Talking

Maddy's speech has been one of her main areas of delay. I've spoken about her issues here many times before, starting in this post nearly a year ago (that's half a life-time for a 2 year old!) and in greater detail in this aptly named post, "Worry" which was subsequently followed by "Communicating" less than a week later. Speech for Maddy has been a bit harder - mainly due to the cleft palate. Her "receptive language" (that is, the amount of language that she understands) is pretty average/age appropriate. Since her surgery, her vocabulary has been improving exponentially. Currently, her main issue is with articulation (ie, what she does say is very difficult to understand - even for people who are with her all day, every day). 

I know though that she will "catch up", but it will take more practice and speech therapy. We have a really nice therapist who we have been seeing weekly, and sometimes I have to remind myself that Maddy's cleft surgery was only 4 months away - so really, she's only been talking for 4 months. When that is considered, she's doing awesome!

I shot this little video in the bath a week or two ago and thought I'd share it to show you all what her speech is like these days:

(transcription)

Me: Can you sing "Twinkle Twinkle little star?"
Maddy: Twinkle twinkle... HOLD!
Me: No, you can't hold - you're in the bath.
Maddy: Hold please...
Me: No, you cannot
Me: Sing twinkle twinkle
Maddy: Baby!
Me: Twinkle twinkle... oh, Baby

Maddy: Bath!
Me: Ok, Baby do twinkle twinkle.
Maddy: (singing "Twinkle Twinkle") - Again!
Me: Again? What's baby going to do now? Maddy? What's baby doing? Oh - bye bye baby!
Maddy: Bye bye baby! Bye bye baby! Bye!