Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Learning More about Communication

Our speech and hearing specialist came by the house to work with my daughter yesterday. She said that my little one is actually a very good communicator. This surprised me quite a bit, but when she explained what she meant by communication I understood a little better. She said that only about 20% of communication is really verbal. The rest is comprised of body language and other implied methods.

My little one is very good at pointing with her eyes. For instance she'll turn so she's looking at the TV and then clap her hands which means she wants us to put on one of her Signing Time DVD's. Pretty ingenious really. She shakes her head and makes a few signs. That's quite a bit more than a lot of disabled kids do at her age (19 months).

We're going to work over the next couple of weeks at interaction, or two way conversations. For instance when my daughter bangs on her high chair tray, I'll bang back and see if we can go back and forth. Sometimes it takes her up to a minute to process what I'm doing and respond with a similar action, but it's starting to get the wheels turning. It's amazing how even little activities like this can help her progress.

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