Playing Speech

It is not uncommon for typical children to play "school". My kids however, are anything but typical. The other day they were re-enacting one of their group speech therapy sessions.

Amelia is first, reading a book and having Sunny pace out her sentences as instructed by Amelia.


Surprisingly, Sunny also took turns doing the reading and pacing out a sentence for Amelia to say. This was unusual in that Sunny is still exerting her stubborness while at speech, only cooperating with her clinician every now and then.

(Micah did not want a turn, but followed along.)

Sunny has come a long way in recent weeks, and we do not know what sparked it but are very thankful for the positive changes we are seeing. She no longer takes her meals at the counter but has returned to the family table. Oddly enough, she still will not eat at all unless we put the utensil in her hand...she actually clenches her fist and resists being given the fork or spoon, but once it is in starts eating right away. But she is at the table with us!! There are still times at lunch when she will stop eating if Amelia walks in the room but it is getting much better.

Amelia, Micah, and Sunny have been playing together a lot lately, and Sunny is trying out new words much more easily. I can still see a lot of control issues in the way Sunny plays, but she is improving. Her favorite game is a version of Hide and Seek where she hides objects for Amelia to find, but she never plays if Amelia wants to be the one hiding the items. Unfortunately, if Amelia cannot find what is hidden Sunny will not show her where it is, and since they do not stick to toys it can be very frustrating. Nikita had to call her own cell phone and follow the sound to find it! I still do not know where the TV remote is, or the case to a library DVD.

All in all, it is progress, and I am glad!
God is good!