Emotional responses

[Guest guest]

Hi All

I had an interesting experience with this weekend when visiting a

Halloween festival. There was a Giant that was scaring the kids and making

them laugh. I took over to watch and she started to fuss and cry.

I took her away and she was fine. I went back to watch again and she

started it up again. I finally realized that SHE was frightened of the

Giant too. I had thought she was just fussy but when I watched her reaction

more closely it was obvious she was scared. She kept looking at the Giant,

then looking at me, then at him . . . This sounds strange but it made me

so happy to see that reaction. She really doesn't communicate with me

beyond fussing for things (clean diapers, food, drink, love, etc.). She

can't sign, has no babbling or use of language. She doesn't follow any

voice commands like " Where's Daddy? " , " Want a bottle? " so I have a hard time

knowing what she understands. Seeing her get scared of someone in a costume

just seemed like an important step in her development. Call me crazy but it

made me happy. At least her emotional reactions and/or visual perception of

things are developing somewhat.

Booo!

( - born 7/14/98 w/PMG)

Northern California

- Feeling down has been my middle name for the past 5 months but I

think I'm finally starting to have brighter days. I understand your

anticipation about the Dobyns visit. It meant so much to us for him to see

. We flew all the way to Dallas in July for the conference and it

was well worth the effort. Hang in there!

[Guest guest]

This is great .........

I must say that Isaac also got frightened yesterday and I also felt quite

'pleased'!! My friend was holding Isaac and her son started his go cart

and the noise frightened Isaac and he started to cry.........I thought this

response was 'wonderful'!

Kate