Kamdyn, Communication, and Down syndrome

 

 

I'll start with a few "older" videos of Kamdyn and then put some more recent ones at the end. 

 

 

Summer 2012, 2 years:

Kamdyn wasn't saying much of anything at this point, mostly babbling.

 

 

October 2012, 2 1/2 years old

She wasn't thrilled about me insisting that she say "chip", but I knew she could.

 

December 2012, about 2 1/2

Kamdyn has always loved music and singing.  She tries to sing along and mimic the words.  Right now, she does a really adorable "Jesus loves me".  I'll have to get that on video.

April 2013, almost 3 years old

Chi-Chi is our (Madison's) beloved, now deceased, hermit crab by the way. 

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I took this video in March 2013 (one month before her 3rd birthday):

Every night before bed, we had a ritual of Kamdyn repeating "I love you".  It was a pretty big deal in this video when, on her own, she said, "I love Mommy."  Since then, she has a lot more spoken words, and they are more clear.

The following video was taken May 2013(right after she turned 3).  Most of the things she says right now are single words.  Her phrases right now are "I love Mommy", "I love Daddy", and the other day she said (for the first time on her own) "want juice".  She says "I love Mommy" in this video and some other words at the end.

 

It is nice to see her making progress with her speech.  Both times she has had tubes put in her ears, I have noticed a huge difference.  Prior to her second set of tubes in February, she was not saying "Mommy".  She only had a few words.  The first video was taken a month after her tubes, and she was already talking so much more.  So if any new moms or just kids who are younger than Kamdyn, I would strongly encourage you to stay on top of those hearing tests and any fluid in the ears.  It really does make a difference.

 

The other thing I would really recommend to anyone who is coming after us would be sign language.  I know some people are skeptical, but I am telling you, it is great.  Start learning the signs and using them when your little one is a baby.  It will help you get in the habit of doing them.  It will help you and others in your family to learn them.  And your little one will be soaking them in, even if they don't have the fine motor ability to do them.  Once you know they can do them, wait for them to do the sign before you give them what they want. 

 

I remember when Kamdyn first started signing.  At mealtimes, when she wanted another bite, she would scream.  I started telling her "No screaming.  Sign "more", while signing "more", and then ignoring her screaming until she signed "more".  Guess what!  She signed "more" and the screaming stopped.  It completely changed mealtimes from being loud, chaotic, and miserable to much more quiet and peaceful, or as quiet as they can be with 3 young kids anyway.  Now, we do the same thing with saying the words that we know she can say, like "chip" in the video above.  It's easier for her to just point, but I try to get her to say the word if I know she can.

 

 

Here's a recent video of some of her words:

 

Kamdyn still does the sign for a lot of the words that she says.  She almost always signs "more" when she says it, so that's why I was trying to get her to sign it.  Watching the video now, I can see that she did, but I just missed it, because I was videoing and trying to show her flashcards at the same time.  Even now, with her saying some words, the signs are helpful, because some words sound a lot alike.