Max's speech app has been a game-changer for him and for me, too. When he says something and I'm not sure what it is, I ask him to show us on the Proloquo2Go. He either taps an icon or spells things out, and he's getting better at that. But sometimes, the iPad is downstairs and the two of us are upstairs or vice versa and Max is trying to articulate something and I have no clue what he's saying. This is how it usually goes:
"Max, can you say that again?"
"Max, can you say it again more clearly?"
"Sabrina, do you know what Max is saying?"
"Max, can you say it again?"
"Again?"
"Again?"
"Max, honey, I'm not understanding you, I'm sorry!"
It's always a fine line I walk, knowing when to keep prodding Max and when to quit. The entire time, I'm usually feeling badly because I can see how much he wants to articulate the words—and how much he wants me to understand them. It pains me that I cannot comprehend what he is trying so, so hard to tell me. I'm his mother. Shouldn't I be able to decipher? But, no. The sounds are too unintelligible.
Thing is, Max is generally an amazingly cheerful kid who's game to keep trying. And when he puts his mind to it he is, at times, able to enunciate words in a clearer way. So I am OK with pushing him—until he lets me know he's had it. And then, I'll grab the iPad.
The other week, Max said something at bedtime and Dave and I had no clue what it was. Dave said, "Max, you want to buy a monkey?!" because the words sort of sounded like that.
And we all burst out laughing.
Ever since, when Max says something we don't understand, first we say "Max, you want to buy a monkey?!" and everyone cracks up. Then Max tries again, smiling, as we coax him on.
You've just got to laugh.
