Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Breakthrough. . . .Sort of

He said it!  Zeb said "Mama".  Unprompted.  He wanted to get my attention to ask for water and he came over, tapped me on the leg and said "Mama".  Oh sweet music to my ears!

Unfortunately though, he doesn't really know he said it.  When asked to say "Mama", he ALWAYS says "Baba".  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I asked our neurodevelopmentalist about this and she said that speech comes in three parts.  So, developmentally, he isn't at the place where he can put all three parts together to speak at will.  What happens then is he says words that are clearly words, but when asked to say them he can't produce them.  Thus, the word "Mama" comes out when he wants to get my attention, but if I ask him to say it, he can't make his mouth form the word correctly.

BUT - we are getting there.  One of these days his speech is going to explode!  We're so close.

Meanwhile, I walk around with a goofy grin on my face because my boy finally called me "Mama".

5 comments:

Julia said...

Woo Hoo!! I know most people would roll their eyes at your glee but I get it!! Clapping for Zeb in Virginia!

Nealy said...

So happy to have been at the playground with you and I heard it, too! He really did say, "Mama!" Zeb, you rock!

mitchnorby said...

Very cool! It has been a blast seeing him make so much progress. Congratulations!

Rochelle said...

YAHOO! I hope they let you know that the "b" sound is a totally typical stage for the "m" sound as they are made in the same place (b is a plosive so easier to make than the m which they have to hold and add air behind it). Alayna called me baba for a while too then it quickly changed to mama!

MommaofMany said...

WooHoo! Music to a Momma's ears!! Congratulations!