Role Reversal

Just before my older son started his early intervention classes and therapy, his receptive and expressive speech delays were so severe that even when I would tell him "let's go bye bye" he would just stare at  me blankly. People would say "don't worry, he will talk" but I would tell them that it wasn't the speech or speaking delay that bothered me as much as the fact that he had NO idea what I was saying. I learned how to simplify my words so he could better understand me and I started shaking the car keys so he knew it was time to go.

 Here we are 4 years later... Yesterday I spent the morning repeating everything I said to my younger son at least 7 times. He just was not in the mood to listen and would sweetly tell me no mom I'll do it this way, (We tell him daily how lucky he is that he is cute). At one point he came to me and told me that his big brother had climbed up on the dining room table and was sitting there playing his Ipad (as if he doesn't do this once a week, himself) and that he could fall. I stood up right where I was, looked over and called to my son and asked him to please get off the table and sit down. AND HE DID!!!  My first time asking, from 2 rooms away and he not only understood but happily complied.

I was very happy. I then instantly turned to tell little brother that in a million years I never thought that he would be the one I had to ask to do things 7 times and that big brother would do it after the first request!!

Early intervention works. My hard worker is chugging away at his mission and is clearly succeeding :)