As I have shared, and shared, Poppy is doing marvelously.
She has even made the leap from sleeping in mom and dad’s bed to her very own toddler bed. Placed within arm’s reach of me, but in her own bed nonetheless.
And, since we made the big switch a few weeks ago, she’s been just fine with it. Which, to me, is an indicator that she’s truly feeling ‘settled’ and safe. Yay for Poppy! And yay for no more midnight karate chops to the head for Poppy’s mom and dad!
Really, in every way, sweet Poppy has been finding her way incredibly well.
Except one.
Language.
I mean, she’s not frighteningly delayed. And although she was basically non-verbal for the first several weeks, she began babbling soon after we got home. Since then she has made many an attempt to say what she wants to say. And, thankfully, she is not intimidated one bit by the fact that 99% of what she says is not usually understood. She just gestures and motions, undeterred, until we catch on to what she’s been saying.
But that doesn’t mean I haven’t wondered if she might be a strong candidate for some speech therapy.
But as an adoptive mama – knowing my child grew up exposed to a completely different language – I find myself wondering… should I just give her time to “be” and not get too concerned?
Or is it time to intervene?
I hadn’t gotten too far down the worried road before Poppy’s speech began to show improvement. And lots of it. She’s still not intelligible all the time, to be sure. But when she calls for Mama in the middle of the night, or yells for one of her brothers or sisters, or asks her bear, or a cup of juice? We all know exactly what she’s talking about.
And at “devotional time” in the evenings, when Chris asks the kids “What pleases God?”… Poppy says, loud and proud, “Don’t steal!”
The rest?
I’m pretty confident it’ll come.
And if it doesn’t, I already know a great speech therapist…
She talks better than my kiddo, who is about to turn 2 next month. I am so glad that Poppy is improving! That is wonderful!
Oh so sweet. What a little honey.
Oh dear Lord…how I adore that lil Poppy!!!!!! She is so cute. I am big on getting therapies early if my Mama gut tells me they are needed (and the professionals agree) but that is kinda how I roll. I always figure I would rather help them develop good habits than fix bad ones that have developed from accommodating behaviors. Not sure if that makes sense but I think there are windows that are there for all this development and it is harder to learn later…ya know what I mean?
how about some sign language while you wait?
our little ning was talking at costco to a woman who heard 4 clear chinese words in 15 minutes.
that would be to my mama, hi and scream at home.
sign has haved our life this time.
Oh my word, I don’t know how you keep from squeezing those precious cheeks and just cuddling with her all day! She is absolutely precious! And the improvement is awesome! We looked into speech for our little one, but after a few sessions, we decided it was doing more to stress her than anything. We’ve been very pleased with the improvement that has been possible with time and talking and loving her!
What a sweetheart… Having had two birth children who were seriously late talkers, my 13 year old didn’t speak until 2 and my 11 year old didn’t speak until 3, until then his words were “mama”, “woof”, “doodoo (train)” and “roar” (lion) and I spoke to them until I was blue in the face – we didn’t intervene just let nature take its course and it was obvious they were not lacking in understanding at all. Then my youngest, adopted at 1 year old from China who should have been the one with delays was answering me back at 18 months….
Oh she called herself Potty! She’s so adorable, bless her! With my family having moved between France and the UK many times, I don’t think children have a problem having more than one language. They all develop at their own rate don’t they? I hope you keep filming because it always makes me smile 🙂
Ahaha, you caught that, Jen! I was giggling over that myself 🙂 Isn’t she a hoot?
She’s adorable! I think you are exactly right in your approach!
Okay, so first of all, she’s only 2. Second of all, she’s only been home less than a year. I don’t have firsthand knowledge, but from everything I’ve ever heard and observed, these things have a way of working themselves out. If she’s still having trouble as she nears the age for kindergarten, then you can worry about it a little. You could spend a lot of time and energy on speech therapy for 3 years, and she can improve her speech, or you can give it time and have the same result. Do what’s best for you, but I say, don’t fret it just yet.
Such a sweetie, she is!! Sounds like you know exactly what to do!
We had Kiara evaluated at 2 1/2…she wasn’t saying much…but, you know what? She aced that eval & well, once she started REALLY talking, she never stopped!! LOL!!!
Would you be interested in doing a “what has worked for us” with bringing your children home from other countries post or series? Like sleep, speech, eating, extended family members, friends, trips out of the house/vacations, etc. You have been through the process so many times, so I am sure you are a wealth of knowledge for us all! As a rookie, I would love any suggestions or ideas!
