SSS

Sometimes I think Amanda is going to need speech therapy.  I can only understand half of what she says, and then only if it’s in context.  If she starts talking about a totally new subject I’m completely lost.  Of course Sarah understands everything Amanda says, but she is getting tired of me asking her to translate all the time.  She keeps telling me I need to figure it out or I won’t be able to talk to Amanda when Sarah isn’t around.  Yes, I’m aware that is a major problem for us.  Usually I just do my best and then give up when we both get overly frustrated.

When Andy was her age I understood everything he said.  I thought he could talk perfectly, but then I always had to tell other adults what he was saying, so he probably talked just like Amanda does now, I was just way more in tune with it.  I’m sure in the next six month it will get a ton better, I just need to be patient (except I’m not very good at that).

In the meantime, one of the biggest miscommunications we have is with the two simple words “yes” and “no”.  Okay, that’s not exactly correct.  When she says “NO” most times it’s very clear.  It’s when she says “yes” that I’m not always sure she’s really saying it.  She still says her Ys as Ns, so yes often comes out as “nah”, which could be confused with “no” if not said clearly.  To make sure I understand  I ask her, “Are you saying ‘Yessss’ or ‘No’?”  At that point she nods her head and says “Yessss!”

Slowly she’s figured out that if she really wants something she needs to make sure I hear that sss.  But she wants to get right to the point so she leaves off the rest of the word and just says “sss”.  This works for “yes” and for “please”, but there are other words that don’t even end with s sound that she will just add it to.  She can’t reach her cup of water?  She’ll say “cup sss”.  The more she does it, the more she wants whatever she’s asking for.  Sometimes she’ll just walk around the house going “sss sss sss”.

It’s strange, it’s annoying, but at least she’s trying to communicate.  I’m sure years from now the only way I’m even going to remember that she does this is from reading this post, which is one of the reasons I write, because I’ve already forgotten half of the crazy stuff that Andy and Sarah did at this age.  In the meantime, we’ll muddle through.

And if she does need speech therapy at some point, that’s okay too.