He understands me

Two weeks ago Matt had his first assessment by a Speech Therapist. (Actually it was by 3 final year Speech Therapy students in one of those observation rooms with one-way mirrors. They were being supervised by a well respected Speech Therapist – in case you start wondering what we are exposing our little Matt to.) The students were helpful, but they did ask us quite a few questions about Matt’s understanding and his ability to express himself. It got me thinking. I was not really, really sure that Matt understood me. Sometimes when you asked him “Where is dad?” would he turn to Lloyd, but not always. Sometimes he would crawl towards me when I said “Come Matt”, but not always. So I thought he might understand me, but was not 100% convinced. I longed for the day when I would know for sure that he understood something I said.

We have been trying to teach Matt to clap. Whenever we clap he puts his hands over our hands and enjoys us doing the clapping, rather than him mimicking us by clapping on his own. This last week I was playing with Matt on our bed. He was lying on his back and I leaning over him, tickling and kissing him. I started clapping my hands and instead of putting his hands on mine, he clapped on his own! I was so excited I said “Matt more clap” and then he clapped again. I wondered – does he understand what I am saying? So I said again “Matt more clap” and he clapped again! I thought – this is could be coincidence let me ask one more time to see if he really understands. Now at this point he was getting a bit bored so he was turning onto his tummy getting ready to crawl away. But I needed to see if he understood me so I said for a 3rd time “Matt more clap” and he turned around, faced me, looked me in the eyes and clapped!!!!!!! I squealed with delight. Tears streaming down my face I hugged him. He understands me.