Lauren Manzo Scalia Reveals Her Daughter Is in Speech Therapy
The Manzo'd With Children and RHONJ alum has an update about her 2-year-old daughter.
Lauren Manzo Scalia's 2-year-old daughter, Marchesa "Markie" Scalia, is definitely the official favorite kid in the Manzo family. Lauren and Vito Scalia's daughter is Caroline Manzo and Al Manzo's only grandchild and has been spoiled by everyone in the Manzo'd with Children and The Real Housewives of New Jersey family, including her uncles Albie Manzo and Chris Manzo. The toddler has been featured on most of her family members' Instagram accounts and as such, has built up her own fan following.
When Lauren appeared on Albie and Chris' podcast, Dear Albie, she revealed how she feels about Markie becoming somewhat of an Instagram celebrity.
"It doesn't bother me," she said. "I think it's cute. It's nice for me when I'm at work and Markie's here [at Caroline and Al's house.] ... She's so cute. She's getting more and more fun every day."
However, there is a downside to social media fame: followers who comment with endless opinions and suggestions about parenting. And one comment she sees frequently has been particularly bothering her because it touches on an issue the Scalias are actively addressing. "I don't like how people are like, 'She needs speech therapy.' Like, shut the f--k up. She's in speech therapy. I know. I'm not stupid," Lauren said.
She continued, "She's speech delayed. It's not really a big deal; lots of kids are speech delayed... It's a normal thing. Thank god that's the only issue that we've had so far with her. She's great. She's very smart; she knows all her colors, she knows her numbers, she knows all her shapes. I pointed to my jeans the other day and said, 'What color are these?' She said, 'Blue.' I think a lot of it is we're to blame a little bit because when she first started doing her jabber, we acted like we knew what she saying and we acted like she was making sense, and she was like, 'I must be talking.' So I think we kind of contributed to it a little bit."
And Lauren is definitely maintaining a positive attitude as her daughter learns to talk: "You know what, one day, I think we're going to look back and we're going to see the videos and we're going to laugh. I laugh now at them. She's fine; she's really come so far. She's only been in speech therapy for a couple months now and she's doing really, really well. But I don't need the Instagram people being like, 'She's not talking normal. My 2-year-old talks up a storm.'"
