Cute baby messing with water......
Alex LOVES to talk!!!
It was mentioned to us at his 2 year developmental that his speech was delayed.... funny thing was when we were bonding in Kazakhstan with him I was convinced he was imitating some of the words we were saying.... maybe it was my musical ear tuned in to his Russian??!!!!
Anyway this meant that he was referred to Early Intervention Services which I was delighted about and we set about waiting for an appointment with a speech therapist....Basically at his age (back then) all they were doing was seeing him every few months and reviewing his progress and pointing out what we could be doing with him to encourage speech and aid his language acquisition.... Nothing heavy.... Alex continued to talk nonstop and what had appeared to us as fluent Russian gradually established itself as English with a hint of Irish thrown in to the mix...
Over the past few months we have seen huge progress in his speech and people have commented on how well he has 'come on'... By comparing him to other 2/3 yr olds we know that his speech is somewhat delayed but comparing him to only himself he is moving in the right direction.....while Declan and I understand him quite well to others he is not so clear and if he is excited about anything he talks so fast his words cannot keep up with him and he gets all caught up!!!
Yesterday he had an appointment with the senior speech therapist in the Early Intervention Centre and it was very interesting to sit and observe... She tested him by questioning with the help of a book and various toys to assertain what stage he was at in his language development and it was great to hear that he is right up there on a par with his peers... While he could name a lot of body parts he did not know words like 'wrist', 'ankle' 'heel' 'elbow' etc...
She also said she would expect him to know prepositions such as 'under' 'beside' 'in front of/behind' and he did not although I was impressed at how he listened and concentrated and that with the aid of a little teddy and a block he had a good idea of what she was asking him to do.... just did not get them right.....
For k/g he is saying t/d.. tar for car and dirl for girl.....These are common misrepresentations as I remember Elena doing similar and will come in time....
However she has said that he has lateralization of s and l and palatization of s which means he is producing the s sound back far in his mouth and with air coming out the sides of his mouth ... In laymans terms ... and I needed layman's terms it is kinda of like a Daffy Duck effect.. Yip.. I got that description right away!!!
To fix this he will need specific intervention... great.. bring it on...
The speech therapist wants to run some small classes for a small group of children with this problem and would like Alex to go...... I readily agreed......
..... In the summer???????:(
Things always move slow here.....
Anyway, in the meantime she has recommended that we can encourage central airflow using the following activities....
~ blowing bubbles.... got them...!! he cannot do it...
~ blowing water in a container through a straw... he did this no problem and then drank it all through the straw..!!!
~ blow football... will try this...with Elena's help!!
~ blowing candles... Alex is now the official helper to anyone celebrating their birthday to blow out their candles... the older the better!!!
~ Sucking thin/thick liquids through a straw/thin and thick straws..
So lots to be going on with..
One thing I have noticed is that Alex cannot blow his nose even with help and I always remember my mother commenting on Elena at 11 months 'I never saw a child that young able to blow her nose'!!!
So maybe these things are all connected...
Will post progress!!
It was mentioned to us at his 2 year developmental that his speech was delayed.... funny thing was when we were bonding in Kazakhstan with him I was convinced he was imitating some of the words we were saying.... maybe it was my musical ear tuned in to his Russian??!!!!
Anyway this meant that he was referred to Early Intervention Services which I was delighted about and we set about waiting for an appointment with a speech therapist....Basically at his age (back then) all they were doing was seeing him every few months and reviewing his progress and pointing out what we could be doing with him to encourage speech and aid his language acquisition.... Nothing heavy.... Alex continued to talk nonstop and what had appeared to us as fluent Russian gradually established itself as English with a hint of Irish thrown in to the mix...
Over the past few months we have seen huge progress in his speech and people have commented on how well he has 'come on'... By comparing him to other 2/3 yr olds we know that his speech is somewhat delayed but comparing him to only himself he is moving in the right direction.....while Declan and I understand him quite well to others he is not so clear and if he is excited about anything he talks so fast his words cannot keep up with him and he gets all caught up!!!
Yesterday he had an appointment with the senior speech therapist in the Early Intervention Centre and it was very interesting to sit and observe... She tested him by questioning with the help of a book and various toys to assertain what stage he was at in his language development and it was great to hear that he is right up there on a par with his peers... While he could name a lot of body parts he did not know words like 'wrist', 'ankle' 'heel' 'elbow' etc...
She also said she would expect him to know prepositions such as 'under' 'beside' 'in front of/behind' and he did not although I was impressed at how he listened and concentrated and that with the aid of a little teddy and a block he had a good idea of what she was asking him to do.... just did not get them right.....
For k/g he is saying t/d.. tar for car and dirl for girl.....These are common misrepresentations as I remember Elena doing similar and will come in time....
However she has said that he has lateralization of s and l and palatization of s which means he is producing the s sound back far in his mouth and with air coming out the sides of his mouth ... In laymans terms ... and I needed layman's terms it is kinda of like a Daffy Duck effect.. Yip.. I got that description right away!!!
To fix this he will need specific intervention... great.. bring it on...
The speech therapist wants to run some small classes for a small group of children with this problem and would like Alex to go...... I readily agreed......
..... In the summer???????:(
Things always move slow here.....
Anyway, in the meantime she has recommended that we can encourage central airflow using the following activities....
~ blowing bubbles.... got them...!! he cannot do it...
~ blowing water in a container through a straw... he did this no problem and then drank it all through the straw..!!!
~ blow football... will try this...with Elena's help!!
~ blowing candles... Alex is now the official helper to anyone celebrating their birthday to blow out their candles... the older the better!!!
~ Sucking thin/thick liquids through a straw/thin and thick straws..
So lots to be going on with..
One thing I have noticed is that Alex cannot blow his nose even with help and I always remember my mother commenting on Elena at 11 months 'I never saw a child that young able to blow her nose'!!!
So maybe these things are all connected...
Will post progress!!
Alex the pirate....
1 comment:
Hi Adrienne,
Wishing our little Donald Duck luck in his classes.
Sandy
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