My Daughter’s Finally Spoken

That moment of, surprise, finally came, on how children are going to, start speaking, at their own terms, when they’re, ready, not because the time has come, like by nine-months of age or whenever it is that it’s written that children will start speaking their first words, on the readiness to speak in language acquisition of young children, translated…

Before my daughter was two-and-a-half years old, she couldn’t speak yet, she was my firstborn I’d, originally hoped to hear her very first word, “mama” being with her day and night; only that no matter how I’d, repeated the words, “Mama” to her, even a “ma” would do, and I’d, lowered my expectation, anything, make a sound, any syllable will do.  But unfortunately, she’d, looked at me with those eyes so innocent mouth opened wide up, like she was, trying to, make the sounds, then, shuts up her mouth, smiled and looked at me, that look stated, “don’t push me, when I want to speak, then I will!”

Took my daughter to the doctor, and the doctor told me that her hearing is fine, as for when I’d inquired, why doesn’t she speak yet, the reason was, unclear, just wait a bit longer!  The process of waiting for my daughter to talk, is truly, gruesome, especially when I’d had to, cope with how the elders told me, that I’d, given birth to a mute.  Actually, after all the needed tests had been conducted, I’d, prepared for the worst, that if my daughter doesn’t talk at all, then, I shall, take up sign language, to teach her to communicate then!  This world is way too messed up, the words out of the mouth, makes troubles, the words that hurt, too many to, count, and, the communications with others, don’t need to be verbally always.

I’d talked a lot to her every day, during my spare time, I’d read the stories to her, and she’d, responded by her eye contact, as well as, gesturing back.  And, don’t know when, she’d started, making the sounds, “Ahhhhh!”, which, surprised me.  Yep, just the “ahhhhh!”  The elders stated, how come she only says “ahhhh!”, can say mama, or dada even, but I’d felt, that she was, already, quite amazing, don’t overlook this small sound she’d made, it was, her means to communicate with the outside world around her.  There were, the wide variety of versions of “Ahhhhh!”, she’d voiced, and I can tell from the changes in her tone of voice, to tell what she was needing from me.

illustration from UDN.com

And, she’d communicated using “ahhhhh!” to me a long time.  Until one day, I was napping with her, there were the sounds of dogs barking outside, she’d tossed and turned, couldn’t sleep.  And, from her waving her hands, frowning, pouting up her lips, I’d known she wanted to say, “bad doggy, I want to sleep”, I’d carried her up, walked to the window, looking into the distance, we saw a big yellow dog by the side of the roads, barking nonstop, another dog was, blocked by a building, couldn’t see, but, the barks from that other dog, loud too, it seems, that the dogs were, calling one another out from their own sides of the path, with neither backing down.

At this time, my daughter blurted aloud, “Doggy go away!”  She was thrilled and shocked by what she’d called out, patted her chest, to calm herself down, I too, was, surprised, finally, my daughter had, started, talking now.  The words, “Doggy go away”, with the subjective noun, the verb too, quite articulate, with the babyish tone too.

On that very day, the story magically, unfolded itself, my daughter seemed to, have gotten it, and started talking, nonstop.  I was so surprised, can’t remember if she’d called out “mama” anymore.  I’d, waited for two whole years for my daughter’s very first word, and, it was, the two dogs, that ended, my daughter’s life of a mute.

See, this still just showed, how STUPID, you god damn, adults can be, like the elders in this case, keep on, pushing the woman to take her daughter to get checked, and, the doctor said everything was normal, and the woman was, almost at her wit’s end, because her daughter hadn’t spoken a single word yet, until, there came, that full sentence out of her daughter’s lips, doggy go away!

That still just showed, how every child is, different in her/his developments, there’s NO need to fit your own young, to what’s “normal”, because, by putting them through a series of tests, because they hadn’t spoken their first word yet, when they were “supposed” to, you think something’s wrong with them, when the reality of things is that it’s NOT time for them, to start up yapping yet.