It's an exciting time in Trumanland!
There is a Dr. Brazleton study that says that when children are learning new milestones, they tend to lose ground in other areas. So for example, when children are learning to walk, they tend to fall behind in speech. However, there is a different trend (and I think a study) that says preemies tend to achieve milestones in spurts and then go long periods without new ones. For example, Truman didn't learn to sit until the day of his first birthday. He began crawling a week later.
I listed all the little milestones, like clapping, a few posts ago, and then there's the big one of walking in the last week or so. But what we are the most excited about is that Truman seems to be having an explosion in word comprehension. In the last week, he has demonstrated that he understands and can point out the following in books or in the room: head, nose (sometimes, and usually only my nose rather than his own), baby doll, moon, stars, cat, and light. "Light" (or "ight") is the only real word he actually says, but he sure did seem to be trying to say "cat" during Good Night Moon last night. (Notice how most of the objects/words he can point out are from Good Night Moon.). He is getting good at the sign for "more" and is starting do the sign for "all done." There are a lot of other words that we know he understands based on his responses like mama, daddy, kiss, come here, veggie sticks, yogurt, turn the page, love (verb meaning hug), up, down, and of course, his name and the little cat's name.
I know most parents would be more excited about the walking, but it's been clear for several months that Truman, albeit delayed, is going to be just fine with gross motor skills. In fact, he only has physical therapy once a month because (except for walking) he was caught up to his adjusted-age peers for gross motor. But we have been so worried about the speech and comprehension issues--so afraid that's the other shoe that would drop.
As a last note, he has also learned how to slide down the stairs on his own, too.
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This is so exciting! And my anecdotal evidence garnered from hours of watching Hallie is that the study is spot on...we went forever with little to no language, despite twice weekly therapy followed up constantly by us at home. We have a language rich environment here, and we heard nothing from our girl. Then, all of a sudden, the signs came in fast and furious--by now she knows over a hundred---and then, over the last couple of weeks, words galore. She is acquiring more than one word per day and her articulation has improved in a serious way, too. So yeah, these kids kind of do things in their own way. We have to worry (as parents that's our job, and of course it's more serious with our micropreemies) but I'm glad that our kids are reaching their milestones (and for me speech and comprehension trumps walking, too, so you guys are not alone in this). Now if the eating would kick in, I'd be thrilled. But regardless I am grateful for what we have and am so glad that Truman is advancing so brilliantly!
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