BOOM!!! (Another reason why Alex's nickname is appropriate.)

Taylor and Alex have been T-Bird and A-Bomb for as long as they've been Taylor and Alex.  I'm pretty sure I call Taylor "bird" or "birdie" more than I call her Taylor.  I refer to Alex as Bomber often, but usually just call him by his name when talking to him, just to help him understand, since he hasn't been hearing as long as the rest of us.

And although I probably could write an entire post on how their nicknames do a great job describing their personalities, this post isn't truly about that.

But this post is about an explosion from A-bomb.  But this time, it's a great explosion!  I'm pretty sure we've hit a language explosion!!!

When I go back and look at Taylor's progress, there is no doubt that she was an early talker.  By 18 months of age, Taylor had hundreds of words (new ones daily) and was just starting to put sentences together.   I think one of the hardest parts of Alex's speech delay is that I'm often comparing him to Taylor, and because she was an early talker, it makes the comparison that much more difficult.

In the oral deaf community, you often refer to you child as x months/years hearing.  So although Alex will be 2.5 in March, he is just shy of 17 months hearing.  But the ultimate goal in the oral deaf community is to bridge the gap between his hearing age and his actual age, so by the time they enter kindergarten, they are on par with their hearing peers receptively, cognitively and expressively.

So Alex will be 17 months hearing this week.  And Alex easily has over 100 words and is learning new ones daily.  Also, Alex is just starting to put basic sentences together (bye, Nana) and says some multiple word common phrases (I love you. Where are you? Here I am. All done.).  Also, Alex never shuts up.  Even if half of what he says is jargon or unintelligible, he is always talking.  Most of what he says is spontaneous without us having to prompt him and one of his favorite things to do is go through a book and tell us what everything is.  He pointed and said "umbrella" to me last night.  I didn't even know he knew what one was!

Do you who that reminds me of?  His sister at 17 months old!!!  And since I know that Taylor was an early speaker, I feel that Alex's true expressive skills are between 17 months and 2.5...which means that he may already be closing that gap between hearing age and actual age expressively.

(A little bragging moment - his receptive and cognitive skills are already 100% caught up to his actual age.  His therapists are doing receptive and cognitive therapies with him that are for 3 year olds!)

(A little not bragging moment - his social skills still need some work.  He still has a hard time attending at circle time for long periods of time, but he's an active 2 year old boy - I'm not overly concerned about that.)

Of course, the biggest difference between Taylor and Alex at 17 months old is clarity.  Taylor has always been pretty easy to understand and Alex has lots of annunciation issues.  But as his speech therapist reminded me, that it is very common for deaf kids to have clarity issues, so we are working on getting the words first and tackling the articulation second.  And combined with his PROMPT therapy (where a therapist moves his mouth to show him how to make certain sounds), we are optimistic that will come too.  Even if he has to continue with speech therapy throughout most of his schooling, I have faith he will be able to speak clearly someday.

But let's stop and focus on the positive right now!  My little deaf boy has recently decided that oral communication is his cup of tea.  And with every new word that he shares with us, my heart explodes knowing that "he's got this."  Because holy shit - - he really does have this.