This is one in an ongoing streak of posts everyday through May to raise awareness about pediatric stroke. If you’re able, please contribute to my fundraising efforts which will help support Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association, an organization that has given our family much support and information.

A quick post for a busy Thursday. I have my last writing class tonight.

Last week, Mia said to me, “I have something interesting to tell you.” I don’t remember what she told me after that, only that it cracked me up how she prefaced her news. She also has been telling me, “Mommy, you’re not listening to my words.” This is usually when I am trying to prepare a meal or get us out the door.

Her language is excellent for a nearly four year old. She makes some common mistakes with grammar for irregular verbs. The ones I notice most often are around verb tense for phrases involving “take” or “took,” “bring” or “brought” and similar pairs.

Her stroke was in the left side of the brain in a region that could impact speech. So far, it doesn’t seem to be holding her back from expressing herself. She sometimes searches for words and that slight delay may be related to her recovery from her stroke. But, overall her language acquisition, pronunciation, fluency have all been right on track.

Zoe sometimes corrects Mia’s pronunciation and grammar. I try to coach her to just say it herself the right way without being in Mia’s face about it. I explain that if she is in Mia’s face, Mia is more likely to get mad and lash out.

Mia is very creative and playful with her language. Here’s a recent video of her inventing a song. This video also shows some of Mia’s habitual patterns in her right arm. You can see at different parts of the video that her right elbow and wrist are flexed when her left arm is long. At other times, she uses her arms beautifully together to gesture.

For fun, here are Mia’s first signs and spoken words. She was born June 19, 2009. So, she started signing just before 10 months of age and started speaking just after 12 months.

Signs
4/10/10 – milk
4/26/10 – waves for “hi” and “bye bye”
????? – more
6/2/10 – all done
6/24/10 – dog
6/26/10 – bear
7/03/10 – hat
7/03/10 – duck (actually signed dog when seeing ducks)
7/05/10 – baby (when unable to sign “milk” due to lefty being wrapped)
7/05/10 – thank you
7/06/10 – no (shaking head)
7/06/10 – yes (nodding head) imitating Zoe
9/08/10 – bird
9/16/10 – book
9/19/10 – duck
9/19/10 – fish
9/19/10 – no
9/21/10 – bath
9/25/10 – hot
9/29/10 – house
10/9/10 – airplane [20 signs]
10/19/10 – wash

Words
07/05/10 – ny ny (for “milk” or “night night,” not sure which)
07/17/10 – alligator (imitating Mara while doing puzzle)
07/26/10 – ma ma
07/26/10 – all done
07/29/10 – hi
9/05/10 and earlier yummy
9/05/10 cat
9/19/10 cheese
9/21/10 Natalie
9/21/10 Bzzz (like a bee)
9/21/10 mi mi (for milk) 11
10/3/10 row row
10/4/10 moo
10/4/10 baah
10/5/10 ball
10/5/10 bow wow
10/16/10 this
10/16/10 what’s this?
10/16/10 lion
10/16/10 mine
10/16/10 more [21 spoken words]
10/16/10 woof
10/17/10 pee pee
10/17/10 please
10/17/10 e’s (for Zoe’s shoes)
10/18/10 baby
10/18/10 bug
10/18/10 shoes
10/18/10 socks
10/18/10 banana
10/19/10 eye
10/19/10 nose
10/19/10 hand
10/19/10 mouth
10/19/10 night night
10/24/10 eggs
10/24/10 look
10/24/10 chicken
11/1/10 look
11/1/10 here
11/1/10 there
11/5/10 dog
11/6/10 uh oh [43 spoken words]