Shhhhhhhh

Yesterday I found myself doing something that still surprises me.  I had to shush Callie.  Since our Callie was completely silent when she arrived and it took about 2 years before we got to the point where she could answer our questions with a yes or no.  She was nearly 5 when she achieved that great milestone.  That was huge progress and immensely helpful in meeting her needs.  FInally she could make choices.  Rather than throw her food across the table she could answer yes or no before we set it in front of her.  The simple ability to answer yes or no opened up many doors.

We had an amazing speech therapist and learned so many skills to use at home by sitting in on her speech sessions.  Amy helped us take Callie from a silent little girl to one who was non stop talking yesterday as the public health nurse was doing her yearly review for personal care attendant support.  Amy also became as outraged as we did when the school speech pathologist wrote, "Callie has no functional speech" in her report.  That speech pathologist had already written Callie off - that was a terrible mistake and her great loss.

So, as I sat there trying to have a conversation with the public health nurse over Callie's exuberant playful conversation I couldn't help but smile.  The nurse commented about how great she was at entertaining herself and I told her the short story of her speech and language development.  It's a story we will be repeating for a very long time and one I'll never tire of telling.