Speech Update

A little follow-up from our adventures in speech therapy.....

Since my original post about The Little Miss' speech delay, we've been able to participate in 2 free therapy sessions with the help of The Children's Miracle Network. Sadly, we were unable to book the fabulous SLP who did Sophie's original evaluation. I say sadly because she and Sophie totally hit it off and you can tell a HUGE difference in Sophie's attitude working with our current SLP whom she hasn't quite clicked with.

The Little Miss was evaluated for early intervention therapies through a foundation funded by The Easter Seals. She does qualify for home therapies. We just finalized our Individual Family Service Plan (similar to an IEP for those of you familiar with those) last week. Miss G, her therapist, is absolutely terrific (and 5 months pregnant meaning in another few months we'll get someone new... but we'll deal with that when the time comes). Sophie and Miss G hit it off instantly. A BIG sigh of relief from Y and I knowing how she'd been with the SLP from the hospital.

Miss G and I are currently working on what motivates Sophie to use words versus grunting or pointing or gesturing. It seems signing and saying the words together seems to boost her confidence. We'd already been using sign language with her but it was limited to a small set of words. We're trying to expand our signing vocabulary while working on putting together the words she CAN say so we can get more two word phrases out of her. She's making progress. Her inflection on some expressions and words is perfect and there are days we're in stitches when she sees or does something and says "Oh my!" with perfect inflection. I'm going to include a list of words she can say - mostly voluntarily but a few are with some prompting. Feel free to skip over it as it's more a measuring point for myself:

Oh-tay (okay)
Ahh-right (all right)
Oh my!
tactus (cactus)
touch
no
yes
papes (grapes)
ride
sit
side
ow-side (outside)
eyes
socks
eat
up
down
jump
play
hop
Melmo (Elmo
Abby
tookie (cookie)
icky
doggy
cheese
ham
bye
hi

Add in all the family member names she can say and it's a decent list but it's no where near what a "normal" functioning 27 month old should be able to say. Baby steps and progress...we'll get there.