Monday, February 11, 2008

incidental language acquisition

Today we were sitting in the family room and playing with a talking cookie jar where you put a cookie in the jar and it says something back. We were working on the listening game, which is how we perform sound tests in the sound booth. Basically, Kevin holds a cookie to his ear, I say 'oo' or another ling sound covering my mouth, and when he hears it, he repeats it and puts the cookie in the jar. He is very good at this game and we were just dusting off his skills since he is going in for another mapping in a month. The cookie jar talks in a cartoon voice and says things such as, 'do you want to play with me?', 'Let's count cookies', etc. Well, Kevin got bored of the game and moved over and started playing with an etch-a-sketch. All of a sudden, the cookie jar said, 'Can I have another?' in the funny cartoon voice, and Kevin said 'yes' and immediately put a cookie in the jar! I was amazed that he tuned in to the jar, understood the words, and then performed the action! Sometimes I wonder how much language he is getting from other sources, and this confirms that he clearly hears and understands from a lot of different sources.

He is putting more and more 2 word sentences together too. Today he said 'off shoe' for 'take my shoe off'. It is fun to see him explore more sentences. His comprehension is also getting better and better. In therapy last week, the therapist was hiding objects in a box and Kevin would have to say what the object was. At one point, she just said 'I have something that you can roll and throw' and Kevin immediately said 'ball'. We just looked at each other in amazement.

1 comment:

Wendy said...

Isn't it amazing how they pick up on things even when you aren't drilling it into their heads???

Those are the moments that really throw us, too. And remind us that we are just guides. These kids figure the heavy stuff out on their own.

We need to work on the listening game in our house. Erin's audi didn't start pushing it until her last mapping in December. We have until April to get her to understand the concept. She is just so impatient and wants to drop things at will. Ugh! I have a feeling it is going to be a rough sell to get her to pay attention in the audi office in a couple months. *sigh*

Kevin is doing so well!!! I love reading your blog.