Clara has been making good progress with her apraxia of speech every day. She can now say "Ma-mi" and "dad-dy" and "bye-bye." while waving her hand in synchrony. The waving hand and saying hello are important as it exhibits two tasks the brain performs at the same time. Before she was doing duplicatives like "ma-ma". It's taken a lot of work but she learning more and more words with enthusiasm and pride. Our speech therapist mentioned how she could tell Clara had so much inside to say but the circuitry between her brain tongue and mouth just is not fluid quite yet. With more work we'll get there. But we still have the breakdowns in communication where she'll paint in a direction of like the cupboard and clearly want something but you can't always understand. If you don't guess right, it may produce a tantrum.
On our report with reference to the testing the evaluator noted "Clara demonstrated excellent attention and responsiveness during the the session". And it was suggested we see PROMPT clinician(they help move the mouth in coordinated movements to help produce the right sounds) to work further on her speech disorder. She is getting quite involved in dressing up her dolls (most of them are all wearing Calem's diapers) but her blankies are still her favorite comfort object. She can dress herself (and undress too!) and usually gets her shoes on the correct foot. She is self directed and can spend time on her own drawing, "reading," or playing with her stuffed animals. Jason has been posting her art work here.
At dinner time, she is having fun pouring water from 1 cup to another with the occasional spills. She eats well and is not usually a picky eater (she eats way more vegetables than I do). She is still sleeping about 12 hours per night, with a 2 hour nap.
All in all, Clara is a true delight to spend time with, no words needed :)
