Mondays by Mums - Talking is Taken For Granted

William is a fascinating little thing. Whilst his speech is very poor for a 4yr old and is 99% Echolalia (he repeats phrases he's learned rather than talking), he loves babbling and making noise, its just a shame that we can't understand it.

He often slips into William-language which is like a cross between Vietnamese and German. I'd not be surprised if he was found to be one of these medical miracles where people just suddenly speak a foreign language. He really does try to speak but its jumbled and incoherent most of the time with the odd clear phrase or an 'Ich bin' mixed in.

We were painting the other day, and he states he is painting with the water (referring to dipping his paintbrush in the water cup). Now this wasn't said in your average Wigan accent.

"we are paynting with tha wowtah! Paynting with the wowtah, tha wowtah!"

Daddy's head popped into view and says "Is he speaking cockney??" Yes. He was speaking in a cockney accent. It's bizarre.

We know no one who speaks with some of the accents that William comes out with and we don't know where he gets it from. But it does show his capacity for speaking using different sounds. It's not monotone and he can use pitch when he talks.

Hopefully some day he will learn "small talk" and be able to chat, even if just using symbols. I'd love to know how he's feeling sometimes but we've a long way to go yet.

His brother Alex is a total chatterbox, and sometimes I tell him to be quiet as he babbles some utter crap and it drives me insane. But really I shouldn't do that.

Talking is taken for granted. When you have a child that rarely speaks or can't, you realise just how important it is.