Wendy is John's Speech Therapist. She comes to our house twice a week and spends 45 min each time playing games with John and helping him progress with his speech. Back at the very end of Sept. we had John's 2 year doctors appointment. At that appointment John's pediatrician noticed that he wasn't speaking...pretty much at all. He had 5 words that he would say and wasn't even attempting to string them together. After asking a million questions she referred us to the Early Start Program. Over the next few months they came by and evaluated EVERYTHING. After all of the testing and observing they determined that he is at the right levels on every category except for his speech which was at a 12 month level for speaking and 15 month level for understanding. We started the speech therapy in November and I feel like it's been a really big help not only for John but for me. At first when all of this was happening I thought this was my fault. If only I were reading more books with him or working more with him then maybe he'd be up to par. However, Wendy has been helping me realize that this isn't my fault and it isn't even a bad thing. He just hasn't developed those skills yet. Nothing is "wrong" with him at all.
I'm proud to say that John is doing fantastic. He is taking his time and even though the improvements don't happen very fast they are still happening. When we first started the Speech Therapy John could say:
Mama
Dadda
Bubble
Apple
Nana
(if he says it in his normal voice he means banana but if he says it in a higher pitched voice he's referring to Joshua. Any time he sees a baby he calls it "Nana")
Now his list of words consist of:
Mama or Mahzo
Dadda or Daddy
Bubble
Apple
Nana
Susu (milk)
A-ter (water)
Moe (more)
Bok (block)
Kaker (cracker or cookie)
Lie-lie (Eli) *his BFF
Jui (juice)
A-peas (pizza or grapes)
Up
Hap (help)
and his favorite word= No
He uses No for a variety of things "Knock Knock", "Hello", "Don't" and the regular "No" when he's trying to tell Joshua not to do something.
I'm so grateful that I have 2 healthy happy boys. I was a little nervous at his 2 year appointment because I thought perhaps I was going to find out that he had autism or something of the sort. My sisters little boy has autism and he was in many different kinds of therapies before they figured out what was wrong. I can't even imagine what my sister had to go through to figure all of that out about her son. And now seeing what she does with Logan every single day I have a profound respect for any mother with an autistic child. I love my nephew so much. He is turning 4 years old in just a couple of days and I can't even believe it. He's getting so big. It's been over a year since I have seen him and I miss that kid like crazy.
Anyway, Speech Therapy is going great and John gets SO excited every time he knows Wendy is coming over. I really need to start writing down all of the little things he does or tries to say during each lesson so I can see the improvements... even the small ones.
I'm proud to say that John is doing fantastic. He is taking his time and even though the improvements don't happen very fast they are still happening. When we first started the Speech Therapy John could say:
Mama
Dadda
Bubble
Apple
Nana
(if he says it in his normal voice he means banana but if he says it in a higher pitched voice he's referring to Joshua. Any time he sees a baby he calls it "Nana")
Now his list of words consist of:
Mama or Mahzo
Dadda or Daddy
Bubble
Apple
Nana
Susu (milk)
A-ter (water)
Moe (more)
Bok (block)
Kaker (cracker or cookie)
Lie-lie (Eli) *his BFF
Jui (juice)
A-peas (pizza or grapes)
Up
Hap (help)
and his favorite word= No
He uses No for a variety of things "Knock Knock", "Hello", "Don't" and the regular "No" when he's trying to tell Joshua not to do something.
I'm so grateful that I have 2 healthy happy boys. I was a little nervous at his 2 year appointment because I thought perhaps I was going to find out that he had autism or something of the sort. My sisters little boy has autism and he was in many different kinds of therapies before they figured out what was wrong. I can't even imagine what my sister had to go through to figure all of that out about her son. And now seeing what she does with Logan every single day I have a profound respect for any mother with an autistic child. I love my nephew so much. He is turning 4 years old in just a couple of days and I can't even believe it. He's getting so big. It's been over a year since I have seen him and I miss that kid like crazy.
Anyway, Speech Therapy is going great and John gets SO excited every time he knows Wendy is coming over. I really need to start writing down all of the little things he does or tries to say during each lesson so I can see the improvements... even the small ones.
2 comments:
My little boy has speach delay. and ADHD. And it took many people to convince me that it wasn't my fault. But he is in a special education preschool at the elementry school and this has helped him soooo much with behavioral issues and he sees a speach therapist twice a week while he is there. It has helped a ton! I realized I was doing the best I could and just needed more help that I didn't know I could get. I'm so thankful for these programs that help us parents to get our children through dificult phases in their life! you are a great mother!
I'm SO glad to hear he's otherwise healthy, and that the therapy is working. Our Leah is being evaluated for speech & developmental therapy too. What a blessing to have such great resources available!
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