Reluctant (Unable?) to Perform

Ava has learned some new sounds and some new words in the past week or so. We’re proud. She’s proud. She’s using them many times a day. One example is the /b/ sound which she uses in the word “book” (she doesn’t pronounce the final /k/). She always says the word while making the sign for book. When she went to my parents’ house this weekend they commented that she used the word/sign quite often there. So yesterday morning when our Parents as Teachers educator arrived and pulled out a book I prompted Ava to say/sign “book”. She grunted in protest and ran out of the room. Literally. She ran out of the room and didn’t come back for five minutes. I had to go get her. I have to watch out and try not to push her too hard, too quickly. I need to remember that increased performance demands make things harder for children with apraxia. It was nice that by the end of the meeting Ava had tried several vocalizations with her teacher and her teacher commented that she saw a lot of change in Ava since the last time she saw her (a couple of months ago).