Language

As you might imagine, with ten people living here, there usually is a lot of talking going on. In the midst of it all, we rejoice in new developments on that front from Marcus, Zoe and Raelea. For those of you who don't know, Raelea has a speech impairment called apraxia of speech. That means that, although she forms thoughts and ideas as any other three year old would, she is severely limited in her ability to express those thoughts verbally. You can click on the above link to learn more. One year ago, Raelea could only say about three words clearly and she was only able to make about ten sounds total. Now she can say many, many words and most sounds, with the notable exceptions of t,d,and s (at the beginning of a word).

Yesterday, I had the joy of hearing her first clear sentence, compete with noun, verb and predicate adjective (you can tell I teach grammar). She certainly has come close to sentences before, but she often omits the subject because each word for her requires a lot of work. So, the sweetest words I heard yesterday were...."Yes, it is green!" (referring to a candle) She is such a hard worker and never gets frustrated when people don't understand her, but she is very happy when people understand what she is saying.

Marcus is learning new words daily and he is using his English more and more frequently and, sadly, using his Amharic less. It makes me kind of sad to think that in a few months, he won't remember any of his Amharic. As I write, he is in his room calling, "Mom, mom..." Okay, I'm back now. He needed a kleenex :)(Yes, Raelea and Marcus are sitting on a basket of dirty laundry, for those of you that are interested. There will be a laundry post coming in a day or so.)

Zo Zo, the goofy little girl she is, is also trying out new English words (mostly just mimicking) and she understands more and more each day.