The long answer is much more complicated. Emilia has severe apraxia of speech which was not properly diagnosed and subsequently treated with the right therapy until she was three and a half years old (spring 2013). Effectively, the development of her expressive speech did not begin until she was of preschool age. Couple this fact with her spending the first 25 months of her life in a language-deprived orphanage setting, having to learn a new language, and her continuing brave battle with apraxia, and it should not come as a surprise that Emilia is still delayed in her ability to speak and understand English. We, as her parents, as well as her speech therapist believe that her language overall is now somewhere between the 36-48 months level of human development. This means that she has made typically paced language progress over the last three years with the main difference between her and her same age peers being her delayed starting point at 3.5 years old.
Emilia speaks most and best in environments where she feels safe and comfortable: at home, in her therapy sessions, and at school. She becomes quieter when out and about at stores, playgrounds, medical offices, or in large groups. She has an easier time communicating with adults who will make the effort to understand her which is not always the case with other children.
Emilia typically speaks in sentences that are three to eight words long. Much depends on the number of syllables she is trying to string together and how difficult each individual word is for her to pronounce. When Emilia uses big words like rhinoceros, magnitude and indigo (which she does), she uses them singly because it takes her great effort to express them without trying to add anything else. When the words are shorter, you might hear her say things like: I want hummus, I want to walk on the snow, it's so cold outside - brrrr, it's Rex's toy - don't touch.
Emilia understands and expresses many concepts in her unique way. Here are some examples.
What does an airplane do?
Airplane up and down. Clouds. Fly. Little bumpy. Sit in seat.
What happened at the dentist?
Dentist lie down, say ahhh. Buzzzzz. Loud. No ouchie. All finished.
Emilia easily learns new words, even in other languages. It took us several days to figure out, for example, that she had picked up the Russian words for yellow, blue and red from some youtube cartoons (she loves watching videos in other languages). She has little exchanges in German over the phone with my mom and knows at least a few words in Armenian, too.
Emilia knows by name all of her family members, including extended, classmates, teachers, therapists and friends. She uses greetings, she labels, she answers yes or no. She uses nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, and prepositions. She follows directions. She initiates conversations. She laughs out loud. She sings and has memorized countless songs, movies and cartoon episodes. She reads sight words.
Yes, Emilia talks. She does not speak like most other 6 year olds, but she is doing the very best she can with the cards she has been dealt and we're so proud of her.
