When Lellow Became Yellow

Friday, 4 October 2013

Like a lot of kids when they first start talking, Lucas pronounced "yellow" like "lellow."

I knew that he would eventually start saying it correctly, and as it got closer to him starting Kindergarten I knew I should be correcting him so he would enunciate it correctly. But I was hesitant, because I enjoyed how cute it sounded to hear "lellow" and when he would say it, it reminded me that he was still my little boy.

A few weeks before school started, out of nowhere, Joe asked Lucas, "What color is the sun?"

We both fully expected to hear "lellow" and I knew that we would secretly share a smile over his head.

Instead, also seemingly out of nowhere, he answered perfectly clearly, "yellow." Joe and I shared more of a shocked looked over his head when that came out of his mouth.

No one had been coaching him to pronounce it "yellow." No one had even brought it up to him. It just naturally flowed out of his mouth as if he had been saying "yellow" this whole time. Except he hasn't.

We asked him again, and again, what color is the sun? And he kept answering "yellow." He didn't realize what the big deal was; he didn't even realize he was saying it differently than he was previously saying it until we pointed it out to him.

Joe and I shared another look - one that said we were going to miss the sound of 'lellow' and that this was just another sign that he was growing up.

He still has a couple of other things that he says that I'm going to miss when he grows out of those as well.

He got 'scented' and 'sensitive' mixed up at one point. Kayla gave him a scented marker for Christmas last year and he got some on this thumb and said that his "thumb is sensitive now." So when talking about something that is scented he says sensitive. He, in turn, gave her a scented pen for her birthday, but it's "see Kayla? It's sensitive, just like the sensitive marker you gave me."

When something is confusing him he says, "Oh I'm confusing!" instead of "I'm confused."

Contents became mixed up with continents. "Where are the Table of Continents in this book?"

I need to start writing down more of his little language quirks before he stops saying them...and before he grows up too much.

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Speaking Up

Monday, 10 June 2013

A couple of weeks ago I was in a situation where someone used the "r-word" in a conversation with me.

I was in a store, checking out, and found myself at the register with a guy who had the word "manager" on his name tag.

I scanned my shopper reward card and as my information came up on his screen he attempted to address me by my name. As he got to my last name he paused and stumbled a bit in trying to pronounce it. I said my last name for him.

That's when he said, "I have trouble pronouncing names, I just end up sounding retarded."

Say what?!

My mind is thinking: You're the manager of the store. You should present yourself as more professional, especially when you're checking out a customer you don't know. You really had to say that? You couldn't stop at just saying 'I have trouble pronouncing names.'

And what does that even mean? You have trouble pronouncing names so you sound retarded.

So you sound like someone who has an intellectual disability and has trouble speaking?

So you sound like someone who has an intellectual disability and low muscle tone which makes enunciating certain sounds difficult for them?

So you sound like someone like....hmmm...my daughter? Someone who does her best to speak her words and tries to get her brain to connect the dots between making her mouth, tongue, and lips all work in sync to come together for perfect speech ... yet it doesn't happen. There are still times we, her family, have trouble understanding her. Hence the whole "Ms Frog had a baby snake" conversation.

Of course this guy knew none of this. Kayla wasn't with me. He didn't know I have a daughter with an intellectual disability.

But the point is, there was no reason for him to make that comparison in the first place. There was no reason for him to compare his trouble pronouncing names with sounding 'retarded.'

Was he expecting me to laugh at his little joke and find that funny?

I didn't immediately say anything (you know, my issue with uncomfortableness in confronting someone about their usage of the r-word). But while he was finishing with my transaction I kept telling myself to "say something! Find your backbone! Speak up! Advocate! An opportunity presented itself for you to find your voice...use it!"

So I did. I wouldn't say I was eloquent. I didn't know what to say and I know I spoke quickly and stumbled over myself. I just said something like, "Next time could you not use the word retarded? I have a daughter who has an intellectual disability and I'd just ask that you think before using that word again."

Of course he was apologetic and appeared embarrassed. I think we both felt a bit awkward. But I did it. I finally spoke up. I finally let someone know how I felt after hearing them use the r-word. I finally found my voice and my backbone.

And maybe, just maybe, (and hopefully), he will think about it the next time he goes to casually throw out that word in a conversation.

 

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Ms Frog Had Baby Snake

Friday, 7 June 2013

What we heard Kayla say the first time:
"Ms Frog had a baby snake."
Process of elimination:
Someone had a baby snake?
Kayla: No... repeats her sentence.
Joe: The frog had a baby snake?
Kayla: No...repeat
Joe: A shake?
Kayla: No...
Me: Oh, Mrs. Vaughn?!
Kayla: Yes!
Lucas: She's saying Mrs. Vaughn had a baby snake.
Kayla: No! Mrs Vaughn had baby snake!
Joe: Snake? Shake?
Kayla: NO! Baby snake!
Me: OH! Ms Vaughn had baby JAKE!
Kayla: YEAH!

Mrs. Vaughn is Kayla's ST in school. Back in Feb she gave birth to her son, Jake. From the rest of the conversation Kayla was able to tell us that Mrs Vaughn brought baby Jake to school and Kayla got to hold him and Mrs. Vaughn took a picture.

Usually we can understand Kayla, but there are still times with some of her enunciation of words, that we play a guessing game as to what she is saying ...and we end up with a conversation like the one above.

