Everyone who has a dog in their life knows that they communicate with their humans. Although they may not speak our language, they send us cues with their body and voices that we learn how to interpret with ease. We know when they are happy, hungry, sick, excited, nervous, and more. They can also read our cues, even the most subtle ones, so that they understand our needs, feelings, and messages.
Being understood by someone you love is a foundational aspect of any relationship. For a precious little girl named Everlee and her Husky, Dude, conversation and understanding is all the more important. You see, Everlee is epileptic. Her epilepsy has caused a speech delay so language is more difficult for her than other kids. But she has no problems communicating with her dog, Dude. The two of them seem to understand each other perfectly, to heartwarming and hilarious effect.
How Epilepsy Impacts Language Development
Epilepsy Foundation says that epilepsy, and any brain disease, can impact a child’s language development. Epilepsy is unique in its type, severity, and causes from child-to-child and this impacts the extent and nature of language disturbances.
On their website, Epilepsy Foundation states,
“When epilepsy develops in early childhood, the patterns of language areas in the brain may be out of the ordinary and developmental difficulties may emerge, in which the child has difficulty in acquiring communication skills at a rate and in a manner that is similar to what is seen in most children. This happens more often with partial epilepsy arising in the left hemisphere. In many of these cases, the language disturbance takes the form of a general reduction in a large class of verbally based skills. This disturbance can eventually extend to effects on reading and writing.”
Check out this story of a speech-language pathologist who works with children who have language and speech delays is teaching her dog to communicate with English words!
Dude and Everlee Talk to Each Other in Their Own Language
Everlee and Dude are absolutely inseparable. In the videos posted to her mother’s Facebook page, they are seen hanging out on a picnic table with Dude relaxed across the table top. Everlee squeaks or shouts or laughs or giggles and Dude doesn’t miss a single beat responding to her. Apparently they have long and lively conversations on a regular basis about topics only the two of them understand. Whatever they have to say to one another, we hope they keep it up. It is adorable.
Featured Image Destanie Heath/Facebook
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via Whisker Therapy