Speech 101

After the dust from the bedrest and childbirth and swine flu settled, I began to realize that my sweet little Ivey is now almost 18 months old, and still not saying much of anything. She's a super quiet baby and always has been. She never really babbled much and never repeated bababab, mamamam, dadadada sounds back to us, ever. She does say "sit" and "hot" on a daily basis. "Cat" and "rock" are used occasionally. No "mama" or "dada" at all. Even the words that she does say she will not say on cue or repeat.

Her forte is non-verbal communication. She likes to sign, point, and nod or shake her head. She can get along very very well this way. She knows more signs than the boys did... more, help, milk, baby, eat, tired, and recently learned cold, play, juice, color (crayons), and probably more that I can't think of off the top of my head. In order to prevent herself from having to use words, she started to make up her own signs and gestures. This is what made me realize that it was time for speech therapy. I already knew I needed to take Addison for some articulation issues (s's and r's), so I scheduled them for evaluations.

Sure enough, it was determined that Ivey definitely needed speech therapy, and Addison needed help with s's and r's. After our evaluation, we went ahead and scheduled sessions for Mondays, although I am trying to find out if there is a more affordable option. We have had one session so far, last Monday. The therapist used Cheerios to help Addison focus his tongue in the right place for his S's (which so far has worked really well at home... He cannot say S without the Cheerio, but with it he has it down pat!). In Ivey's session, she didn't make a single peep the whole time.

The therapist wants to use PEC Cards (Picture Exchange Cards) to help her learn. She had four cards, one with a picture of music notes and a person singing, one with a book, one with a Cheerio and... I forget what the other one was... not important. In order to get a Cheerio, or look at the book, etc, Ivey had to give the therapist the appropriate card. Just teaching that concept was hard and frustrating for Ivey. We worked on the Cheerio card, trying to get Ivey to say "O" and have the therapist a card to get a Cheerio. She eventually did learn that she needed to get the card and hand it to her, but never said "O". Just teaching her that she needed to do that much was hard work! Next week, we will have some cards to come home with us.

On Tuesday, I decided to get out some Cheerios and do a little experiment. During school, while Ivey, Asa and Addison were all sitting at the table, I asked Asa to say "O" and I would give him a Cheerio. Then, Addison did it. We then looked at Ivey... nothing. Next, I had Asa sign "more" and say "O". Ivey watched carefully as I gave him a Cheerio. Addison repeated the signing and saying. Then, it was Ivey's turn. She smiled, and I passed her over. We repeated this about 4 or 5 times before Ivey opened her mouth and shaped it just as you would to say "O", but did not make a sound. I clapped and gave her an "O". The next time around, she let her vocal cords do some work and came out with a perfect "O"! We all went crazy with applause, and we went around the table a few more times, each kid signing "more" and saying "O". It was a huge breakthrough!

That was Tuesday. Since then, I have somehow managed to work intensely with her on her speech... while homeschooling and taking care of a very demanding (very LOUD) newborn. In the last 4 days, Ivey has become much more direct when she says "hot" or "sit". For instance, in her bath tonight she signed "more" and said "hot", while scooting back away from the faucet. She wanted more hot water... and sure enough, her water was too cool. She also told me to "sit" with her and watch her movie today. She had never used "sit" to tell someone else what to do before. When going to bed, she has said "rock" before when she wants to rock in her chair, but now she seems to say it much more confidently, and say it when I ask her. I think we are getting the hang of it! I am making a point of rocking her when she asks, even if I get her back out of her bed. Tonight, she pushed it a bit too long, but I just explained that I can't rock any more and talked to her about it to reinforce that she is communicating that she wants to rock.

Yesterday at school, I was discussing abbreviations in addresses. I was explaining to the boys about the different abbreviations in our address, their Grandmomma and Granddaddy's, and Mim and Papa's. All of the sudden, Ivey started saying "Papa!!" over and over again. We called him on the phone so she could talk to him. Since then, we can't even say Mim's name without Ivey going into a "Papa" fit! The boys and I also got her to say "night night" before nap today, and Asa shared his crackers with her only after getting her to say "cracker".

Ivey is much more comfortable trying to say the first sound of a word than trying to bite off the whole word at once. Last night, I was singing to her in her room. When I stopped, she signed "more". I tried to get her to say the word 'sing'. She wouldn't try to say the word, but when I just made the 's' sound, she repeated it. Now, she specifically asks me to sing by making the 's' sound. I am trying to say the full word every time she does so that it will eventually click for her to finish the word. I assume that is how it will work, but I'm not the expert! She did the same thing tonight by saying "ba" for bath and "wa" for water. I was even able to get her to say the "f" sound (or something close to it) to get more fries at lunch. In the bath tonight, I was able to get her to repeat many letter sounds back to me... including "ah" which I paired with "oh" and then we slowly put them together to say a-oh! She was clapping for herself after the sound... She is getting so much more self confident!

Addison also learned a trick with Cheerios. The therapist showed him how to hold a Cheerio behind his bottom front teeth with his tongue. Then, she can close his teeth and make the "s" sound without his tongue pushing through. He has practiced a lot this week and can make the sound with the Cheerio trick easily now. Without the Cheerio, he is still lost. I am sure she will be able to transition him, though. I was floored that he was able to make that sound at all... hooray for Cheerios!