TwinkleToes’ speech is getting better. Not up to an age appropriate skill level yet, but she is getting there. When she started using her tongue she stopped using her lips, which has complicated things. One step forward, one step back. And for many of the sounds she can make, she can’t blend them together into words. But she is trying.

But, something phenomenal has happened. She can now count to ten in English and Mandarin. I taught her the English version, she must have picked up the Mandarin version in China. Her pronunciation isn’t great, but her tones are perfect. And her pronunciation is close enough that you know she’s got it right.

The other amazing thing is that we’ve been working on sounds and I’ve been putting the letters of the alphabet with the sounds. So when we work on (for instance) the B sound I write the letter B on a magnadoodle while we make the sound. And she now knows most of the alphabet. Not the song, she doesn’t have the verbal skills for that, but she can recognize the letters. Her wooden blocks have the letters and numbers on them - she can hand me the correct letter for 17 letters of the alphabet (and, of course, all of the numbers).

And, when I write the letter on the magnadoodle and ask what sound that letter makes, she can do a really good job of trying to make the correct sound.

I pulled out the Letter Factory DVD this weekend and she and I had a blast watching it together and making the sounds.

I know all mothers are supposed to think their children are brilliant. But mine really is. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 8:46 am and is filed under TwinkleToes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.