Alphabet Game

Roscoe should soon know the alphabet. We repeat the alphabet to him often, sometimes to keep his mind occupied and sometimes to give him focus and calm him down. It's something that we've done since he was probably 3-4 months old, so I was surprised to go back and find I hadn't posted anything about it so far.

What we'll do is go through the alphabet slowly, emphasizing each letter in the same tone of voice. Roscoe will typically just focus his eyes on our mouths and watch us form the letters. I amplify the movements of my mouth so that they are exaggerated and distinct. We are hoping that by doing this, Roscoe will get a head start on communication. Prior to the trach tube, he'd sometimes make sounds back at us after each letter. Now he just watches our mouths with curiosity:

When the regular alphabet gets old, we'll go through and use a word that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Mostly that just gives him a variety of sounds and movements and keeps our brains from getting bored. So far we've done the alphabet with animals (N and X are difficult), places, boy names, and girl names.

The video below doesn't have any alphabet recitations, but it gives an idea of how he'd respond when we made sounds. It was taken near the end of May when his aunt, uncle, and cousins were visiting:

Hopefully we'll get to hear that little voice calling back to us again some day soon.