Bragging on my girl

Miss Lila had an ENT appointment yesterday and I was so proud of my "big" little girl. She let the NP look in her ears, nose and throat without complaining. She even opened up her mouth and said, "Ahhh" without having to be told when she saw the popsicle-stick-looking thing. (What are those things called, anyway?)

One of her ear tubes had fallen out, but the one in her left ear needed to be taken out as it had moved. We went into a procedure room, where Lila laid down on the table and was perfectly still while the NP got out the sharpest looking instrument I'd ever seen to retrieve the tube. *Yikes!*

That took about 3 seconds and we were ready to go. As we were walking down the hall, the NP said to Lila, "You get 2 stickers for being such a good girl today!" Lila held up 2 fingers and said, "2 tickas!" Then she held up the other hand and counted "one, two" on her fingers. The NP had started to walk away, but turned around when Lila started counting. "Wow", she said, "she's really smart!"

And as we walked down the hall toward the exit, Lila had a little conversation with herself- referring to herself in the third person, as she often does. "Lila, good girl! 2 tickas! One, two"

I didn't really understand why the NP made a big to-do about Lila counting to 2 on her fingers. She only counted to 2, she didn't count to 25. And I felt that if Lila had been a typical kid, it wouldn't have been a big deal at all but since she has Down Syndrome, it was huge. (BTW, Tiffani and Nick disagreed with me, which sparked a great family discussion last night.)

I was probably being senstive as I had conversations with 2 friends (mothers of kids with DS) yesterday where we discussed the low expectations that some professionals have for our kids. And I was pretty fired up after those conversations.


While I am almost the end of this post, I'm definitely not the end of this subject. I will be blogging about all of that later, but for now I just wanted to brag. Our little girl is growing up!

She will be getting a new set of tubes next month!

Hugs~

Linda & Lila

2 comments:

  1. I disagree with you, also. Lila knows way more than most typical kids. She always has been smart and when a little kid speaks up like that it's always a bit startling. I think the NP would have commented on anyone that size doing what Lila did.

    'Course I wasn't there so maybe you should go with your instincts. : )

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  2. I know I'm late to this discussion, but I would guess that the surprise might have come more from the communication Lila was able to exhibit than the counting to 2, though that is still impressive. But so many children this age with DS don't speak much at all, so those that can put a few words together unprompted are often seen as "ahead" of their peers, for better or for worse. Braska often gets comments and shock and reactions from providers because she can answer their questions (name, age, sister's name, teacher's name, etc.) or because she can ask for something like a sticker when told to "ask nicely". (I want sticker please, thank you.)

    I can see what you mean about the lower expectations...though I've begun to just look at them as opportunities to celebrate Braska's skills to others, even if we know she's able to do even more than they see.

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