 

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The Cello

Thursday, 23 August 2012

I didn't get much info out of Kayla as to how her first day of school went besides her usual "Goooood!" I knew her desk was between J and S so I was able to ask her some questions about them.

"Who did you sit next to at lunch?"
"J."
"What else did you do today?"
"Recess!"
"Who did you play with at recess?"
"J!"
"What did you play?"
"A game."
"What game?"
"Went on the slide!"

I try to ask her other open-ended questions but rarely get any specific answers about what she actually did or anything that happened in class, or what they were learning about. Eventually I let the subject drop.

We have these 'conversation dinner cards' that are like a deck of cards with questions on them. That night I pulled them out and one of the questions was "What is your favorite sound?" (Mine was silence - ha!)

After Lucas talked about his (I think he said a barking dog) Kayla came out with "Cello!"

Not sure that I heard her correctly I asked, "Your favorite sound is a cello?"
"Yes!"
Wow did that seem to come out of the blue. And I said as much when I blurted out, "Where did that come from?" but not really expecting an answer. Or at least an answer that would actually tell me where it came from.

But she told me, "Music!"
"Music?"
"Music class!"

Insert light bulb going off.

"Oh! You had music class today?"
"Yes!"
"And you learned about the cello?"
"Yes!"
"The teacher played the cello?"
"Yes!"
"She did?"
"On the Smartboard!" (and she mimicked touching the Smartboard).


At this point Lucas asked what a cello was and what sound it made. She proceeded to pretend to play a cello and made a humming-type noise to go along with it.

Well cool! Something she remembered and took home with her and could tell us about!

And she volunteered this information on her own.

And it was exciting for me to hear she learned about the cello on her first day of school.

 

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The Look

Friday, 6 April 2012

I was going through some old files on my old desktop and came across video clips I took of Kayla as a toddler.

I took many, many video clips of her. Probably because the camera I was using at the time only took 30 second videos at a time.

Kayla's speech was s-l-o-w-l-y coming along and I loved hearing her little voice say words like 'library', 'sausage', 'helicopter', 'glasses' (pronounced sasses for so long). So I encouraged her to say those words. Over and over. And over again. I mentioned that I liked hearing her say those words, but she, apparently, had had enough.

This particular video was taken 2 weeks before her third birthday. Oh how it makes me laugh to look at it now. Her attitude, her mannerisms (which are still the same to this day), her obvious displeasure with my attempts at speech therapy.

Oh, and the look. The look she gives me at the end is priceless.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

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How Many Hands?

Friday, 10 February 2012

Yesterday I found a draft post I had completely forgotten about. It was perfect timing considering my speech and language differences post I just blogged about.

Kayla has a bad habit of taking more than enough paper towels when she uses the bathroom. She will grab one right after the other and just wad them in a ball and dab her hands; not even really drying them. I've been trying to get her to realize she doesn't need so many. 

One day Kayla had pulled 2 paper towels out of the dispenser when I stopped her from grabbing a 3rd. I asked her, "Kayla how many hands do you have?" fully expecting her to answer with "two" so I could say, "and you only need 2 paper towels."

However, she was one step ahead of me and caught me off guard when she answered, "Three!" 

I had to laugh at her answer as it was certainly not what I was expecting!

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Speech Therapist In Training

Sunday, 24 July 2011

To this day there are still several words that Kayla continues to mispronounce and two of them are 'dand-aid' and 'dirthday.' I usually try to correct her and emphasize the way a word should be pronounced and have her say it back to me. I'll say "BAnd-aid" and "BIrthday". When she stops and slows down and says it after me she can say the words correctly, but when she's talking in a sentence it just flows out easier for her the way she has been saying it.

When Lucas first started talking he picked up on the way Kayla pronounced words and he would say them that way as well. So then I was correcting both of them and emphasizing the way a word should be said.

I can't remember if Lucas was quite two yet, but one day Kayla said she needed a 'dand-aid' and Lucas said, "no, Kayla, BAnd-aid." I remember being surprised that he had picked that up so easily and recognized that was a word she wasn't pronouncing the right way.

I don't usually think about Lucas being observant, but he is very much so. He pays attention and listens to what we're doing with Kayla, and retains that. He seems to know that we help her with her speech, especially clarity and having her repeat things... and us emphasizing sounds. Sometimes he'll chime in after I've repeated a word to Kayla and he'll say it to her too, ("Like this Kayla ...") but he usually doesn't correct her on his own.

The other day as we were driving we passed the church where they both attended Vacation Bible School. If Kayla says all 3 words she runs them together and its not very clear what she is saying. Usually she'll say Bible School (although that comes out sounding something like Fible school). So that's another word I'll emphasize "BIble".

So as we passed the church they both called out Vacation Bible School. Lucas heard Kayla say 'fible school' and he told her it was, "Vacation Bible School." (I kept quiet and didn't say anything). She said it, or tried to, but saying 'vacation' and 'bible' ran together and it just sounded more like she was saying two words instead of three. He didn't think she was saying the "vacation" part so he slowed it down. "Kayla, it's Vacation Bible School. It's 3 words, see? Vacation. Bible. School." Kayla said, "Let me do it." She slowed down, concentrated on what she was saying, and got all 3 words. Lucas told her, "Yeah Kayla! That's how you say it! Good job!"

I guess I shouldn't be surprised if he's a speech therapist when he grows up!

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