Speech! Speech! Speech!

A couple weeks ago we took Elliott for his appointment with the Speech Pathologist. His doctor had originally referred him to the therapist because of his lack of regular word usage (1-2 words vs. 7-10 words) usually seen at 18 months. However, shortly after making the appointment, Elliott started talking and by the time I completed the appointment questionnaire two weeks later, he was already up to 7-10 words. And by the time we made it to the appointment, about two weeks after that, he was probably closer to 15-20.

We weren’t all that concerned, but still looked forward to going to the appointment. We figured any chance to learn some tips and tricks to help encourage language use would be beneficial. And that’s exactly what we got. To put it in a nutshell, the appointment was awesome. The therapist was so great and she took a lot of time to get a real feel for where Elliott was in his language development. After all the questions were asked and answered, she put him at approximately a 15 month level for language production and 18-22 months for comprehension.

She also had a really great office full of toys and books and Elliott immediately felt comfortable. So not only did he talk for her (which I really didn’t expect him to do), she was able to get him to say a new word for the first time (shake, shake, shake)! She said that at this age, kids are too young to be in speech therapy themselves. This means that mommy and daddy get to go to therapy ;) Actually, we learn the techniques and then work with him. However, because of where he was, she wasn’t concerned about getting us into a program right away. Basically, she felt he was already catching up and doing well and with a couple pointers, he would probably be "on schedule" soon. After we see how he is doing in a couple months, we also have the option of enrolling in a 10 week class to help boost our skills and learn more. In the meantime, she suggested a book called It Takes Two to Talk and gave us some helpful hints.

Most of the things we were already doing in some degree, like talking to him and labeling things. She said that it was very important to let Elliott lead the interactions and for us to be flexible and opportunistic with learning opportunities. She also said that kids can quickly get turned off when they are forced to speak (‘Say monkey!’, ‘Can you say monkey?’ and even ‘Tell me what’s this is’). She also encouraged us to sign with him again, which I had given up when I realized Elliott wasn’t a gesturing sort of baby. (You should see the look he used to give us when we would try to get him to wave - like we were idiots! Ha!). As a result of renewed effort, Elliott has already started spontaneous signing and I have caught him asking for more blueberries (among other things) on several occasions! (It still takes me a minute to realize its happening, since I’m used to him vocalizing everything.)

His word count has also continued to increase and we are hearing more and more every day. It’s very exciting and in the last couple of days, his speech patterns have changed again, sounding even more like he’s trying to mimic the way we sound when we talk, not like a small child. Needless to say, I can’t wait for what comes next…except for maybe him crying ‘mommmeeee’. That can wait ;)