Our First Word!

Jonathan at 4 months

I have delayed this blog for a a couple of weeks because I wanted to make sure that what we were hearing was real.... but it is official! We have our first real WORD! And it is.... dum-dum-de-dummmmm.......

Ball!

Well, really, BA ... the L appears to be silent. It took me a while to believe it, but he consistently says it when he sees balls, he plays with them... even if he sees one on TV. Katy (speech) and Kristin (EI teacher) agree with us. He is ALSO saying mama.... that is more sporatic, but I believe it to be true. He is also making soooooo many more noises. The other day it really sounded like he said night-night to his doll... but of course, I have not heard it again. He also made a "Kiiii" noise when he was trying to get me to pet the kitty. So we are just thrilled that we are starting to hear sounds that are more like words!!!

He ALSO has signed "more" a few times. It is inconsistantly happening, but the few times he has done it were witnessed by both our Speech and OT.

One of the interesting things about these developments is that Jonathan appears to have an easier time generating these words/sounds/signs when he is NOT prompted. They are spontaneous. When we ask him or prompt him to say or do these things, we have to be VERY patient and wait ... wait ... wait for the word to come out. And it may not. The interesting thing about this is that this actually supports an Apraxia diagnosis.

Developmental Apraxia of Speech (the Unknown "A") is a motor planning problem. Essentially, the brain has difficulty telling the body (in this case, mouth and vocal cords, etc) what to do to produce speech. It is a coordination problem.... organizing the movements, etc etc... It is not a motor problem in the sense of making movements. The muscles all work. But in Apraxia, the brain has a hard time telling the mouth what to do. That is the best way I know how to explain it.

Since it appears Jonathan can and does make these words/sounds spontaneously... but has trouble when asked to do it (he wants to... it is just hard) ... it makes sense that maybe it is a planning issue. Hmmm.... makes me think. Typically Apraxia is VERY difficult to formally diagnose before age 3. If our Developmental Pedi was right about him at 16 months... then he is the MAN! Props to Dr M!

Ahhhh... time will tell!!!

Pia