Sign language.

Abbe will be late in speaking. They always are. (Feels odd, speaking about children in that manner, ones own in particular. Like a herd. A race. People like him.) Anyway, children with Abbe’s syndrome are usually late speakers.

There are several reasons for that, one being the submucosal cleft palate that Abbe and most of his 22q11 friends have. So it’s not just a psychological thing, it’s technical or rather anatomical aswell.

To help Abbe along, we’ve started using support-signing. It’s kind of a light version of the sign language. He’s into it big time and he’s incredibly sweet when he uses his signs. Sometimes it’s impossible to see what he’s on about, one has to do an awful lot of guessing and carefully look at the sum total of each given situation.

The other day, Abbe dragged a log of wood across our livingroom floor. It was almost the size of himself, and he struggled along. Eventually he dropped the berch-log at his mum’s feet and made the sign for  “fire”.

Getting a bit chilly in here, isn’t it? was his point.



(NB this is the swedish sign for fire)