A to Z Talking Mouth video

My child, Matthew, who has complete Agenesis
of the Corpus Callosum has always been mesmerized
by watching my mouth move very slowly to form a
sound and simple word. Matthew is non-verbal.

Equally as fascinating for him is his own
reflection in a mirror while watching his
mouth move and make sounds.

For Matthew, this particular approach to
learning verbal sounds and words is what works
and what he is highly motivated by.

In fact, his very first word he ever said
(at 7 years of age) was learned by watching
his reflection in the window of our car when
I would pick him up every day from school.

Each day we would walk out to the car and stand
in front of his window while he watched my
reflection in the car window slowly saying the
word "bye bye" and also watching his own
reflection while trying to say the word.

This ritual took him one year of trying and
practicing but one day it clicked and he actually
SAID "buh bye" all by himself.

The other night I stumbled upon a children's
online educational video about Nature Alphabet
with a talking mouth.

I was thrilled!! I couldn't wait to show it to
Matthew.

I showed it to him last night. He sat in front
of the computer completely mesmerized watching
the talking mouth make sounds and words.

He was fascinated!




When the A to Z Alphabet talking mouth movie ended
Matthew signed "more" and watched it a second time.
It didn't stop there though. He actually watched
this video THREE times in a row.

I interacted with him throughout the video helping
to encourage sounds and I was astonished at the
incredible accomplishments that Matthew made.

He said "Ahh" twice for Apple. Then he signed "Apple".

He said the "Sssss" sound for the first time ever!

He also said the "huhhh" sound for H for the first
time!

I was just watching and was blown away seeing this
take place right before my eyes. I called his dad
in the room to have a look.

Then Matthew SAID "Mmmmmm" "oooooouuu" for Moon
and made the sign for "Moon" It was the first time
ever he actually put the mmmm and ooouu sounds
together. He has always only said "mmmmm" for moon.

He tried making so many sounds and did a lot of
blowing in an attempt to make the different sounds.

You could just watch him intently thinking, then
trying to make a sound.

He attempted to say the word "Yellow" with a
short "uh" then a faster "ya ya ya ya"

He also made an "Sssss" like sound while
listening to the "Zeee" sound for Zebra.

I even heard what sounded like a "tuh" sound
for "T".

It's truly magical when you find a learning
tool that speaks to your child on a motivational
level and matches their learning style as well.

On a sidenote, yes there are some words in the
video that are not typical of beginning alphabet
pictures or words. However, the video is based
on nature and the words chosen reflect this
topic.

The talking mouth is a huge hit in our house and
I can't wait for Matthew to watch this video again.