Baby Talk

I haven't posted much about this at all, but I'm not sure why. At Morgan's 18 Month appointment the pediatrician was concerned about her lack of words. In fact, she said that she was "borderline" needing to see a speech therapist. Yes, at that point Morgan only used about 5-6 words, but I know that kids develop at different rates, some are late talkers others earlier. As Morgan doesn't have another official Dr. Appointment until she turns two, we left the office saying that we would follow up on Morgan's speech when we made appointments for the new baby. The Dr. gave us some tips on how to work with her in the meantime.

Since that appointment I took more notice of other kids Morgan's age. I did have to admit that most of them used more words and communicated a little better. Now, the Dr. did acknowledge that Morgan seemed to understand what was being said to her, but she just didn't yet use words to communicate with us.

So, fast-forward to now. I'd say that Morgan has about 25 words now. An improvement, but I think still a little behind in the professionals' opinions. Some words she uses regularly and others she will say to us if we ask her to (such as "what does a cow say?"....Moo). We got some books with big pictures and words and continually encourage her to "say" certain words. Not much happened for a while, but in the last few weeks she's even busted out some words that we were not actually "working on." I'm not sure if it's because we've been making a big effort at this or she's just reaching a developmental point where she's really ready to start talking. In any case we are very proud she is making some good progress here.

She is also using a lot more signs, which helps, but they only do so much. For example, if she uses the "more" sign sometimes we know exactly what she wants more of...but sometimes we don't. Then she gets frustrated if we can't figure it out. At mealtimes we'll say "more what?" and she'll slap her hands on the tray of her high chair in frustration. I do think these times of frustration are good for her though. They seem to happen right before she takes another leap in her skills. Considering the amount of slapping of trays and sometimes hitting of Mama that's going on right now...I hope there's another burst forthcoming.

It will be interesting to see what happens with her communication once the new baby arrives. Some say she'll regress, others say she'll take the "big girl" role and improve her skills. We'll see!