Communication.....

One of the biggest things that we work with Danielle on, on a daily basis is Communication. As a growing 4 year old little girl it has got to be very frustrating for her to not be able to yell words out when she wants, or to even whisper a word when she wants. She only says a few words and uses other ways to Communicate with us.
It is very difficult for new caregivers, new therapists, teachers, friends etc to pick up on Danielle's communication queues until they have been around her a little bit....then it is very evident what she uses to communicate with. Her body, her voice, her eyes etc. Something that is difficult to identify is when Danielle is uncomfortable, or in pain. It is a little easier to spot certain things the older she gets but it is still challenging especially for new people that are around her and even sometimes Mom and Dad.
Last week Danielle did not sleep, nights were rough. It was a challenge trying to figure out what was wrong. Was she wet, nope....was she teething.....not that I can see, was she hungry......nope, was she just wanting to snuggle.....maybe but after process of elimination we ruled that out. There is no worse feeling than guessing what may be wrong with your child. And much like an infant does not communicate, sadly it is difficult for our girl to share things with us as well.
It was not until Saturday afternoon when we noticed drainage from her ear, that possibly a slight ear infection is what was causing our girl discomfort at night when she was laying down to sleep. Talk about feeling horrible that we did not notice before.
I took this video to share of ways that Danielle communicates with her Daddy and I. In this video it is very obvious that she is acknowledging something is wrong. She communicates very well with Mom and Dad when questions are directly asked. And it breaks my heart to get a response such as this...

Another reason we are praying for positive outcomes from this upcoming surgery. To help our girl communicate. She is frustrated, she has so much to say, yet getting it out takes work....a lot of work. And she does it but it is hard. When you walk in a room and she greets you with a drawn out, 'hiiii' or at night when I hear her over the monitor calling for, 'umauma', she wants her Mommy. But we want to help her even more, we want to help her speak a sentence, we want to hear her story. We are praying for the beginning to start in just a few short days....