I thought it would be fun to do a round up of her skills at 18 months:
Words: She was saying about 5-8 words at her 15 month appointment, and then for a while she stopped saying those same words. Now she's picked them back up and added a few more. They include:
All done, down, cat, doggie, ball, bobo (pacifier), outside, book, eat, TV (oops), banana, diaper, dada, mama, shoe, love you, Audrey. Of course most of those are baby versions of the real word, but we're working on it. About half of those words are new in the past month, so I know from here on out it will be more and more each week. At her 18 month check up today, the doctor told me that 17 words is not enough right now. Audrey should be saying at least 30 words by 18 months, so she referred me to Early Intervention. I have to call them and they will set up an evaluation for speech therapy. If they do the evaluation and decide she does indeed need it, then we'll start with the speech therapy and reassess in three months. I knew she wasn't talking as much as other kids her age, so this doesn't really surprise me. Mostly I find it kind of annoying, but we'll do it and see where it takes us.
In addition to words, she knows the sounds the following animals make:
Dog, Cat, Bird, Snake, Elephant, Monkey, Cow, Duck, Bumble Bee, Frog, Sheep.
She can also identify almost all of her animals in her animal magnet set - there are 20 and she can do 16 consistently.
She can identify her body parts - head, ears, eyes, nose, chin, tongue, mouth, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, tummy, belly button, butt, legs, knees, feet, toes. Now we just need to start learning them in Spanish. :)
We watch an episode of Sesame Street every now and then and Audrey LOVES Cookie Monster. She tries to imitate his voice and its the cutest little thing. One day she was watching an episode wear Baby Bear growls and it was supposed to be funny, and she laughed! Josh and I thought that was a neat - laughing at the right time so it means she understands what is going on, right?
Her new cute thing right now is singing. I try to have music on or sing to her as much as possible even though I have a horrible voice. Now she sings too, and I absolutely love it. Her little voice saying, "Laaada Daaaaa da laaaa". She sings to and rocks her baby now, and also has started giving the doll her bottle. Imaginary play was one of the things on the doctor's checklist, so Audrey met that one.
She weighs 29.9 lbs and is 32.25 inches tall, putting her in the 85th and 70th percentiles. The doctor said they are perfect and are right on target for her. She's a grazer eater - she says she's hungry pretty much all day long it seems. I asked about that - if this is because she is truly hungry or maybe because she is bored. The doctor said it is normal for toddlers to be eating all day since they don't eat very much at each meal. We're hoping for an uneventful couple of months that will keep us out of the doctor's office, but we'll see her again for the language evaluation in June. I'll follow up with that and more soon!
You take the CUTEST pictures! I love her!
ReplyDeleteMay I encourage you? Both Matthew and Cristina were late talkers and at Matthew's check up the doc wanted me to worry about his development. I refused. Basically, because I read to both of them so much and they DIDN'T watch a ton of TV...they absorbed everything. You can tell Audrey is very intelligent. She is a thinker and processes very quickly. What I was told is those late talkers generally are sorting words in their mind and when it makes sense to them, they start talking full sentences and advance past their peers. This was true for both Matthew and Cristina. They were close to 20 mths before anything.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is good that it has been noted by your doctor and that you are watching and willing to do the work to make sure she isn't delayed. However, I do not feel it is anything.
That's all :)
Don't ya just want to put them in a big hamster ball sometimes so they stop hurting themselves? ;) Good thing she won't remember that that's how she marked the day!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for Leo to sing :) that's too cute!!
I've heard the same thing Lisa said from a lot of people. I think as long as there is some kind of communication they're fine, and Audrey is talking and learning so I wouldn't worry or let anyone make you think she's "behind" or not quite where she "should be". She's going at her pace and that's perfectly normal!