Two Words

I've almost recovered from the news that Nate is going to be losing his SLP the end of May.  I know he hasn't been seen by her all that long--about 2 months now.  He really enjoys working with her and she really understands what we're all going through and has been so supportive.  There are days where I'm not sure how this is all going to work out.  I'm hopeful that he'll be talking soon.  The other night at dinner, I asked him how his day at school was.  Maybe I was wistfully hoping that he would just start talking about all the things the he did, the numbers and letters that he's learning or who he played with.  It made me sad when he just smiled and uttered some vowel sounds instead.  I'm hopeful that he'll have more words soon.  He almost has the word 'up' and hopefully 'mom' will be next!

We finally received the local university's speech report from his evaluation the end of February.  If you've never read a report of some kind about your child, it's always interesting to hear someone else's description of your child.

Nate is a friendly, active child who demonstrates age appropriate receptive

language, play, and pragmatics/skills.  His comprehension of language 
appears stronger than his expressive abilities.  (Always nice to have what you
already know confirmed by an 'expert')...He experienced difficulty imitating 
various mouth shapes, vowels, and particularly consonant sounds.

This isn't the first report we've received Nate but it's funny to hear your child described in some official document.  In the end, it was recommended that he receive services there at the center for communicative disorders, twice a week.  This should begin in the fall when the school's semester begins.  Until then he'll continue to receive services twice a week through the school district and once a week at his preschool.

On Friday, Nate and I were working in the yard and he wanted to help me water plants.  I filled a watering can with water.  When it was empty he came over and through his sounds and his holding the can up for me to see, I knew that he wanted more water.  In order to get him to try and use words more often (since we're so good at "reading" what he wants, he always opts for the easier way), I had him sign and say /m/ for more and say water (his version is aw-er).  He actually put the two words together and said /m/..../or/.....aw....er.  That was the most I'd ever heard him say!  He was excited he said it and excited to get to water the plants some more.  Even though he's only had 2 months of regular therapy, I've definitely seen more improvement in his attempts at words.