Learned a funny thing today.....

Small boy... getting more independent and grown-up every day.....

Maybe I don't stop often enough to appreciate Alex for all that he is...the happy-go-lucky little boy who rarely complains when he is being dragged from pillar to post as his two sisters are chauffeured here and there....when he does complain it is so easy to reason with him....and divert his attention ... Not saying he never gets angry.. he does a fair good imitation of the 'Hulk' as he builds up to blowing his top (but without the clothes splitting into rags!!:) and when this makes us laugh it is usually enough for him to to forget what he is cross about and to laugh also....

Anyway I digress:--

Earlier in the summer we got notification that Alex was finally going to be offered a block of 6 sessions of Speech & Language therapy...it is over a year since he was initially assessed and then offered a few group sessions last July/August... the services are very slow so I was delighted to hear that he was now going to be getting a chance to work on his speech... 6 sessions is not much but is better than nothing...then the first one was cancelled as the speech & language therapist was ill.. the 2nd one we missed last week as we were away.. so on third attempt we got there today....

Initially he had to be assessed to see how he had progressed since he was last assessed spring 2009... Despite having to be continually reminded to take his hands out of his mouth and to keep his feet on the floor!! he did really well....she said he had made great progress with speech since and really the only sounds he was having a problem with was 'r' and they do not do anything with that before age 6 as they find it usually corrects itself.....

Now.. here's the funny thing:

 Sounds he is making(as we would see incorrectly) in english are to do with him being able to pronounce sounds in Irish that are usual to a native speaker and not sounds you would use in English... hard to explain without hearing! Basically a baby is born with the ability to make any sound needed for any language which they lose after a year or so or within the first year... they say it is easier for children to learn new languages simultaneously than adults (think I read about this years ago and  they say children can learn up to 8 languages simultaneously!) Sure helps to put forward the case for bilingualism and even trilingualism as those speaking two languages will pick up a new language easier ...

To get back to Alex he is making sounds further back in his throat than someone who is being raised only through English... think she called it 'uvular' sounds...So there you go... don't know whether to be proud that my Irish pronunciation is good enough to  be giving him the accent of a 'native speaker'... the Connemara Man!!!!!! or to start thinking that I am the cause of his problems!!!!

Seriously - have no regrets for introducing him to a second language - The speech therapist said he most likely will drop it shortly when using english as he distinguishes more between the two languages....either way he is not difficult to understand as it happens at the end of a word....So he will be starting in the Gaelscoil with the correct accent already accomplished!!!!!

As well as assessing Alex for speech she decided to evaluate his language accquisiton.. He had been on a par with his peers the last time so she said it would be good to assess him before starting school... Was delighted to know he did really well... as it was quite difficult.(I kept thinking 'He will never know that!'). Amazing how they know things you think they would not have a clue of... If he scored below 6 there would be red flags and he was scoring up from 9, 11 and 12.. 13 being the highest possible score... So thankfully no worries there.!!!

She seems to think he will not need to attend the entire block so was surprised at that...

My clever, goofy boy!!!