I think she’s doing great! Just the fact that she’s understanding so much is pretty amazing in and of itself! I bet it will come.
LOVE hearing her voice!!!!!! We are still VERY much in Chinese Babble over here (almost one month home!) And Ruby was nonverbal for the first few weeks too. So far, she makes NO attempt to say anything on “her own” – but she will repeat anything. I mean, we ARE all waiting on her hand and foot!! What will she ever have to talk for?? We just went to the doctor today and they offered early intervention and I said, “sure, we’ll let them assess her” – I mean, Im not expecting miracles. Heck, I cant understand MOST 2-3 year olds! And with the great strides and eye contact and blown kisses Im getting, I am not stressing about speech.
Yet.
Poppy is too, too cute!!
& “dont steal”? Really???? I love her, I sure do!!
Hello from Texas. She sounds precious to me. 🙂 We are adopting our sweet Mia (her special need is growth and developmental delays).She is 20 months old and we just got an update that she is not really talking just ah and ya. Poppy sounds precious to me. 🙂 Love that she is already learning God’s word and saying that back to you. Awesome. I hope to record Mia talking soon. 🙂
What a doll! I think she sounds great! And that is coming from a mama still interpreting for my 4-year old! I say go ahead and start the speech therapy since it’s free until age 3. She’ll likely catch up on her own time. We noticed intermittent windows of speech growth for Lydia especially after age 3. Articulation is still a problem but volume is her strength. Thanks for sharing these cute videos with us!
Oh my! She is just terrific!! Having had 2 birth kids who were late talkers and one who came out of the womb talking …She is doing GREAT! She will be fine! I was sure my slow talkers needed therapy but they said no and they blossomed in their own time! In fact the 5 year old doesn’t STOP talking now!!
She is such a smart girl! She is an observer. My 5 yr old is like that. When she does start talking you will be amazed at what she has picked up by being the quiet observer in your house!! Sheri
she’s doing so wonderfully well. I remember those first days of tears and fear and the hesitant smiles that came so slowly but when they bloomed oh MY the radiance!!! I think her speech will be that way too…she’s coming along at her own pace and once she really gets going nothing will stop her!!!
God Bless!!!
so cute and adorable..happy weekend to you and ur family!
Oh my goodness, Stef, she is just too cute!!!!!!! I think the rest will come. She has made such great progress! WOW!
Poppy is such a beautiful little girl! I have never posted but LOVE folllowing your blog. I have a degree in Speech Language Pathology and was a Speech Therapist in the schools before I had my third child. I now stay home with my boys and no longer work. I wouldn’t suggest therapy yet. I am sure she gets TONS of stimulation and modeling of speech in your home. Just keep doing what you are doing and she will be fine I am sure! We are waiting on our LOA to adopt a 3 1/2 year old little girl with a cleft palate from Jiamusi, China. I have to admit, I am nervous about how we will communicate with her and what it will be like when we get home!!
What a sweet heart!…and a true gift from God!
Love and Hugs!
(hard to believe that 7 years ago this month we were ‘meeting’ on the yahoo group for our first adoptions)
There is improvement between the two videos. She has a good repertoire of sounds and imitates you exactly with volume, inflection, etc. Some of the errors are normal developmental processes. I agree that throwing some simple signs in there would help with the intelligibility. However, if you are concerned – get her eval’d … can’t hurt!
Lovely. Just lovely. 🙂
Well little Miss Poppy sure is a cutie pie! I think she sounds great!! We brought home our daughter in Aug 2010 (17 1/2 months) and she will be 3 at the end of this month. We ended up bringing in 1st Steps to do speech therapy and they recently released her about 3 months ago. We were surprised because she is still challenging to understand and actually has somewhat of an accent 🙂 The way her therapist explained it to us is that she has hundreds of words in her vocabulary but just wasn’t pronouncing them correctly all the time. According to her therapist her sounds are all age appropriate and in some cases better. I assumed that pronunciation was part of speech but learned that it is not. She shared that with Hadley, many of the sounds will simply come later and that now her thoughts are moving faster than her mouth can get the words out. She’s very-very bright but my 2 1/2 year old son is still much clearer to understand. That said, we don’t really give it much thought anymore because we’ve seen that it will come and for her it will just take a little more time. I do recommend first steps to anyone who is ever curious only because its very personal and done in the home (in IN.) and after age 3 any therapy moves to the school system. I wanted to try to get as much done as we could prior to her 3rd B’day because I learned that in the school system its no longer one on one.
Your little one is (well…all of them) are too cute!!
Congratulations on your newest addition Tallula!