Sunday, February 26, 2012

Will She Ever Talk?

Christmas 2011 4

When AnnaKate was first diagnosed with Rubinstein Taybi syndrome my thoughts often obsessed over this question. I know family members think about it a lot and strangers ask it very bluntly.

Will she ever talk??????

AnnaKate will be 6 in April and I have truly stopped worrying about what I can’t control. (Insert my mother’s applause here…) I used to really worry about not hearing my child’s voice, her inability to tell me what hurts or what she loves, and not hearing her say I love you. But as AnnaKate has grown, she has learned to communicate. She signs, gestures, uses communication systems (iPad, books, pictures, etc.) and does speak a few words. AnnaKate has taught us that speech is not the most important thing, communication is. She has a voice, it just may not sound like ours.

We are seeing lots of improvement in the area of communication which is exciting to see. Her SLP had me compile a list of her words and I was shocked at how many she does have.

Frequent good quality words spoken

Apple
Eat
Arm
Eyes
Me
Hi
Byebye
Mama
Dada
T-T (grandmother)
Bubbles
Go
hole
up
pop
Wilma
kitty
poo poo

Approximations

Beau (ba)
yes (ya)
grandaddy (gadada)
walk (wawa)
t t (trot)
Caroline (Kuh Kuh)
Sheila (ela)
Earline (E)
Eli (E-Lie)
yaya (more or juice...to be determined)Letters (ABCDEFGHIKLMOPRSTW)
book (kuh)
crate (tuh)
AnnaKate (tuh)
potty (papa)
soap (o)
gymnsatics (tics)
yoga (ga)

AnnaKate has a huge signing vocabulary. She picks up signs very quickly (thanks Signing Times…) and sometimes even creates her own.

So, to answer the question…”Will she ever talk?”---Yes, she WILL communicate!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sassy Pants

ak at dinner

So I texted this picture to my sister tonight and she suggested that this was just the right picture to get me blogging again!

Context of picture:
While we were eating dinner tonight AnnaKate got up from the table and moved her chair to the desk in the kitchen. She then moved her placemat and then her plate. She climbed into her chair and began to eat her dinner at the desk away from us!

This is our life with this silly, stubborn, fun loving girl! I sure wish I knew what was going on in her head when she did things like this.