Grendel’s Kitchen

Today was a big day at speech class, and sadly I missed it! But isn’t this the most wonderful email to get (from Christine, our amazing speech language pathologist at The Learning Center for the Deaf, who is working on Li-Li’s aural rehabilitation):

I had a very nice session with Li-Li today. She was very interactive and engaged with me. She imitated 5 out of 6 of the Ling sounds while playing with the toys (not “oo,” but she let me squeeze her little cheeks to help her round her lips, and she enjoyed squeezing mine while I modeled the “oo” sound). She even made a nice approximation of “s,” which sounded different from her “sh” sound!

Also, while putting the toys back in the box, she waited while I produced the sound for each of the toys before putting each one in the box, and she identified 5 out of 6 of them (for some reason she didn’t pick up the baby when I said “sh”??). While playing with other toys, she imitated “buh buh buh buh” for the sound of a boat, and she pointed to a picture of a boat when I made that sound. She also said “eh” in response to multiple spoken models for the word “egg.” She requested “more” by signing and saying “mo” several times during our session.

Another wonderful thing is that Li-Li was really babbling more today. She is now mixing different consonant sounds in one string of syllables (e.g., “bababa, dada, ba”). This is a great sign because it demonstrates that she is playing with her articulators and figuring out how to vary sounds within one “utterance,” which is more sophisticated than reduplicated babbling (i.e., the same syllable repeated such as “bababa”). These are typical progressions that babies go through on the way to learning to say meaningful words. Li-Li just has a head start because she is already using several meaningful words!

She said “uh-oh” several times today when objects fell on the floor. She also imitated the word “bubbles” by saing “buh buh.” Li-Li also demonstrated comprehension of some spoken utterances that were presented without sign support. For example, while looking at the strip of “ABC” pictures on the wall, she pointed to the duck when I said, “Where’s the duck? Quack quack quack.”

When it was time to leave I bombarded her with the word “sticker” before I produced the sign. I then said it many more times while signing “STICKER” when she was choosing her sticker. Finally, while walking back to daycare, I was carrying her so I couldn’t sign, and I said, “Where’s your sticker?” and she brought her hand around from behind her back to show me her sticker.

Thought you might like a little snapshot of our session (this is basically what my weekly notes consist of :) FYI). Enjoy your day, and I hope all goes well with the adoption finalization tomorrow.