Imogen

Imogen has adopted the language of a mini- Auditory Verbal Therapist as she models her behaviour on mine, as always.

She points out sounds: ‘Henry, did you hear that? (exaggerated pause, pointing to her ear) Did you hear that, that was a cow”

She repeats herself:  ‘Henry, do you want the truck, this is the truck, do you want the truck?’

She commentates life:  ‘Henry, look, Grandmas is cooking, can you see Grandma cooking?’

Her language has even become more basic as she adopts my simplified versions of everyday words:  She says: “ba, ba, ba, balloon” and “ta” instead of thank you.

And she matches objects with sounds, “Look Henry, that’s a bird, the bird says, tweet, tweet, tweet, bird, Henry, that’s a bird”. 

All without even thinking.  It’s amazing how as the language has become second nature to me, so too has it to her. 

Sometimes I find it frustrating that I can’t sit and read to Henry quietly without Imogen chatting away.  Talk about minimising background noise, not an option when Imogen is around!  But having her around also provides so many positive benefits for Henry. And she is the best model for Henry.  He watches her every move and copies everything she does, so it’s a very powerful thing to have her modelling language for him.  I have to remember not to expect too much of her, after all, she is only three.  So if she wants to crawl under the table and pretend to be a cat, which Henry can imitate perfectly, well, that’s okay.  After all, they are children first  The most rewarding thing is to see them playing together, not as an advanced three year old and hearing impaired one year old, but as brother and sister, my two precious munchkins.

Some photos of the kids mucking around...

Henry and Immi being silly in milk crates

Henry teaching Immi tricks this time- car in the mouth for photos!