Look Who’s Talking

Finally, after several months of reviewing speech therapy options for Ian - meet to discuss each option…set goals…revamp goals… talk about the goals…review more options…start over again- He had his first bonafide therapy session today!

His therapist also has a little girl from China, so I feel like she has a good idea of what typical delays come from simply making such a night/day language transition at such a critical age. She also works mainly with hard of hearing/deaf children, so in her, we have the best vantage point for the two things that make Ian's speech development a bit of an uphill climb.

What we didn't realize was how on target Ian is in many areas. It doesn't outwardly appear to her that his delays are related much at all to his hearing. In fact, he shows us on a daily basis that one strong ear is plenty. Just yesterday, we were playing in the yard when Ian brought a rock over to Shawn and dropped it in a cup he was holding. He turned his back and walked away… when he was about 10 feet away, Shawn dropped the rock on the ground and it bounced onto a paver under his chair. Ian heard it, turned, walked back, and immediately looked under the chair for the rock, pointing for Shawn to get it. Yeah. He can hear. There has never been a doubt to us, pretty much from day 1.

As we discussed his receptive language (what he understands), it became apparent that he also understands more than we give him credit for. I started rattling off things he recognizes (even if he doesn't have a solid word for it) and I could have gone on and on and on. With the exception of a few things, he is solidly in the 18- 24 month range, which is right on track, or better, if you consider how long he's been hearing English.

Right now, he is right at about 18 months for expressive language (what he says), which I am thrilled with. He is adding words daily, and with some exercises to encourage certain consonants, mouth movements, and clarity, I'm pretty confident that he will just continue to do better and better. He engaged her in a lot of babble conversation in response to her questions and interactions. He had something to say, just didn't know what words to use. She said this is typical for his stage of learning English (his brain is older than his language skills. He's ready to talk, but is just making up words until he figures it out). We get this a lot from him, especially in the car or when he is getting tired.

All this from one 1-hour session. Imagine where we'll be by the end of summer!

He was his typical angel self after having a rough start to the day. He was up at about 3am in a fit of rage over his back teeth coming in, but also really just wanted to get up and play. We've realized that he might be at a point where he needs less sleep at night, but longer naps. I've noticed that his naps at school are well over 2 hours…and I can tell by the time they write down that he is probably only waking because other kids are. On the flip side, I think his body is getting used to the 5:30am wakeup time and the longer sunlight hours isn't really helping matters. So, we'll start pushing his bedtime to about 7pm to see if that helps discourage him from waking up ready to go at 3am. We're so spoiled. I can count on one hand the number of nights we've had to go in and comfort him after putting him in his crib. We also have it easy with such an early bedtime. A coworker of Shawn's has a little boy the same age who doesn't get to sleep before 10:30pm and is regularly up at least once in the night.

After the therapist left, we bolted out the door and made it to school just in time for lunch and nap. He needed both. He sat right down at his chair and began digging into a plate of spaghetti and apple sauce. I know his blanket and mat were probably a welcome sight right after.

The rest of Ian's week is pretty mellow (although I keep forgetting it's already Wednesday). We'll swim again on Friday evening for fun, and then his swimming lessons resume on Sunday. Shawn has a diving trip scheduled for Saturday, so Ian and I will have to find something fun to do without him.

Believe it or not, I have NO new pictures of Ian so far this week. We did take a walk to the park by our house this afternoon, but I forgot my camera (becoming a horrible habit). Next time we talk, I might just have some pictures of him feeding the ducks.