Progress with Speech

Last night Elise suffered from insomnia again. She started crying at some godforsaken hour of the night. I went in to calm her and she calmed easily. However, she started crying anytime I left, so I decided to sleep on couch cushions in her room again. I have no idea how long I was there because I was sleeping off and on. I'd wake when she'd get too noisy with her play. She would be standing in her bed doing the motions for her new favorite Eric Carle book, acting it out. I'd tell her to lie down and that it was time for night night. She'd comply, but soon I'd wake and there she'd be standing again. Hubby finally traded places with me because he will sleep right through her play and noise. Needless to say, she was tired today.

Elise had therapy from 8-10 this morning. She did great. There was very little crying and protesting. I've been impressed with both of the therapists that she's had this weekend. The one today told me that Elise spontaneously said dog when she was showing her a card with a dog. She was not even asking Elise to produce speech at that time. We've heard her say dog spontaneously before, but it's great that she showed someone else this skill. I think her confidence is growing.

After the session, the therapist told me that Elise is already through the first stage of things they were working on her achieving. This isn't too much of a surprise because when she left the university, she had a lot of newly emerging skills. These have since become much more solidified. It's still wonderful to hear. During Elise's break, she came out to where the family was playing and waved to hubby and I when prompted by her therapist. Then, the boys came over to see her and she also waved to them when prompted. She had to contemplate that one before complying! The boys were really excited. I was actually a bit shocked to see her so compliant. I'm hopeful that she'll someday learn to greet people in this way without so much direct prompting. Yeah Elise.

We took the kids to the mall to play. There was a boy playing on a lion figure where Elise was also playing. He was probably about her age. He wanted it to himself and was subtly (at least subtly for a 3 year old) pushing her away. The mom of course ignored this. I stood back and watched to see how Elise would handle this. It was a riot. She ignored it at first. When it continued, she stopped and looked directly into his eyes (great eye contact). She almost seemed confused. Next thing I know, she's pushing him back in the exact same way. Honestly, the reason I found this so funny was that she was not doing it to retaliate, I think she was "social referencing" and "playing" with him. Not the social referencing I'm looking for, but wow, she tried. I'm so proud. She's pushed kids in the past, but it was with emotion. This was not.

While at the mall, we took the kids through an obstacle course they have there for children, for an outrageous price of course. Anyway, the boys went through with the worker. For Elise, I went through with her. She loved it! I'm glad I took her through though because the way it's run is that the worker yells out the instructions to the kids and tries to have them go as quickly as possible. This caused Elise to just freeze because it was probably too difficult for her to process. Since I was there, I was able to physically prompt her about what to do. She had no problems, in fact she was squealing with delight. However, I didn't fare as well. Let's just say that 39 is getting a bit old to be doing these kinds of things. It's definitely built for smaller more agile people.

At dinner tonight Elise finished eating and wanted to leave the table. We've been working on having her sign "all done". She would do this sometimes at the university program, but really only does it for us when we manipulate her arms. On her own tonight, she not only signed it, she said twice, very clearly, All Done. Shock - that's the word I felt at the moment of her utterance. Thrilled once it sank in that she'd spoken so well and with such purpose. She is so close. Her improvement lately is astounding. I'm sure this is just the start of great things to come.