odin has had his fridge phonics set for quite some time, but it has only recently become one of his favorite toys; with his recently mastered simple shape sorting he’s now adept at puting the letters in the toy with the correct orientation which initiates a song that teaches letter names and letter sounds. there’s also a little red button below the letter that plays the alphabet song, which never fails to get get odin to dance a little jig.

although i know the toy is popular with “civilian” parents, it’s particularly popular with (micro)preemie parents whose children often have speech delays of some sort or another. in fact, when i looked for amazon reviews of the product, the very first one that i currently see is written by a micropreemie parent and is entitled Great for Speech-Delayed kids!. which is appropriate because other than his fondness for “no!” he still isn’t saying anymore words than he was during his developmental assessment. which while the issue is not a dire concern, it is notable that during our pediatrician visit for rsv shots he gave us a “furrowed brow” look when we replied that odin wasn’t speaking more words.

but he does love the phonics. especially the letter “M”, which is probably and not surprisingly because it’s the first letter of mauja and mamma.

in addition to the interest in phonics, we are having some success with teaching him baby signs which is quickly becoming an invaluable communication skill.

more on that when i can actually catch him signing when i also have the camera at hand 🙂