Signing is "Clearly" a Blessing for My Little One

The reason why I am late writing my entry this month is because my little boy has been sick.  My son is nearly five years old.  He has pneumonia, and this particular case affected his brain.  To make big words and a longer story shorter, my son lost the ability to talk or move his body at his own demand.  He is regaining these abilities one step at a time.

He is still in the hospital, but he is doing much better.  I am so grateful for his willingness to fight this battle within.  He is winning.  

And what a blessing signing has already become.  As he is recovering and making great strides, he desires to communicate again.  Just tonight my son wanted to watch a dvd.  I had three "Thomas the Trains" to choose from.  I began to hold up the three and figure out how to have him choose which one.  He is regaining control of his hands but still cannot speak freely.  As I was saying the colors of the dvd cases, I saw him hold up his hand and move his thumb in and then slowly begin to move his hand.  He was signing "blue."  

I remembered all the pictures the speech pathologist had printed out such as those of a boy "sleeping," "watching tv," "playing cars," and so forth.  I thought how much easier it would be for him to sign instead of trying to point to the little pictures.  As I was going over each picture and trying to see if he could sign them, I saw his hand go up and try to sign "tv."  He was basically telling me, "Be quiet, mom.  I just want to relax and watch tv already." ^_^

After he was done watching, he looked over at me.  I got up and went over to his bed to ask, as I signed, "do you want a new one or same one?"  I began to sign more words as I spoke.  He took his other hand from underneath the blanket and attempted to sign "new" as his hands came together on top of each other.  Then I asked which kind of dvd.  He was able to sign "trains" to tell me that he wanted to watch another "Thomas the Trains" dvd following with the sign "red" for the red case.  It was so clear as he signed.  

He smiled as I grabbed the red dvd and placed it in the player.  I couldn't help but jump inside as I realized what a blessing signing is at this moment in time in our lives.  It is allowing me to clearly see my son's needs at this time as he is striving to be so brave and strong!!!  I love you!

written by Shawna Tran

websites: www.mybabydetails.com & www.vietnammylife.com