Fervor

I periodically get emails from Babycenter giving me the heads up on where my kid should be developmentally. These are all well and fun when you are pregnant and learning your baby now has fingernails but I think I have out grown the fun they used to bring.

Today I got this:

What can a 2-year-old remember? More and more every day! He's developing a way of thinking called spatial representation or symbolic thinking. Basically it means he can see things in his mind's eye. As experience and habit create new connections in his brain, he becomes better able to call up these captured images: what a lost teddy looks like, the way to Grandma's house, the ice cream and cake served at the party yesterday.

Help your preschooler lay down these memory tracks in the brain by asking questions about things he knows: "Hmmm, what will the bunny say goodnight to next?" Ask him to recall details: "Did you have vanilla ice cream or chocolate?" At night, review your day together: "And then what did we do?"

It is hard not feel disappointed that I can't interact with G in that way. I remember having similar conversations with K and being amazed at the details she would speak of and the fun tangents those conversations would take. Right now, I am over the moon when G asks for a glass of water/ "wah-wer"- one of about 10 words he uses without prompting.

I see the same mind developments they speak of in the email in other ways. He is a great problem solver when it comes to puzzles, memory games, hide and go seek, how to get that item that is purposely out of reach into hand. He has the sense of humour of a very small french mime and not only does he now insist on having a straw in every cup of juice, he will is also the first to check and make sure K has a straw too.

If he sill isn't overtly verbal by this Halloween would he not look cute in a striped shirt, barret, and face painted white? At least people won't be so dead set on hearing those three words.

G had another assessment today and he was not his usual cooperative self. It is as if he has gotten too comfortable in the five visits he has had there and wants to make sure he plays with everything he has played with before to make sure it in good working order, and then quickly get on to everything else in the room  that he has never touched and must figure out. He was not at all chatty with the SLP and I wonder if he has similar frustrations as I do. This is the 4th SLP who has assessed him and while two of those were privately sought, is it not more efficient when assessing the progress of a child to be consistent with the person evaluating the child? Ask me yesterday and I would have told you I was excited to have a new set of eyes help G get the help he needs. Heck, I still believe that is true just not "excited" by the variables that are out of my control.

On a positive note, meeting another new face had me looking back at list of consonants he could successfully make a few months ago compared to now. The list is growing, which is great! In January, G digressed  from using "d" and replacing it with the "g" sound. He is now back to calling Dad, "dada" rather than "gahgah" consistantly but still attempts "d" sounds with "g" about 50% of the time. That being said, he is a hundred times more willing to attempt sounds now than he was four months ago so I would say it more than balances out. This is progress and I'll take it.