I'll Tell Ya What I Want

Almost a month ago we were in the kitchen and she said "Go-gurt!" You could have knocked me over with a feather. It was clearly articulated and I had never heard her try to say it before. I send a supply once a week to school each week so they can feed it to her as a snack or they can thin it out and put it in a cup for her to drink. I usually don't give it to her at home and I had forgotten about Go-gurt completely over the holidays. But not her. So we picked some up while we were in WM.

She had the most ridiculous fit at the store. She has a bad temper. When she gets mad she looks for something to throw or a door slam. She was in the cart so she was pretty trapped, but she turned at the waist and grabbed a package of hangers from the cart and threw them on the floor. I had also opened a package of goldfish for her to eat while we were shopping around and she clenched her fists as tight as she could to crush the crackers and then threw them all over the floor. Oh and the ear piercing shrieking. She did it right in my ear and it was seriously ringing.

She was frustrated because she could not express herself. At therapy last month she was able to repeat "I want xyz." Each word has to be prompted, she couldn't say the whole phrase herself. The entire time in the store I made her repeat that phrase before I would do what she wanted. I am making her say please and thank you, too. I was hoping one day soon it would click and she would be able to initiate the phrase by herself.

Well today she took a step toward doing that. We came out of speech therapy and the therapist was excited to report that she prompted her with the word "I" and Amelia would finish it by saying "want x." I could not believe it! We were standing by the door talking and the therapist looked at Amelia and said "I" and Amelia said, "want car." And then told her "Bye-bye!" I have been testing her all afternoon. Anytime she would start squealing I would say "I" and she has been telling me "want water," "want eat," "want go," "want on!"

She is starting to speak in sentences to communicate her wants and needs. I am so excited!