A Song in His Heart

Tad’s speech delay has impaired his ability to communicate with us – though it’s amazing how rapidly that is changing. But what has never been a problem is his ability to carry a tune. When he wants to, of course. He’s not a performing monkey or anything.

While he is still completely in love with anything Star Wars-related, we’ve had a resurgence of Veggie Tales in the house. Which is great, because anything with less shooting and “du-wow”s in it (“du-wow” being Tad’s own onomotopeia word for a blaster firing) is a good influence at this point.

Tad’s been listening to a “greatest hits” Veggie Tales CD at night for a while now, and every so often he’ll just pop out with a new song. The Webmaster asked me how on earth I was figuring out what he was singing, because while the tune is there, the words are VERY choppy and Tad-erized. Let’s just say that I have an extensive knowledge of Veggie Tales songs that spans back to my college days – before marriage, before kids. If there was a Veggie Tales edition of “Name That Tune”, I would so totally kick butt. So after I pick out the tune that Tad is trying to sing, I go consult the CD case. And then I see that yes, the song he’s singing is on there.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. This is how he learned all the They Might Be Giants ABC’s and 123’s songs as well.

And really, there’s not much cuter than a three-year-old with a speech delay singing the chorus from “Endangered Love“: “Barbara Manatee (manatee, manatee), You are the one for me…” Except Tad sings it “Ab-bra Anateeee, da one for meeee…” And sometimes he doesn’t even get all of that in. It depends on how into the dancing he is.

It’s funny how the brain works. The part of the brain that controls speech is completely different than the part that functions for music. It’s partly why Tad’s school has music every single day – because it gives the kids a different way to learn. For Tad, music has been a doorway (one of many) into real speech and communication. Plus, the kid has surprisingly decent pitch.

It’s just another way God made him special and loves him very much.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 2:38 am and is filed under Children, Speech Therapy Saga.
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