mil"K"

This is going to sound really silly, and it's a really minor thing.  But, Natalie is usually behind Abby in her speech development so I wanted to celebrate this little step forward.

Endings of words are one of the things we have been working on in speech.  Natalie has dropped the endings of many words for a long time.  She's done much better recently and is putting more endings on her words.  Milk is a word we have been working on for a while.  For a long time, it was just "mi".  A month or so ago (maybe longer, it's hard to keep track if I don't write it down), she (and Abby) started saying milT, with a T on the end.  Their speech therapist said this was very appropriate since the "k" sound is a sound that comes later.

Today, as we were getting ready for our bottle, Natalie said, "milk" - with a very clear K on the end.  She was sitting on the couch and clear as day said, "nanny's milk".  I was so proud! (Nanny (sometimes Natnee) is her name for herself.  This is also what Abby calls her).      

In general, their speech is coming along well.  Their vocabulary is pretty extensive.  They know the words for pretty much every common thing and most foods.  They also know a few unusual words like oxygen (mema's oxgen),  computer, and opossum (thanks to the little porch visitor last night).  Okay, maybe those aren't that unusual - except oxygen.

The biggest problem right now is how well they can be understood.  I can understand most of what they say, especially in context of where they are or what they are pointing to.  Sometimes, however, Abby will break out in a multi-syllabic multi-word sentence and I have no idea what she is saying.  Natalie's speech is not quite as developed.  She knows the words, but she drops more endings (and sometimes beginnings) and is just harder to understand.

It's really fun listening to them talk to each other.  As far as I can tell, they have not developed a twin language, which makes me a little sad.  I've always wondered what that sounded like.  I don't always understand everything they say to each other, but they seem too.  I do pick up words and phrases.  The best thing is listening to them play in their bed as they go to sleep or are supposed to be napping.  They are just too funny.  They appear to have real conversations and coordinate their play.  Abby  remains the more dominant and outspoken sister.  I've noticed she tends to tell Natalie what to do.  Yesterday, they were playing in their little tent with their babies.  At one point Natalie exited the tent.  Abby was very upset.  She said, "sit here, sit here".  She really wanted Natalie to come back inside the tent and sit down.  Natalie did go back in but sat in a different place.  Abby was still not happy.  "Sit here, sit here, sit right here".  Bossy, much?

I can see that we are going to have to help Natalie learn to stand up for herself and be assertive with Abby.  Otherwise, Abby is going to run all over her!

The girls have been in speech therapy for a while now, and are certainly doing much better.  If they were tested at this point, they probably would not qualify for services.  Although, they could possibly qualify for articulation speech therapy.  It's amazing to think that in a few months they will age out of the Early Intervention State programs.  When we started, 3 years seemed like a long time away.  We will soon make appointments for comprehensive testing to see if they qualify for an educational IEP (individual education plan)
that would allow us to enroll them in public pre-school free of charge.  I would be very surprised if they qualified for that.  Their only really issue at this time is speech.

In any case, I just had to report on Natalie's little speech achievement.  With the exception of being born and coming home first, she's doesn't usually get to be first at much, so I wanted to celebrate!  Yea Natalie!