Mimics

Here’s a visual for you:

Cooper with hot pink Barbie sunglasses on top of his head (like daddy), carrying a purple flowered purse (like mommy), wearing mommy’s silver ballet flats, pushing his baby doll in his pink stroller, talking on the cell phone.  We have no idea where he gets these ideas from. ::says with sarcasm::  (Chris is slacking with the camera, so you’ll have to just use your imagination.)

Charlotte’s speech therapy went well this week.  The therapist who has done all of the therapy up until now is name Yoncoli (not loving her name, but she is super sweet!) and this week Charlotte had a new therapist introduced, Amanda.  Well, she’s not quite new since she did Charlotte’s evaluation.  We introduced Amanda back into therapy since when Charlotte goes to the center they need the flexibility of having Charlotte know and feel comfortable with at least two therapists.

On Wednesday with Amanda, they reviewed more sounds and worked a lot on mimicking.  Amanda is concerned that Charlotte isn’t mimicking as much as she should for her age and this is slowing her learning progression.  Chris brought up that she mimics Cooper all.the.time (which means for us we end up with two toddlers misbehaving instead of one), but she rarely will copy what we are doing.

Chris told Amanda that he thinks it’s a confidence issue with Charlotte.  She’s just unsure of herself and timid to try new things unless she sees that Cooper safely does something.  Amanda recommended that to build her confidence and have her identify actions better that we over-narrate her day for her.  This means we constantly need to talk her through what she’s doing, what she just did, and what she’s about to do next and then praise her tons for it.  Amanda also said that she will definitely recommend that Charlotte have in-center therapy since she seems to learn quicker with peers and will learn how to mimic since other children her age will be doing it.

Today when Yoncoli came they worked more on sounds.  She was happy to see Charlotte making progress and at least making more babbling sounds.  She still noticed that Charlotte will do or say something else when asked to make a specific sound, unless you are persistent with her.  She gave the okay to begin withholding items until she makes the proper sound.  For instance she can’t have her milk until she makes a muh-muh sound, even if she signs milk.  Luckily we have already introduced this concept and it seems to be going well.  She even gets excited to make the sound and has started making the sound without prompting.

Chris also mentioned to Yoncoli that Charlotte LOVES music and picks up on music/songs pretty quickly.  He asked Yoncoli to possibly find some songs we can use to teach her certain sounds.  We already started ‘I like to eat apples and bananas’, but if you know of any other songs, please share with us! 

Chris also let Yoncoli know that Charlotte seems less apt to learn when we have structured time, but learns better when we are on a walk, playing games, or doing something she is interested in.  Yoncoli said to follow her lead, but also try to get her interested in other activities, since she seems to be a little too self directed in her play.  It’s important to introduce her to some structured/instructional play since she will need those skills for school.

The toughest part of this therapy is to not get defensive about the things we do as parents or the decisions we make.  It is really hard to not say, ‘Well we already narrate her day’ or ‘We prefer follow our children’s lead and if they want to play independently we let them especially since they will have plenty of time to have structured play/learning’.  We have to keep reminding ourselves that our role is to learn new ways to help Charlotte learn quicker and getting her help isn’t an attack on our parenting skills.