Last month I was really worried about Aisha’s apparent speech delay. Following the advice of a wonderful speech therapist, everyone in the family, plus Aisha’s babysitter, has been encouraging Aisha to speak more by playing and talking to her one-on-one, giving her lots of attention, singing songs, and repeating words.

Happy to report that after a month, Aisha has finally started ‘parroting.’ That is, repeating words and sounds she hears. Not perfectly. Actually, very imperfectly. But there’s something there. She’s trying. Prior to this she was totally silent with the odd “uh!” once in a while.

Out of everyone, Aisha has made the most progress with her brothers. Of course. She totally adores them. And they are wonderful teachers.

Aisha wants to be just like her brothers, here she’s trying her very hardest to give a ‘peace’ sign. Hahahaha. Noob.

I explained to the boys that it was important Aisha started speaking and that we had to help teach her. Every day since they would have conversations with her. Not just the ‘GO AWAY AISHA!’ and ‘DON’T TOUCH MY STUFF AISHA!’ and ‘MAMA I DON’T LIKE AISHA!’ But actual, sit-down-and-talk-and-play together conversations.

“Do you want a ball, Aisha?” “Oh look, what’s this Aisha?” “Aisha, this is a puzzle. A puhh-zelll.” And it’s helped tremendously.

Aisha only repeats what her brothers say

I was driving Sulaiman to kindergarten one morning together with Ayub and Aisha.

Me: Oh no, there’s no parking.

Sulaiman: Over there Mama!

Ayub: YAAAAAAHHHH!!!

Sulaiman: YAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Ayub: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

Sulaiman: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Ayub: MAMA, AISHA SAID YAAAAAH!!!

Me: What really?

Ayub: Listen! Yaaaaa… Aisha, yaaaaaaah….

Aisha: yaaaaaaaaa

Ayub, Sulaiman, Me: OMGOMGOMGOMG(@&)$(@^#)*^!)($+_!(R)$*$(_&_(@*$_)*!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Aisha: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

All of us: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

Yeah, we all ‘yaaaaaah-ed’ in the car for a long time. It sounds weird but this was a really big deal for us. Aisha never repeated words or sounds before this. It’s always been mama mama mama.

Little copycat grows her vocabulary

Anyway, from her 5-word vocabulary last month, it has grown. Aisha now regularly uses these words (and more): fshhhh (fish), burt (bird), bol (ball), nana (banana), nak, yeah, kakak, wow, woh-woh (row row… your boat).

It’s amazing how quickly she can pick up a new word now. Sulaiman will just stare at her, make a silly face, then say “Aisha, say BURP!” And Aisha will give him a big grin and say “BURP!” Then they’ll fall into a fit of giggles. Now if only the boys actually taught her proper words… So far they’ve amused themselves to no end by teaching her stuff like ‘burp’ and ‘fart’ and ‘boob’. While Ayub loves to give her words like ‘computer mouse’ and ‘television remote’. I think he genuinely wants to help, bless him, but really, Ayub… -_-

Oh, she finally learned how to call her dad. Kind of. She can’t say ‘Ayah’ but she says ‘Yah-yah’ instead, which is infinitely cuter anyway.

Aisha has finally starting babbling. Baby babble. “Nananabababbubuna.” All day long.

She also loves singing. She sings along to ABCs, Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and… that stupid Crazy Frog song. She’s actually quite good at theCrazy Frog song. The beginning part “da-da-de-be-da-be-du” or whatever. It’s cute when she does it.