Crabs Don't Have Tails

My oldest two Zooboys are down on the farm spending a week with Grammie and their Great Uncles. I'll have to share their stories later.

That leaves me with the two youngest Zooboys. A (3) has a major speech diisorder called apraxia. It make conversation very hard for him. He was over 2 before he first said "daddy" and almost 2 and a half before saying "Momma." However, he had a huge language bloom a few months ago. He started putting words together and then making 4 and 5 word sentences. Pronunciation is still way out there but *we* understand a good bit of what he says.

One of the first ways he learned to communicate was by telling Knock-knock jokes. His oldest brother was into bad Boys' Life jokes and shared them with us each new monthly edition. Andrew just picked up on it. Even now, to get your attention he will say "knock-knock."

I say all that to tell you this little story. Yesterday we were out and about. We happened to stop at a red light in front of Red Lobster. Here's the conversation that took place. Please understand that I am translating for him so I am not typing how he actually pronounces things.

A: Momma, What’s that?

M: That’s a lobster.

A: No…that’s not a lobster. That’s a crab.

M: No, it’s not a crab. It’s a lobster.

A: It IS a crab. See! (holds up hands making pincher movements.)

M: lobsters have claws just like crabs do. But lobsters have a tail. Crabs don’t have a tail.

A: Ooooooooh. That’s a lobster. It has a tail.

M: That’s right

A: Crabs don’t have tails.

M: Nope… crabs have no tails.

A: Knock knock

M: Who’s there?

A: Crab

M: Crab who?

A: Crabs got no tails. Ha ha ha ha ha ha


This continued on for quite some time. We went over various animals and even people who did and did not have tails. (Monkeys, fish, gorillas, lobsters, Daddy) The whole time I kept thinking, "What an amazing little guy. He is so smart!" I'm just so thankful that he can finally tell us about all the things he knows. It reminded me of a post I saw on my apraxia group board.

"Being mute is like having your brain gouged out. Autism/apraxia took away my voice, and a world that equates muteness with stupidity took everything else."




I think about my little guy when I read that. And I am ashamed because I once doubted his intellect.