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Now I’m loosing track of the words that Nathan signs, but his learning continues at rapid fire speed…he’s up around 60 words. Today, he signed “thank you.” He just pulled it out of his hat, I hadn’t been pushing that one and it just came out unrehearsed. He’s chattering and “telling” us stuff now. He heard Miika say the word “cereal,” so he trotted to the kitchen, went right to the table to see what she had and made it very clear that he wanted some too.
I quit reading all the books about Down syndrome because they mostly say what a child won’t do. I don’t want to know what he won’t do. I want to know what he will do, so I teach him what I want him to do and he does it. Simplistic perhaps, but I refuse to lower my expectations with depressing books. I have a sneaky suspicion that many kids with DS are underachievers because their parents are too, or they have given up on their kids…or maybe never bothered to push. Nathan is a bright little sparkler with a twinkle in his eye. He wants to know everything and is curious about anything new. If he does not know what he’s looking at in a book, he looks at us with questioning eyes and says what sounds like “that?” while he points to the object until we tell him what it is.

So we forge ahead without boundaries or limitations on progress.

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