5 . At 5 o ’ clock sharp every morning , Krista liked to crawl out of my bed and venture off to her play room where she ' d play with blocks and just adored taking things apart . During this play time , I would get down on the floor with her , grab a block , put it near my mouth and just repeatedly say " Mama ". The toy was used to bring her attention to my mouth , a technique that I learned while researching the Son-Rise program . This developed into me singing " Mama " over and over again and pretty soon my girl was saying " Mama "; so I ' d check in with her daily to make sure that she still had " Mama " down pat and I then moved on to Dada and Baba etc ... Some words came very easily and some did not ; but I remained grateful for every word or approximation that this angel girl could produce , never giving a second thought to the ones that were really tough for her . Always referring to her speech as " developing ".
6 . Through Glenn Doman ' s book , What to do About Your Brain Injured Child ( Brain injury in this context referring to any condition affecting your child ' s cognitive ability ). I learned that I should listen out for different sounds that she would make ; for example , many babies will babble " mmm ". You catch the child saying " mmm " and you sit him down and say , " I have noticed that you can say " mmm ". Now we will take that " mmm " sound and it will mean Mama ". In this scenario , every time you hear the child babble " mmm ", you will quickly reinforce this by saying something like , " You said Mama ! I love it when you say Mama ! You called me and I came !" My Krista is very high intensity and responds very well to intense , animated and even loud praise , so this method has proven very effective for us .
7 . Good probiotics to clear up yeast in the gut and to help to heal Krista ' s gut was essential ! 8 . Krista gained even more speech while participating in the Angelman Syndrome Supplement Trial . 9 . We used MB12 shots with much success in Krista learning to string together longer sentences .
10 . Lastly , in recent months , Lizzie talked me into supplementing with a fish oil that is specifically formulated to aid in speech development . We saw great results ; I learned quite a bit about therapeutic dosing of fish oil at Integrative Nutrition where Dr . Sears of The Zone Diet was a guest lecturer and huge advocate for this approach . From this , I learned that Krista needed about three times the amount of fish oil than what is recommended for general health in order to be able to see an increase in ability for speech .
My determination for Krista to learn to speak started when she was a mere baby ; she is now 10 and I ' m still learning and remaining open to safe and effective ways of helping her in the area of speech ; as well as , many other areas of her life that will help her to become an independent young lady .
If you are reading this and feeling a bit bummed out that you were not as convinced about the speech thing as I was or you feel like " oh had I only been that determined , maybe I would be hearing my sweet Angel ' s voice ". Let me say this ... DO NOT feel that way ! There was something that seemed out of reach for your Angel that you were able to help him or her accomplish that I may have not been able to help my daughter to accomplish . We only have so much energy to expend in a day ; I chose to expend it on speech . Another parent might be more consumed by helping their child to gain the ability to walk independently ; maybe you always envisioned your angel riding a bike or reading , whatever it is , I hope our story encourages you to cultivate a belief and unwavering faith that will lead to the achievement of yours , and more importantly , your Angel ' s dreams !
Written by : Karen VanPuyenbroeck Angelman Today Magazine Associate Editor Karen . Angelmantoday @ Gmail . com Karen is a certified Health Coach providing Nutrition Counseling services to the special needs community with a focus on Angelman syndrome . To learn more about her services , visit her website at www . AngelFoodsbyKaren . com .
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