Speech Explosion

Caleb's speech is taking off! Before hearing aids, his speech consisted primarily of phrases that he would repeat, and maybe insert a noun where necessary:

• Where did it go, ball?

Now he is producing long, complex narratives about what happens each day:

• The sun go down and the moon go up. We go night-night. The sun go up. We wake up. We go to school.

Sure, he doesn't differentiate his verb tenses, but considering that three months ago he had no concept of time (or at least no way to express that he did), we're impressed!

One of his IEP goals was to use pronouns. Tonight, when it was time for bath, he announced to Scott:

• No! Not you! (looking at me and pointing at Scott) Not him! (looking back at Scott and pointing at me) Not you! HER! (at this point his arms were crossed, still pointing)

And he has adopted some terms of endearment. Last night, we dropped off Nikki for a sleepover. As he hugged her goodbye, he looked into her eyes and said, "I love you, sweetheart." AWWW!

He's singing songs. He's narrating his play. He's talking back to the people in the shows he watches. Tonight, he and Scott were watching Enchanted. During the scene where the wicked witch poisons the princess, Caleb was furious:

• Stop it! That's not nice! (to Scott) We have to hit! We have to help her!
  

Okay, so the aggression is disturbing. But he did announce to Scott on the trampoline earlier, "Stop that! I don't like that!!" and it was NOT followed by hitting. There also haven't been any hitting incidents at school this year, although we get daily reports of, "[Insert friend's name] hurt me. That's not nice!"

One more example and I'll stop gushing, I promise. Today, we were reading books before nap. Curious George is one of his favorites, and in this particular book George eats too many candies in the candy factory. There is a picture where he's looking greenish and holding his stomach. I asked Caleb what was wrong with George:

Caleb: He sad.
Me: Why is he sad?
Caleb: He tummy hurt.
Me: Why does his stomach hurt:
Caleb: He eat candy.

WOW! He inferred all of that, because it's not actually said in the text.

It's so much fun getting to know this little boy whose thoughts have been trapped in his head for four years. :)