auditory memory

I feel that Kevin has had a huge bump in his language the past few weeks! I am sure it directly correlates to his last mapping, but it is so much fun to hear him talk up a storm using proper grammer, syntax, and clear(er) articulation! Something very exciting happened today, though, that brought tears to my eyes! This was one of those true 'CI moments' for me, as a Mom.

Kevin was in music class this morning and, as usual, was walking around the room rather than sitting in my lap. The teacher was talking about auditory memory and she wanted to show us this through the use of singing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'. She would have us sing a phrase and then hold her hands to her mouth during the next phrase instead of singing it so that the kids would hear the song in the head rather than hear us singing it. I wasn't sure how much Kevin was paying attention because at that time he was more focused on things in the room rather than the teacher, but when she put her hands to her mouth, Kevin waited for the next phrase and then filled in the blank for her! For instance, we would sing, 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' and Kevin would conclude with 'Ran up the water spout' once he realized no one was singing it. His auditory memory seems to be great! Also, I was impressed with how much he was paying attention without seeming like he was. It was great, my little boy who is deaf was helping fill in the blanks to the song!

He also did a very good rendition of 'Wheels on the bus' tonight. At his school, they were singing the verse about the baby crying and saying 'wah, wah, wah' to work on 'w' sound. He perfected it in his song tonight and actually said the entire verse perfectly clear.

I know that their language comes in peaks and then levels off and then peaks and levels off.... and we are really enjoying this climbing to a peak. I feel like Kevin is on his way to a completely different level right now!