Noisy

For the most part, Elijah has been a really quiet child.  He hasn't used his voice much.  He cries and whines, but no imitation, not much babbling, and not really any words (not anything that he uses consistently enough to be considered speech).  But lately, the little man has been really noisy.  And it's a good thing.  A really good thing!

To my knowledge, kiddos don't just skip developmental steps.  There are exceptions, of course.  For example, kids don't technically need to crawl in order to walk.  There are a whole bunch of steps that do need to occur before walking, though...i.e. sitting and standing.  Likewise, kids don't just wake up one day and start talking (at least I don't think they do).  They babble, they imitate, they speak their own baby language first.

So to see Elijah imitate, even if it is screeching, is a really good thing.  It's a step in the right direction.

One night at dinner, Andy stretched and made a stretching noise...and then Elijah did it too.  Andy and Elijah went back and forth a bit - Elijah imitated.  Elijah is definitely a daddy's boy.  The first thing Elijah ever imitated was galloping after his dad.  Imitation of a vocal sound is a fairly new thing, though.  We're hearing more babbling out of the guy too.  He's realizing that his voice has power.  And it's getting noisy around here.  Which is definitely a good thing!  It reinstills hope in me that we will indeed be able to get some speech out of this kid.  I hope, I hope!

The following video is in the middle of the father/son stretching-screeching fest... Enjoy ;)



P.S. We're currently in the middle of The Listening Program with Elijah, which is something his clinic based OT recommended to us.  She thought it might help calm him in his responses to certain noises (he's terrified of sounds that come from the coffee grinder, food processor, blender, vacuum cleaner, etc.).  I don't think it's a coincidence that our little guy is getting more vocal during this therapy. Pretty cool.

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