And then there's poor Jaycee. She loves music. She always has. Jaycee's role in our group is the dancer. She sways and rocks and claps along to the music. Because of her limited verbal speech, she couldn't sing along.
Sometimes, I felt bad. I wished she could sing. I know she knows all the words of songs we listen to over and over. I know she loves God and dances when we listen to worship music. How nice would it be to hear her sing?
Then it happened. At the beginning of the year, I made a playlist of about 10 songs on the house IPOD for Jaycee. There were some songs from Frozen, the Little Mermaid, and Sofia the First. I originally made the playlist for Jaycee's princess party but it became a daily dance party in the kitchen for us. Jaycee listened to these songs over and over and over.
I started to notice that Jaycee was vocalizing a few sounds to the song. Over time, she started to make more sounds and then a few more. Then, it became obvious--She was singing!!
For the last several months, she is vocalizing more and more to songs. It makes sense that the small selection of songs I started with coupled with lots of repetition resulted in her being able to sing. Repetition is extremely important with childhood apraxia of speech.
Let me be clear, Jaycee is not clearly saying all or any words in the songs. She mainly makes vowel sounds and some consonant sounds. For example, these are words followed by her pronunciation: blue (--ue), rabbit (it), princess ("ss"), go (oh), bye (-ye).
Some of her best songs that she sings are: Let it Go from Frozen, Do You Want to Build A Snowman also from Frozen, I'm Not Ready to Be a Princess from Sofia, and Blue Ribbon Bunny from Sofia.
My solo career is over and my duo is now a trio! And I love it! Bring on the karaoke!!
The princesses who inspired Jaycee's birthday party, which launched her singing career.
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