At 13 months Belle has grown into having quite the personality. She finds it funny that we keep videoing her. She laughs and tries to follow the camera. We really have to keep up with her while feeding her pureed foods and puffs because she thinks this “camera thing” is quite the novelty. While she is looking for the camera that her Daddy is holding, I try to get her to stay still long enough to eat. We don’t have any problems with her eating the pureed foods or chomping on her puffs. Annabelle definitely has gotten the hang of it and loves to eat.
As Belle is getting older and progressing in her therapy, we have moved on to the TalkTools Horn Hierarchy. With the horns we are teaching her how to properly form her mouth around the horn and blow air through Horn #1 and make noise. You know how kids love to make noise. She does really well with getting the air to go through Horn #1, and every now and again a noise will come out. We are supposed to hold the Horns for her, but I do let her hold it herself from time to time and she thinks she has really gotten a hold of something great.. It’s a learning process for the both of us and the goal is for Belle to “exercise” the muscles required to produce sounds and to assist with lip closure and tongue retraction. Belle is getting used to it, and it is only a matter of time before she will start making a lot of noise with these horns.
-Lanie Beetsma
Annabelle has Down Syndrome and has been using TalkTools Therapy since she was born. Her story is a great inspiration for parents seeking help for a child with Down Syndrome. Follow Miss Annabelle’s journey from the beginning here.