Courtney has hit another plateau with her talker and it has me frustrated. I realize plateaus are a part of life so I don’t think it’s the plateau itself that’s frustrating me. It’s more the fact that I feel like I may not be giving her the tools that she needs to keep progressing.

Children learn to talk by listening to others talk. Language is constantly being modeled from the day a child is born. Did you know that a child needs to hear a word almost 500 times I think it is before the know how to use it? Well, the same thing has to be done when teaching a non-verbal child to use a device. The language (and in this case, the device) needs to be modeled over and over again or they won’t learn It.

How lucky is Courtney that she has a mom who is already “fluent” in her device? I in frustration asked (or more vented) her speech therapist, why is it that I can model all day at school for my student but come home and barely touch hers? Her therapist could not only tell that I was trying to take complete blame of her plateau but could probably tell I was about to have emotional break down over it. He reassured me that it’s quite common to feel the way I do and that I’m not failing her.

It’s hard. I get home from work and it is non stop. It’s like a race to the finish line with the finish being bedtime. I am tired at the end of the day. Who wouldn’t take the easy route of just verbalizing everything you say?

I’m trying to stop the self blame but instead use this plateau to remind me the importance of modeling. No time for a pity party, time to do something about it.

(Disclaimer…I typed “I feel tired” in the picture shown, not Courtney.)