There's a mom in my Early Intervention group whose son is one month older than Charlie. He has moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears but with his hearing aids he hears normally. This mom is, I think, a little crazed--already fretting about getting her kid, now one and a half years old, into a special-needs preschool. "And remind me again how his hearing is with his aids?" I asked her. (Beat.) "Normal," she answers. She has more than one speech therapist come to her house, I don't know how often at least twice a month I'm sure, and her son also has one-on-one services with a speech therapist twice a week at EI while she's in the parent groups. Her kid has tons of words. Tons.
Then there's a kid Charlie's age who is severe to profound in both ears and not yet aided but his mom has taught him tons of signs.
Back in August when EI evaluated Charlie for his annual assessment for services, they determined that he was at or near age level in all categories--social and emotional, cognitive, motor, and language. They loved how social he was, how he initiated peek-a-boo games and was comfortable enough to roam all around the room without me. He climbed up and down stairs and did all sorts of tricks with Cheerios. "He is reported to color at restaurants," the EI people noted in their review. They said if anything his receptive language (what he understands when we talk to him) had "holes," and his expressive language (what he says to us) was advanced. At that time I think his words were "car," "cat," "Dada," and "go," and he used them all during that one hour they were evaluating him.
Pretty much the next day he stopped talking altogether but suddenly seemed to understand everything we said to him: "Charlie, go get your shoe and bring it to Daddy." He toddles off and returns with a teeny brown leather boot. "Charlie, point to Summer." He turns and points at the redhead. "Charlie, make me a vodka martini, up and dirty." You get the idea.
I was happy enough. Charlie automatically qualifies for speech services because of his hearing loss, yet his language isn't so delayed that anyone is worried about him. Really the best case scenario. But then "cat" and "car" and "go" disappeared. That freaked me out. I don't want to be like Cindy, the mom whose kid hears normally but she's all spazzed about getting him services and sending him to the school for the deaf. But maybe I need to do something, since Charlie really isn't talking. I decided to ask for more therapy. And I decided to crank it up with the signs, because if he's not talking, at least he can sign to communicate--to share an interaction, like "Hey Mom look up at that plane." I told the other moms in the group that he signs "more." "What should I do next, 'eat'?" Christy, whose son is the one who signs a lot, said "Nouns are a lot easier." She told me to buy books from Garlic Press and Bright Baby.
"First I'll have to learn the signs," I told Priscilla, Charlie's speech pathologist. We started making a list of the ones I already know. It turns out I know 50 signs. Priscilla told me to sign hand-over-hand--to put my hands on top of Charlie's and make the sign with him. She said he could have a one-on-one session during our group meeting at EI, starting this week. I ordered the Garlic Press books but they haven't even arrived yet. I started showing Charlie the signs I already know while reading books we already have.
It's been a couple of weeks and here's where we are. For words, "cat," "car," and "go" have not returned, but now we have "ball" and "bus" and "woof woof." ("Bus" comes out "bah." His favorite toys are his school buses; he has about four. He was so happy in New York this weekend, pointing out the crosstown buses and calling out "Bah! Bah! Bah!") He's even starting to say "Mama," although he seems a little bit confused about who Mama is. He sometimes points to himself, as if he hasn't figured out yet that he and I are two separate people. Which is kind of cute. He says "ah-ah" for apple and has said "nana" for banana.
The signs are coming too. First he added "all done." Then "truck," "baby," and, over Thanksgiving, "dog." That was so cute. He was lying in bed between Jeff and me and said "woof woof" and Jeff or I said, "Yeah, that's what a doggie says," and Charlie patted his leg, which is the sign for dog, and Jeff and I jumped up and started yelling. Tonight he signed for "horse" while we read a book and I squeezed him really really hard.
Other people say that it helps kids communicate, since they're capable of signing dozens of words before they can make those mouth movements. I am not sure why Charlie doesn't speak as much as his peers yet, and I'm hoping a little extra speech therapy will help. But if we can teach Charlie signs too, and keep using them even after he starts talking, maybe they'll be useful in noisy situations where he's having trouble hearing words, like, say, a cocktail party. "Mom, I need a refill on my straw-cup vodka martini. And hey, look over there, a bus!"
