Jumping hurdles

Two big hurdles this week in Julialand ~~

After we got home from school today, Julia and I went for a walk with the dog. I usually ask her about her day and the coversation goes something like this:

Me: Julia, did you have a good day at school?

Her: I have a good day at school.

Me: Did you work on letters today?

Her: Yes, I work letters.

Me: Did you work on numbers today?

Her: Yes, I work numbers.

Julia is a little better when she talks about lunch. She will tell me whether she ate all of her noodles, if she liked the green jello, or drank her juice.

But today was different! I asked her about her day in school and she told me she read a book and worked at the math center and had fun during choice time. It wasn't quite a conversation because she told me all the information at once, but she was telling me something about her day! It was just great and a good step towards coversation.

I wondered whether she would repeat the performance, and true to form – that once she learns something, she uses it – the next day and today. Today, she even was able to have a little back and forth about school without the yes and no answers. Next step needs to be some reciprocity – Julia needs to be able to ask me questions about my day. And then, she needs to learn appropriate circumstances.

Last night we walked to the Chinese restaurant on the corner (yeah, real convenient, but not that good so the temptation is not great) to pick up some dinner. We passed two girls, preteens I think, who were playing with a ball on the sidewalk. Julia was so excited to say hi and to talk to them. She greeted the girls and told them her name when we were too a few houses away from them. She stated that they were playing with a ball and told them she was picking dandelions. I love this kid and my heart breaks for her when she is so awkward. If she can just figure out how to socialize . . . I've heard that there is a clinic that runs socialization therapy/classes. I don't know if Julia is old enough to take it, and if she is old enough, if she could follow directions, but she could really use some direction.

Back to jumping hurdles, Julia was playing with her little pets and she started naming each of the pets. I was flabbergasted. Julia has learned the names of the people in her life, but has not named any of her dolls or stuffed toys. Of course, she needed to learn the English for all of her toys – bears, dogs, cats, horses. Maybe just learning the words for what these things are was enough for awhile, but there she was at the beginning of the week, giving her little pets the names of her teachers and classmates. I thought it was a really big step forward. When I talked to Amy, her aide, about it the next day before school, she said that a bunch of the girls in class were playing with little pets that they had all brought from home during choice time and they were naming the pets. At first, I was rather disappointed thinking that what I thought was a huge discovery was no more than Julia doing what her classmates did, but then I realized that she was actually copying from these kids. That too is huge! Julia is doing something that the girls she plays with does. She is learning from them. Pretty cool.