Speech Update

We started speech in March ....so 6 months in, I thought it was time for an update. Gavin has been consistently seeing "Miss Lisa" the speech therapist once a week. Usually each session is similar to the last and to most people (and to me at times) just feels like an organized playtime. Miss Lisa brings her toys and props so as to engage Gavin in some sort of discourse.

As I have posted before, he's gotten quite good at signing and can sign most of the commands he would need throughout the day. This isn't to say he does them readily all the time and still can get quite frustrated but at least we can communicate.

One of the skills he has really improved on is "repeating." He will try (emphasis on the word try) to repeat most sounds you make which has resulted in some sort of speech. According to our therapist this is a great skill that he is developing and as we start to be a bit more discriminatory in his noises, it should also lead to more speech. For example, when working on the word "up", we try to get him to say "ahhhhh" and then the "p" sound. Well sometimes his first response when I say, "Tell Mama UP" is a very enthusiastic "BEE-BA!!"...obviously, very wrong. So where we used to say, "good talking" and take any noise we can, we are starting to be a bit more picky in what we'll accept and keep encouraging him to try again.

At this point though, we do have a few words...they are very few but when he knows one, my word, I hope you like it b/c he just uses it constantly.

Here's what we have:

Mama
Daddy
Mama (in reference to Grandma)
Papa (Grandpa)
More (pronounced MO)
Hi
Buh-Bye
Uh-oh
Wow or Woah
Yes (usually just a very soft "sssss")
Cheese (usually without the CH sound and the S sound so not super good)
Please (again, as two separate sounds: P + eeee, sometimes with an s)
Open (sounds like "oooohhh +ma)...or whatever other sound he decides to add in there.

So really, its a toss up. We're getting close on "baby, up, on"....but I think that's about it. We still have to prompt him on about half of these and if you heard them, trust me, you would have NO idea he just said a word.

As of last week my speech therapist keeps claiming he's "on the verge" of talking b/c his babbling has increased. If anything, I think we're just on the verge of going crazy. So, hopefully in time and before baby number 2 starts talking, Gavin will decide to grace us with words and sentences. One day, I hope I'll be posting something like "funny things Gavin said." Until then...more ST, PT and OT updates to come.