Big guy had an evaluation the Friday after spring break for speech. Though he speaks great and often with me, he hasn't been using his words at school. So, we went for a speech evaluation just to see how everything is going. Our lovely evaluator was ms K really thought he had a great vocabulary. She at first suggested that we check back in six months, to which I made a face. I explained that in one way, it was good to hear that because I felt validated in my thinking that his speech was fine. Yes, I think he is on the slower side of forming sentences, but he has a lot of words and totally understands everything. But I was nervous bc at school he hasn't been talking very much and his teacher was concerned.
So, following my face giving explanation, ms K gave big guy the articulation test. On the scale of normal from 85-115, big guy got an 83. Not bad. But combined with my concerns, she suggested 2X a week for six weeks and then to revisit. Which in some ways made me feel better bc some letters he says totally wrong, like words ending in P, the letter F and a couple other weird things. I was told I had to wait for the insurance company to Ok us before I could schedule our appointments.
I called the following Tuesday just to check in about how long the whole "waiting for the insurance to Ok" thing took. The lovely receptionist put me on hold and yay, we had just gotten approved. We sat and scheduled the next month for appointments! No joke!
So far we've had three appointments and big guy has improved so much in that time period, it really is amazing. We've been working on our words that end in P and B. And after each session we are given homework, a word or group of words to practice. The fun part of speech therapy is that big guy gets to play the whole time. Games abound all with the purpose of being rewarded for trying to say the word right. We learned how to end our words with a "pah" sound. After our first two visits, big guy was reluctant to practice at home. He would get frustrated with me, so I just kept it casual.
Then I thought, well, lets make it like at speech. I'll make it a reward system. So, we had speech this Thursday with ms K and on Friday it was gorgeous out. We went to the park with the sand, so we naturally took off our shoes and ran barefoot. Mr squeaky who is shaped like a hedgehog came with us and squeaks really annoyingly. But when big guy kept putting him down the slide, I started only giving it back after we would practice the word UP. Big guy was hesitant at first, then worked with me for a little bit at least.
So, on Saturday we went to the toys r us and bought some board games. Matching and this annoying fishing game under the pretense of learning. So today we were playing the fishing game and I wouldn't give the fishing rod over to big guy until he practiced our words. And you know what- he started practicing and saying them correctly!!! It was so awesome. We were clapping and cheering. He was smiling and giving high fives. It was a really amazing moment. And I realized that not only was I proud of him for saying and trying the words, but he was really proud of himself. It was just a great moment! And before we went to bed, he kept it up!
I think the amazing thing about having children is that the whole thing is a miracle. From conceiving a child, to watching them grow, and that they learn so much every day. Like how one learns to speak - moving muscles to make sounds- just by listening to others speak. It's a miracle. And it's ok that we need a little help because now we can get it right.
No comments:
Post a Comment