Language development

One of my Secondary school friends found me on FB and we got chatting. She said that she enjoyed reading my blog and I went, "Blog?! What blog? I have a blog? Oh, that blog! Hmm, it's been untouched for I-don't-know-how-long already." Anyway, admitted that I wasn't keeping up with it and will get back to posting on it. So, here I am, checking back in after 2 years of hiatus! 

So, what have we been up to? Plenty, I must admit. Both children are in school now and I'm doing work that I enjoy on a casual basis.

With the youngest one in Prep this year, we've been through quite a lot of struggles. Started with "I don't want to go to big school", to "I don't care, I'm going to school tomorrow even though I'm hopelessly sick". Then there's meet-the-teacher session when her class teacher told me that she's not articulating her words and they would like us to work on it together. 

Therefore, an update on her speech now, after almost 2 years after checking with our Speechie friend. I'm grateful to my friend who had great confidence in little miss' speech development. Never once did she say that my child had a problem. Yes, she's late in talking, but that's because she's learning three languages at the same time. Yes, three. Can you believe it? We speak Mandarin at home. Little Miss had her dose of English at church, playgroup and kindy. But because she wasn't talking, we signed with her. She's better at signing than talking at one stage, but at least she got her message across and we had less tantrums. 

When she started kindy at 3.5y.o., she could only speak Mandarin. Her kindy teachers learnt sign to communicate with her. She even taught them a nursery rhyme "I can sing a rainbow" in Auslan. By the end of the first semester, she was speaking in English and using sentences, though she wasn't articulating each word properly.

When Prep started, she could communicate in both English and Mandarin and we stopped signing with her, though that came back every so often as we were so used to it. Now, mid-way through the year, she's speaking so much better in English. Her buddy in Term 1 said that he couldn't understand her. Her buddy in Term 2 could communicate with her! For someone who only started speaking English a year ago, she's improved by leaps and bounds. 

So, if your child is also delayed in speech, I certainly would recommend seeing a
Speech Pathologist to asses the situation. And trust your gut feeling. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true. As a mum, I know my children best. 

PS : Hope all you mums had a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday!

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