Home of the Four Trans

There was a time (like, 6 months, ag0) when I wondered if Justin was even there, cognitively, that is.

Lately, he’s been blowing my mind away with his comprehension skills, as if to say, “Mommy, why did you ever doubt me?”

During his physical therapy session, his therapist was playing a game with him while encouraging him to bear weight through his legs, and walk. His PT asked him to find the matching animals, and bring them together. Of the four attempts, he got three right! Lion, elephant, and crocodile. I was sooo excited!

He’s learned to access the main power strip for the entertainment/TV area, and turned it off (because he’s a rebel like that). Later, Nathan wanted to turn on a DVD, but could not figure out how to because all the power was off. I told Justin, who was (dis)organizing our stash of DVDS at the time from across the room to turn on the TV for his brother. Justin slowly lowered himself down to sitting position, scooted over to the entertainment area, and pointed threw the sliver of space the power strip was hidden.

Nathan asked, “In there?”

Justin responded with a smart nod and, “Yeah.”

I was, again, blown away!

He’s been studying a poster board full of his pictures that Loi created for him for his birthday. Today, I asked him to show it to his uncle, whom we call “Boy”. As a test and brain exercise (because I’m sneaky like that), I asked him to point out pictures based on my descriptions. I’d asked questions like, “Where is the picture with Justin and Papa?”, “Where is the picture with Mama? Papa? Brother?”. Then, it got harder: “Where is the picture…

…with Justin swinging?

…with Justin wearing shoes?

…with Justin wearing sunglasses?

…with Happy Birthday (with a birthday cake)?

…with Justin wearing a hat?

…with Justin and the choo-choo train?

He got most of the questions correct. But, what amazed me even more so was the fact that he knew how to call my brother, “Buh!”

After answering a difficult question correctly, he urgently tapped my brother on the shoulder and said, “Buh!, Buh!, Buh!,” to get his attention to show off what he’s learned.

Wow, blown away!

Ok, just one more, and it’s a good one.

The two little boys were playing on the ground. Nathan was trying to finish a peg puzzle (that Justin had gotten for his birthday), and couldn’t find the last piece. I said to Justin, “Justin can you give  Cuh-Cuh (big brother) the fire truck, please?” The piece was somewhere behind Justin, and I didn’t really expect him to a) know which fire engine I was talking about, and b) have the attention span to look for it. But, he knew exactly what I was talking about, and exactly where it was, and brought it straight to his brother!

BLOWN AWAY!

Okay, so he’s 6 months behind, cognitively. But, he was also too tired to even function his first six months of life. The important thing is he’s motivated and bright…and, I’m so proud of him!

We had a speech consultation with a language and speech pathologist this week, and she is recommending him for speech therapy! Yay! Our local regional center needed her recommendation before agreeing to write up a contract for the services for Justin. And, I must say, Justin is a very smart little boy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.