For special needs parents, milestones can be a tricky thing. We learn to adjust our expectations at the very beginning. We learn to accept and adapt. For me, it was over the course of the third trimester of my pregnancy.
It's worth saying that milestones are a tricky business for most parents, whether or not they have a child with special needs, as we are all prone to comparing ourselves and our children to others. The only difference is that we have professionals come into our homes and actually put our children's "delays" on paper. I have known and read about parents who have been completely devastated by these evaluations. Totally understandable. But, for me, these evaluations never carried much weight. One of the reasons may be because our wonderful therapists prefaced each evaluation with advice like "the numbers don't really mean anything" and "we know Liam is making progress whether the standardized form says so or not." To be completely honest, I couldn't even tell you the numbers and percentages that were written on those evaluations. Of course I'd read them, but only to remind myself of the goals we wanted to work on. I always knew Liam would do things in his own time. And that every little thing he learned to do was, at one time, something we thought he might never be able to do.
Even though I never worried too much about those "delays," I am still beyond excited about his extraordinary reading skills. That's right: my 3 1/2 year old can read. Like, really read. I am especially excited (and a little relieved) given that kids with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus often have trouble with reading comprehension and are at a higher risk for learning disabilities. This may be a different story in the future, of course, but, for now, he doesn't seem to be experiencing any of these issues. We've been working on letters and spelling for the past six months or so, and really started working on what sound each letter makes in the last month, and just recently he started reading the starfall* readers on his own.
Of course, Liam has been in love with books since the very beginning. The bookcase was his first stop when he finally learned to army crawl at about 18 months old. At first, he could only move backwards, but he still always made his way to the bookcase:
And when he learned to crawl forwards, he would sometimes sit at the bookcase for hours, just paging through the books (as you may well know, he is a bit obsessed with letters):
And, in case you're wondering, I didn't pick the books out for him. My friend once asked me: "do you pick out the book you want Liam to hold and then take a picture?!" Nope. He just has really good taste in books.
And sometimes I'd find him quietly sitting by himself, reading a book:
He's got the whole writing thing down, too (see video below). I am so proud of my baby, and can't wait to introduce him to the wonderful world of E.B. White: Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Stuart Little. I know, I know, I am a total nerd.
*Starfall: we started using the starfall.com site a couple months ago. As I mentioned in this previous post, I'm trying to get Liam as prepared for preschool and kindergarten as I possibly can, and the starfall site has been an invaluable resource. We started with reading the books right on their website. The books are animated and even sound out each letter as you read. And it's free! Here's the link that takes you directly to the books. We also went on amazon and bought the Starfall book collection (they're the same as the ones online), since Liam loves actual books, and can then work on reading when I'm busy doing something else. Geeze, I feel like I've been doing amazon reviews lately, but I figure I might as well let you know what works for us, since it might work for you, too!
It's worth saying that milestones are a tricky business for most parents, whether or not they have a child with special needs, as we are all prone to comparing ourselves and our children to others. The only difference is that we have professionals come into our homes and actually put our children's "delays" on paper. I have known and read about parents who have been completely devastated by these evaluations. Totally understandable. But, for me, these evaluations never carried much weight. One of the reasons may be because our wonderful therapists prefaced each evaluation with advice like "the numbers don't really mean anything" and "we know Liam is making progress whether the standardized form says so or not." To be completely honest, I couldn't even tell you the numbers and percentages that were written on those evaluations. Of course I'd read them, but only to remind myself of the goals we wanted to work on. I always knew Liam would do things in his own time. And that every little thing he learned to do was, at one time, something we thought he might never be able to do.
Even though I never worried too much about those "delays," I am still beyond excited about his extraordinary reading skills. That's right: my 3 1/2 year old can read. Like, really read. I am especially excited (and a little relieved) given that kids with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus often have trouble with reading comprehension and are at a higher risk for learning disabilities. This may be a different story in the future, of course, but, for now, he doesn't seem to be experiencing any of these issues. We've been working on letters and spelling for the past six months or so, and really started working on what sound each letter makes in the last month, and just recently he started reading the starfall* readers on his own.
And when he learned to crawl forwards, he would sometimes sit at the bookcase for hours, just paging through the books (as you may well know, he is a bit obsessed with letters):
And, in case you're wondering, I didn't pick the books out for him. My friend once asked me: "do you pick out the book you want Liam to hold and then take a picture?!" Nope. He just has really good taste in books.
And sometimes I'd find him quietly sitting by himself, reading a book:
He's got the whole writing thing down, too (see video below). I am so proud of my baby, and can't wait to introduce him to the wonderful world of E.B. White: Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Stuart Little. I know, I know, I am a total nerd.
Oh Liam is too cute for words and reminds me of my oldest, Emma. At 4 years old she has always loved to read, too and is just learning to read, as well. So happy to follow you back here now from J9 Designs :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Janine!
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