Colours and Behaviours

Zoe Knows Her Colours!

For the past few months, we began to notice that Zoe knows some of her colours. It started with just red and orange and she sometimes recognized yellow. I figured they were teaching colours at pre-school and didn't think much about it.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I tested Zoe. I noticed right away that it is best to test Zoe with two of the same objects. Otherwise, she just picks the object she likes instead of pointing out the colour I am asking her about. Our friend Patrick had given her an ice cream game for her birthday that has ice cream scoops of different colours.

And so I tested her. First red, then orange, yellow, green, blue....wow Zoe you know a lot of colours! Then brown, black, white, purple and I ran out of similar coloured objects to test her with. At one point we tried to get tricky with her and put two objects down that were not the colour we were asking for and Zoe got mad and slammed her hand down as if she was saying, "Don't try to trick me!" We also tried three objects at one time but noticed that Zoe got very disorganized and was not able to concentrate on three choices at once.

Zoe enjoys playing this colour game now and will even sometimes point out the colour that I am asking about and then take the other toy for herself to play with. As if she is saying, "Here you go mom, you said you wanted the red one. I am going to take this other one to play with."

I was curious so I asked school about it. I thought they were sitting the kids down and saying, "This is red. We are going to paint with red. Can you find the red truck? etc" but it turns out that they are just talking about colours as they are doing other things. So Zoe (like the other kids) is just picking up the colours from conversations and play. Which is great because that tells us something about Zoe's learning style. After we learned this, the teachers have been testing Zoe too and they agree- Zoe can correctly identify all of her basic colours.

What Else is Going on in That Head of Hers?

Then it got me thinking- what else is Zoe thinking about that we have no clue. And so we started finger spelling. So far the only two words Zoe consistently correctly identifies is "dog" and "Allison" (her teacher from school). I think it is hilarious that she recognizes dog but can't spell her own name!

Zoe has also been trying to identify adults when talking about her teachers at school. For example, she used to sign "mom" for her female teacher but now signs "girl." The other day when she was walking around the hospital, I noticed that when she passed a man she immediately signed "daddy" as if she was saying "He's like daddy." So we are working on "boy" but that takes more fine motor coordination than "girl."

If you ever see me on the subway with Zoe then you may think I am just crazy. The conversation goes something like this:

Zoe signs "daddy" while looking at a man.

I respond, "Yes, that is a boy like daddy."

Zoe signs "kiss."

I respond, "No, we don't kiss strangers" at which point the man begins to look uncomfortable and is thinking "what a nutter, that kid isn't saying anything."

If the person is eating Zoe will sign "Zoe eat."

To which I have to respond, "No Zoe, that is not your food." Again, the stranger looks at me like I am nuts.

What people don't understand is that I can't just ignore Zoe's questions and requests. First of all, she would get really frustrated. And secondly, she is persistent. She will just sit there repeatedly signing "kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss" until I tell her "No you may not kiss that stranger who happens to be a boy like daddy!"

Zoe Able to Control Herself

The other thing we have been working on is helping Zoe identify how she is feeling and to help her appropriately express those feelings. And Zoe has done amazing with controlling herself. For example: Zoe will sometimes pull our hair or pinch our faces when she is very excited to see us. So we will say, "Be gentle Zoe" while taking her hand and gently touching our faces with her hand. Now, we can say "Zoe, what are your hands doing?" And Zoe (usually) will immediately stop being rough.

Another example is the other night Zoe was angry at me for making her go to bed. She kept signing "angry/grumpy" and "mom." (Yup, she likes to let me know that I am the one she is mad at- gee thanks kid!) When I started to put her in her bed, she leaned forward with her mouth open to bite my shoulder. I said, "Zoe, what are you doing with your mouth? Can you make a good choice here?" She immediately leaned her face away from me and again signed "angry" while making a sad face. I thanked her for telling me how she was feeling by using her words instead of biting me.

As her mom, it gives me great hope that Zoe is aware of her behaviour and that she can control it. Zoe will even follow directions (like go into your room to get ready for bed) when she obviously does not want to. I think that is pretty impressive for a three year old!