Our chattering Angela...

Angela is quite a character these days. Since most of you don't have the pleasure of having a child or sibling with Down Syndrome, I must say we parents tend to micromanage everything. For example, most of us don't worry whether our child will be able to distinguish his colors, match and sort objects by color or shape or whatever, or say his words clearly and meaningfully before he goes to kindergarten. Because most the time we just know they will do those things whether we teach them or no. But when you have a child with DS, and all the research tells you that early intervention and practice sets up the neural pathways that may not connect otherwise, you tend to watch and worry and, if you're like me, wonder if you're ever doing enough.
At 2 1/2, Angie talks A LOT. Unfortunately, most the time we have NO IDEA what she is talking about. She points and uses appropriate facial expressions and inflections and gestures, and most the time I know what she's trying to get across because some of the words are quite good. But every so often I have to just throw up my hands and say, "Ang, I have NO idea what you're talking about." She gets a little frustrated by this, because usually she is begging for some food item I am denying to get for her. Sometimes it's like she is telling a story, recounting something. But it's a lot of gibberish. Thankfully, she has the best speech therapist in town. Angela's therapists (speech, physical, and developmental) are known as the "dream team" around here. And her speech therapist assures me that Angela's incoherent chatter, scattered with s's and o's and ah's and t's, is merely her practicing for when she gets everything together, and she foresees Angela having excellent speech.
I've always said Ang's speech is most important to me. I want people to know her, and if she can't carry on conversation well, no one will listen to her. I don't want her to be invisible like that. I friend of mine is deaf, and she is so funny and witty. She reads lips very well, but she doesn't speak very clearly; she is hard to understand. And I realize now that she is easy to "ignore." I don't mean ignore on purpose, but it takes actual work to converse with her because you have to concentrate so hard. And most folks are in too much of a hurry to chat with someone when it requires work... So, yet another lesson comes from being Angela's mom. I never would have thought of that if it weren't for little Angie. She teaches us something every day.