Tuesday 20 March 2018

5 years young!

Seriously, 5?!

I remember being at the bedside of my little baby Jacinta and hearing the words 'Down syndrome' and mentally writing off the next 6 years.

I thought it was all going to be lots of hard work.

Now, honestly, I probably could have been working harder than I have and Jacinta would probably have been talking and reading by now, possibly swimming and running races - or maybe not. Who knows? I may have completely burnt out and she'd then have no functioning mother at all, and no reading etc. What's the hold up on that alternate reality portal I ordered?

So this year has been a year of unsurpassed progress and development. Jacinta has grown into clothes with a 5 on the tag rather than a 3, since last birthday.  She has learned her alphabet. It comes and goes a bit so we need to be consistent with repetition, probably a bit more than for her sisters.
She has a huge number of spoken words and can understand everything we say if she's paying attention. She can respond to questions re her preference with a colour or a key word like 'bus' or 'chair'. She can sing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' with a few of the actual lyrics and most of the hand actions plus the tune.
She can see a spider in the bath and run away screaming 'aargh, spider!'.
She can answer the question, "what's your name?" and is working on the answer to "how old are you?".  She can count to five. (Sometimes the numbers change around a bit. Again, repetition!)
She will read a book with me and sometimes asks 'what does that say?' about the words in front of her. I LOVE that she wants to learn, because a child without curiosity never will learn.
She can dob, by name. Totally ready for 4yo kinder!

Still the key thing we're working on is speech, even though her words have multiplied enormously this year, and I think we've passed the tipping point where full language acquisition is inevitable. Still, she could have words clearer and she needs prepositions and to fully acquire the concept of time - like tomorrow and yesterday, before and after. I think her speech is somewhere around the average 2-2.5 year-old level. (Or, 18 months for her talkative sisters!) Her 2yo birthday twin cousin has about the same or slightly higher level of language I think.

We did have a lovely moment at the shops this week though. We have a little tradition in this house, which is that each child goes out a few days before their birthday and buys a new outfit to wear on their birthday, just because you can!

I took Jacinta out to find such an outfit and we went into a shop which sells appropriately sparkly and fluffy dresses and shoes. On entering, the shop assistant greeted us, at which Jacinta walked up to her and said something very lengthy with one word I could make out at the end, "dress". The shop assistant then asked her what her favourite colour was, and then said to me "did she say 'yellow'?". I said 'probably' and Jacinta said that she did indeed. She showed Jacinta to the yellow dress they had in stock, which she liked, then of course we had a look at the sparkly, fluffy ones, which she liked even more.

The shop assistant found her some shoes, which Jacinta was enormously pleased with and requested to leave on, so we just paid for the tag!

Then she said thank you and left, bag on her arm and shoes on her feet, watching her feet as she walked through the shopping centre. I've never seen her so grown up! She has never looked so five as she did that day.

So now we have a big year ahead of us. Sort the hearing, sort the speech and see what she really knows and doesn't know. Meanwhile, find a school and get her school ready. Time to get started!














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