heard that
Where
No more
Music
Balloon
Bird
Fish
Food
Milk
Water
Applause

In English:
Hmmm
Wheeeee
Uh oh
Mmmmm
Yum
Hot
Hi
Mama
Banana
Again
More
Up
Roar
Moo
Baaa
Oink oink

We are so proud of our boy, and our lives become more and more rich every day as he continues to develop into this wildly curious, bright and communicative being.

Miraculous, truly.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone