Speech Graduate

I looked back and couldn't believe that I hadn't blogged about Cooper's speech development since June!  Wow.  A lot has happened since then, let me tell you about it.

In September like our public speech gal promised, I got a call from J.  She was so sweet, very interested in Cooper and his development.  After telling her the whole story and we went to book an appointment, we realized that she didn't work Monday, the only day I was able to go.   Even though I specifically asked for a SP (speech pathologist) that worked Mondays....

I was frustrated.

The plan was for bi-weekly sessions and her last appointment of the day was at 330, which meant leaving work by 230 every second week to get Cooper and get him to speech on time.  Boo to that.  She sent out an email to see if anyone else had an opening on a Monday and of course no one responded.  As a solution, we booked an assessment appointment and then we'd re-evaluate our game plan after meeting.

The day before the appointment J called me and said she found some one who would take Cooper on Mondays.  J2 had been on holidays for the past 2 weeks and didn't get the email until that day.  My prayers were answered.  Cooper was in and we were going to get assessed the very next week.  This was October I believe.

When we arrived, J2 was so sweet with Cooper.  She sat with him at a little table him and I got to watch.  She did a little formal assessing based on what our SP in June had reported.  She retested his trouble areas and said he had improved in all areas.  Score!  At the end of the appointment we decided that he didn't need regular appointments after all and that we would meet once more at the end of the block, December.

Cooper and I bundled up on Dec 22 and headed back in for what would be our final assessment!  After doing some informal assessing and consulting her notes, she concluded that all of Cooper's problem letters were age appropriate and unless I had any concerns he did not need to return.  That is music to any speech mom's ears.

Don't get me wrong, he still has trouble areas.  He struggles with L and V in particular.   Just last night Cooper was telling me something about his grubs.  I had no idea at first then realized that he was talking about his gloves.  The word had his 2 trouble letters and I couldn't understand!

These days, that doesnt' happen often.  He talks often, and he talks well.  I can understand him and so can everyone else.  Like I said, his speech isn't perfect, but it is lovely to hear.  For a social guy that made friends even when he couldn't be understood.... I can imagine how his friendships will blossom now.

I often sit back and just listen to him talk, remembering where we were 2 years ago and far we have come.  I feel like we have R and our fantastic benefits to thank for his rapid improvement in the spring.  I fell so happy that she was part of our lives for 18 months and so grateful for her work with Cooper.

I am so proud of Cooper for how far he has come and love hearing his little voice, especially when he is using it to tell a joke!

Another Update on Cooper's Speech

Where to begin....

We were chugging along with Cooper's speech appt and daily homework.  We were and still are see daily improvement.  The 'F' sound in particular he has started using in sentences. So now when we are in public and he yells 'I farted', people actually understand him!  In the past he would say 'charted'.  So, a little embarrassing....

The sound 's' is still a struggle.  Very rarely he will use the s properly but most often he drops it or replaces it with 't' or 'd'.  When I ask him to repeat himself, he will say it properly. It just doesn't come naturally to him.

Last week, we had our last session with 'R', our beloved speech pathologist.  After about 10 sessions, we are taking (what we hope is a permanent) break.  We are exhausted with the daily practice and Cooper must be as well.  He's got the sound, now all we need is practice.  It was sad to say goodbye to R. I feel like she is my friend.  Each week as she packs up we talk about her upcoming wedding and our new shoe purchases.  She is a shoe lover to.

As an aside, she introduced me to this custom shoe place that she ordered her shoes from. All I can say is OMG.  Check out the Shoes of Prey website.  Deena, you are going to love this site.

Back to Cooper....

A few month back I got a call from the public assessor who evaluated Cooper last June.  She had a note on the file to call before closing the file.  She left me a message and told me that if she didn't hear back by a certain date that she would close the file.  I wasn't going to call.  James is the one that pushed me to make the call, it couldn't hurt after all.

So on a Friday afternoon, I rushed home from work to pick Cooper up and bring him to the clinic.  I was minorly annoyed as I was sure she was going to say he wasn't delayed enough for funding.  I felt like it was a total waste of time.  She did some work with him and in the end said he did qualify for funding.

Language wise Cooper did great, this time the struggle was pronunciation.  Even with all our hard work with R, the assessor felt that he was still delayed.  I think he scored 11/100 and they strive for over 18 points.

I walked out of the session and didn't feel sad or defeated like I would have if we had this same result last year.  Instead I felt happy that I went and happy that we could get the treatment for free after paying for it for a year!  Believe me it is not cheap - thankfully we have great benefits!

We are still taking the summer off of formal sessions and will reconvene in the fall.   Apparently we have to have him assessed again before they will make his treatment plan in case he improves substantially over the summer.  Then we will schedule the sessions every second Monday, my day off. While I am sad that Cooper and I will spend 50% of our afternoons together (while Grady is in Grade1 all day) at the clinic, I am happy that I have the day off to do this for him.  Maybe we'll treat ourselves to Starbucks after....

We will be ready to tackle speech again in the fall but for the time being we are going to enjoy our summer off!

Very Random

Today is Tuesday.  My usual day off.  This week, I am working Tuesday and taking Thursday off to attend Cooper's Mother's Day gathering at Cooper's school in the last 15 minutes of class.  It makes it just a little bit hard for a working mom to take 11:15 to 11:30 off work to attend.  So I swapped days.  I'm not sure what parents who work full time do.  The amount of school 'events' that happen during working hours is growing....

Tonight is swimming.  We'll rush home and head to the pool to watch the boys.  They never want to go, but in the end both seem to enjoy it.  This is Cooper's first unparented session and it's had its ups and down.  He is in a level 1/2 split.  He is the smallest and the least comfortable in the water.  He is still much better than Grady was at 3 years old but I feel they are really pushing Cooper to keep up to the more advanced swimmers.  One time he started to cry when we brought him to the teacher which is so unlike our laid back guy.  I told the teacher that I didn't care if he put his face in the water as long as he was having fun.   Of course he put his face in over and over that day... kids!

Thursday I am booked in for a Spin/Barre class.  Not to long ago they had an open house at the gym and offered free 20 minute sessions.  I did a spin class.  I didn't hate it.  I may even say I liked it a teeny tiny bit.  I had a different instructor and sat on the side so I could see what the instructor was doing.  It went way better.  In the hybrid class I think you do each exercise for 30 minutes. If it goes well it may become my class of choice.  A little spin cardio and some barre for strength. Perfect combo if you ask me.

I successfully completed my April spending freeze.  I did not buy a single article of clothing the entire month.  It was hard, but I did it.  I needed to prove to myself that I could stop shopping if I wanted to.  And I can.  I celebrated by buying some shoes on May 1st! 

Cooper's speech therapist was so pleased with his improvement this week.  He is rockin' it.  It really helps that we can see the difference. These weekly sessions aren't cheap and they really motivate us to stick with the homework so that our time with her is not wasted.  We are just waiting for him to start using it spontaneously. In a 'learning' setting the kid is on fire! So proud of him.

Words

Cooper's speech is going great.  R had been coming to our house weekly now for over 6 weeks and we are hearing huge benefits from these sessions.  We went from Cooper not being able to say a word like 'snow., to saying it in a sentence when modeling us.  For example, this week we are working on sentences 'I see snow' or 'I see my school'.  This works on 2 's' words in the same sentence and his habit of saying my instead of I.  Cooper will always say 'My want milk' instead of 'I want milk'.  We've been told that saying it during homework time and saying it spontaneously in conversation is a big step.  With that being said, he asked for a spoon, with an 's' sound, the other day, so we know it will come.

R printed us off a new set of flash cards with all 's' words for a little variation from the set we were currently using.  She held one card up and said I assume you don't want this one.  It was a picture of someone smoking.  I told her no and Grady piped up and wanted to see what was on the card.  R wasn't going to show him at first but I said it was fine and I wanted to see if he knew what it was.  He had no idea.

I think it was interesting, and pretty great, that he had never seen someone smoking and at almost 6 years old had no idea what it was.  My Dad and many aunts and uncles smoked while I was growing up, so I always knew what smoking was.  It is a sign of the times that kids now a days aren't exposed to smoking as much as they once were.

Another funny thing that Grady doesn't know, completely unrelated to speech, is a pay phone.  You hardly ever see payphones anymore so I pointed one out to James one day when I saw one and once again Grady had no idea what it was. 

I am sure there are many more things that are next to extinct from my childhood and I chuckle every time I discover a new one!

Cooper's Speech - Take 2

I haven't talked much about Cooper's speech on here as there wasn't much to update.  Cooper 'graduated' from his speech in August and we decided to reassess once he turned 3.  By November, the kid had a lot to say.  During 2013 he went from having about 10 words to having many many words.

There was one teeny tiny little problem.  We couldn't understand much of what he was saying. 

When we had our speech pathologist 'R' back in early December to address these concerns she agreed with us that he was still a little difficult to understand.  Our session this day was much different than our 'language building' sessions where it was essentially just play based.  This time she brought many, many, MANY flash cards and had him tell her what the pictures were.  At the end, she had identified a major deficiency, s-blends.

She noticed that Cooper could say the 's' sound and he could say 'no', but he couldn't put them together and say 'snow'.  He was essentially dropping the S from the beginning of words or replacing with a different sound, most often 'd', so snow came out 'dow'.  I had never noticed this, ever.  I guess that is why I am not a speech pathologist!

She went further to say that to treat it we would need weekly sessions compared to monthly sessions as to treat enunciation issues you need constant exposure and practice.  I told her I had to think about it.  We didn't want to start in December with the busy-ness of Christmas or in January where we would be away.  Then she was away for a good porting of February.  So I had lots of time to think about it.

We really went back and forth on the decision to proceed.  It would be expensive and while I have good coverage at work, it would not cover the whole thing.  It was a big time commitment that we would have to work into our already busy schedule.  My biggest question was would this be something that he would grow out of over time. 

Over the next 3 months I really listened to Cooper and tried to correct him on his S words and really elongate the sound when I used it.  I contemplated emailing R many times but always got distracted or lazy.  Then, she emailed me to ask how it was going and if we had made a decision.

 We decided to go for it.

I don't know if it would have corrected himself, and in the end, getting some extra help was not going to hurt him.  The next week we started our sessions.

The sessions always use flash cards and last about 45 minutes.  R is great about including Grady in the session and encouraging him to say the words clearly for Cooper.  Each session, she leaves a game for us to play that involves practicing the s-blend words and getting a turn for each one he tries to say.  We are instructed to do this home work every night.  Every night.

While one would expect this homework shouldn't take long, it usually takes at least 20 minutes.  And usually Grady wants to play and Coop doesn't.  Convincing Cooper to play is the hardest part.  I am super proud of James and I as after 4 weeks, we have only missed 3 homework nights max.  We figure if we are paying the money for R to come we have to really work at doing our part to help Cooper.

I am happy to say that we are seeing HUGE differences in his speech.  The first week, I would show Cooper a picture of a snail, he would say 'nail'.   Then I would break the word apart and he would work on the 2 sounds.  This week, 50% of the time he will say the word right when he looks at the picture without modeling us.   We still don't see it in everyday conversation, but at least he is making steps in the right direction.

I am happy that we took this step and have made the commitment to get his homework done each night, especially now that we are seeing the results!  Although let me tell you, I am NOT looking forward to the next 18 years of homework!

I couldn't end the post without a picture of our little goofball.

Speech Update

Not to long ago, our speech therapist (who is no longer leaving the city!) was over for what we thought was her final visit with us before she move out east. We've been seeing her since February and the boys have become quite attached to her. Usually about 2 weeks after her visit Grady asks when R is coming back to play. He gets that she is here to help Cooper talk but she always includes Grady which means he loves her to. Just before she left on her last visit Grady asked R if she wanted to see him ride his bike. She of course said yes and we went outside as she was leaving so Grady could show off. She said all the right things. As Grady biked away I thanked her for watching him as that is obviously not a part of the job description and she told me she loved kids and that is why she does what she does. Couldn't ask for a better person to come to our home and work with Cooper.

The good news is that next time Grady asks when R is coming back we'll have to tell him that she won't be back for a while.  Her next visit will be in 3-6 months, but most likely right after his third birthday.  Our little man has been dismissed from regular visit and we couldn't be happier.

Over the last few months his speech has exploded. Not only with new words, but with sentences.  Because he started talking late he already had all the comprehension he needed to take off. 

Here are some of the little sentences that he says that make me smile.

Grady bugging me (To which I usually reply 'He's bugging me to')
Those girl shoes (when I showed him my pretty new flowered shoes)

New coat mommy?

When daddy home?

What his name?
Cooper go bike ride
two minutes mom, two minutes (when we tell him it is bed time
Jasmin, supper ready!
Mommy, lay with me. (Every night before bed)
Mom - Poop! (Music to my ears still)

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I love that we see improvement all the time and that we can take a break from our monthly (or more) sessions with R.  We love her to pieces and she did such a great job with Cooper that we hope our future sessions with her are numbered.

Good work Cooper! 

Cooper's Speech Assessment

Last Friday was a day I wasn't looking forward to. Assesment Day. I knew 6 months ago when I put his name on the list that this day would eventually come, and it did. Although we had been seeing a private speech pathologist since February, Cooper had never been formally assessed. She just treated him with standard tips and tricks that improve overall speech. And it did! When I asked R this week what she thought we would hear she thought that there was a good chance that he wouldn't qualify for treatment. And she was right!

She thinks that Cooper is average and that was news to my ears! Who would have thought that you would celebrate that your child was average - but this Momma is celebrating. His speech may be average, but his comprehension is well above average.  Cue the cheering!  Now let me tell you a little about the appointment.

We met with P at the clinic and while Cooper played she asked me many questions from a questionaire that I had filled out in January when Cooper had about 15 words.  From what my concerns were, how the treatments were going, and what my expectations for the day were.    Literally, I had no expectations.

She brought us to the back into a little room and sat accross a kids size table from Cooper.  She didn't have the fun factor that R has, but she was to the point and very effective with out being 'friends' with Cooper.  I was actually kind of scared that R had given us a  more favorable report because she had gotten to know us personally and wasnt' really looking only at Cooper's speech.  That was a major reason why I still wanted the public assessment done.

She started by pulling out a book and asking Cooper to point to objects, like where is the cat, apple, dog etc.  Then she would flip to a different page with a differnent set of pictures. Like where does a dog sleep and he would point to the dog house.  There were pages on actions like which kid is eating, sleeping etc.  Then they did some tough ones like which one are 'her' socks vs. 'his' socks.  Cooper did terrible at these ones.   During this testing it was 100% dependent on pointing and non verbal.  It was interesting that at one point she said that he was testing so high on comprehension that she was Ok to stop if I was ok with it.  Way to go Cooper!

Then when he got a bit antsy, she switched to wathcing him play while she listened for his words, the sounds he made, and the number of words he used at once.  I felt like Cooper barely talked during this time.  And of course, when she left the room he started speaking up.  He was really quiet and using his 'shy' voice through the entire session.

At this point I had no idea what she was going to say.  I have obvioulsy heard him talk more than what he did in the 1.5 hour session, I really wondered how they had gathered enough info.

The way she scored him was with a number.  She said if there were 100 2 year olds in a room and you lined them up from the worst to the best, for speech, Cooper would be a 46.  Smack dab in the middle.  The range for 'average' was about 20 to 80 so she called him a high average.  This was way better than I expected.  She talked about how when you see other 2 year olds that about half are better and half are worse.  I still think that we only see 2 year olds that talk better but who am I to argue.

Then she used the same scale to mark his comprehension and he was a 77!  That is right on the uppper boundary of average.  I always knew he understood but I was thrilled with this result.

She talked about how having a gap between speech and comprehension is normal and that if there is a gap, this is the way you want it to be.  She told me that she has no doubt that he will catch up to the others and that he has an excellent ability to learn.

She talked about his attention span and how it was great for a 2 year old. She talked about his meaningful repeating of words and how the way he played all showed his ability to learn the speech that we know he is capable of.

All in all, we walked out of there so proud of the progress we have made.  Had he had an appointment in January when I filled in the form, I know the results would have been different.  I don't know what it is that clicked for cooper but the language we have heard from him in the past weeks is amazing. My mom even thought Cooper was Grady when she phoned the other day.

It won't be long before Cooper is all caught up and we couldn't be happier!

Speech Update

So we were cruising along at a nice pace with Cooper's speech.  Our speech path, R, was coming every 3 weeks and loving little Coop's progress.  Then on this last visit I got a little discouraged.  First, R is moving.  She just moved to the city when we started seeing her in February and now she is moving to Ottawa with her boyfriend at the end of August.   We are entering a world of unknowns.  What if we don't like the public person we are refereed to?  I've already asked her if she would provide a number to someone she would recommend, but it won't be her.  Our kids even ask when R is coming over.  She is our friend.   The kids and I are going to miss our visits with her.

On to a public speech path update.  They called about a month ago and said they had one opening for June. One.  Of course it was on the day of Grady's kindergarten orientation which we would not be missing so I had to pass.   I called back this week and they had no July openings but they had one cancellation for June which we swiped up.  So I will be taking next Friday off work to have a little speech date with my littlest dude.  I don't plan on going to work in the afternoon. On a Friday?

I find myself getting nervous for the official assessment.  Yes, Cooper has made progress. Yes, he is talking more than ever.   BUT, I can't understand half of what he says AND he still uses his made up word often.  R thought that as he expanded his vocabulary he would drop his fake word, and he hasn't.  Sometimes I feel like he uses it more.  He slips it between words and is always present when he 'reads' to us.  R tells us to interpret what he means when he says it but I think it is a filler word.  Sometimes it is easiest to understand him if you listen to every second word.

Where at one time I found myself really optimistic that he wouldn't need the public system, I find myself worried again that he is still not where he should be and anxious to hear what the full assessment will tell us.

The problem with speech is it is hard for a person that interacts with him daily to really see a difference.  It is like watching someones hair grow.  You can't see it happening but you know it is always growing.  I am always listening to see if I can see improvement and often find myself frustrated when I don't or when I think he has gotten worse.

I have to remind myself that a short 5 months ago he was barely saying anything and now we have this little person that is filled with things to say and just a little bit hard to understand.  Maybe in 5 months from now I'll look back at this post and think I was silly to worry.  I hope that is the case.

Cooper is starting preschool in November and I really hope that his speech will be good enough to communicate with the teacher and the other little 3 year olds.  I just want him to be able to make friends and socialize with the other kids.   Then I remind myself again that preschool is 5 months away and lots of speech can be learned in 5 months. 

Not to mention I need to focus on potty training before then.

Oh, and maybe transitioning my almost 3 year old out of his crib and in to a big boy bed....

Maybe on should focus on some of these milestones first :)

Cooper's Speech

Cooper's speech is exploding.  As parents who waited so long to hear his little voice, we couldn't be happier.

We started his speech session at the beginning of February and have been seeing R every 2 weeks since.  She has been a blessing to our family.  She shows up each session with a smile on her face and eager to see Cooper's progress.  She not only shows a liking to Cooper, but to Grady to.  Each time she brings a treat for Cooper, she always has one tucked away for his older brother to.  She is just thoughtful that way.

Last week she showed up with playdoh - enough for both boys to play with at the table.  We were working on descriptive words.  Push, pull, in, out, big, small.  Playdoh was a great way to put these descriptive words into our play.  We spend the entire hour sitting at our kitchen table playing playdoh and talking using our words.

At the end of the session, R asked me if we had our assessment appointment yet.  Let me back up.  In January, we put Cooper on the public wait list to have a speech assessment that we hoped would lead to being assigned to a speech pathologist.  The wait list is 4-6 months so technically we could be getting our call soon.  I told her that we hadn't heard.

I asked her what she thought the assessor would say about Cooper. She told me that she would probably assess Cooper as mildly delayed now and that he would not be assigned a speech pathologist.  His case would filed and we could contact them in the future if we ever had any further concerns.

I asked her what she thought we should do about our sessions together.  She said that we could continue on the way we were going or we could take a break and meet again in a month or two.

Of course I was thrilled to hear her say that she though Cooper was doing so well and that he didn't necessarily need to be having speech sessions anymore, but I am having a hard time parting ways.  I feel like I want Cooper to have a 'normal' assessment before we let R go.  Otherwise, how will I ever know that he has caught up?

In the end, we decided to reduce to every 3 weeks for the next few sessions and then maybe increase the amount between again.  He has taken so well to her strategies that I find it hard to stop now.

He is using 3 word sentences on a regular basis and repeating everything we say.  In the past week he has even stopped referring to himself at Apper and now calls himself Keeper. We are getting very close to Cooper!  Considering Grady still calls him Tooper I'm surprised he hasn't reverted to that!

All is well in the speech department here and we are well on our way to seeing our little baby talking like a little boy.

He is growing up so fast.

Speech Update



I can't keep my mouth shut now!

After 'coming out' about some of the concerns we had regarding Cooper's speech I figured it was time to give an update on where we are at - and thankfully it is all good news!

R (our speech pathologist) has been coming to our house every 2 weeks.  Each week she brings new strategies for us to try and focus on during the 2 weeks between visits.    The first week she told us to count to 5 in our heads after asking Cooper a question to allow him time to answer.  When we started doing this he stared at least trying to respond. I am a talker.  So I needed to be reminded that I don't need to talk all the time.  I thought back to how I would have spoken to him in the past and it included a conversation of me asking these questions all back to back.

Me - Cooper, are you hungry?
Me - Do you want cereal?
Me - What kind of cereal?
Me - How about Corn flakes?
Cooper - yeah

I never gave him the chance to use the words that he was learning.

This week we are supposed to be working on asking fewer questions.  So instead of saying ' Cooper, do you like your lunch?'  I would say 'Mommy likes grilled cheese' and see what he says. It is supposed to teach your child how to have a conversation rather than just asking questions.  This one is much harder than I thought it was going to be. 

Our second strategy this week is to offer him choices.  So instead of saying 'What kind of cereal do you want?'  We would ask him ' Do you want Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies'.  That way he doesn't have to think about what the answers are, you have given him the answers making it less difficult to process. 

These are only some of the things that we have been working on. I love how when R comes she shows us how to use the strategies, because some of them feel really awkward.  For example, she says eye contact is really important and gets right down on the floor and put her face right in front of hers so he can how she says the word.  I have found it so helpful to watch her interact with Cooper and the words she chooses.  It has really made the transition easier.

The first week she came she didn't have a chance to interact with Coop much since she was busy gathering information and observing.  The next to sessions all the time was spent playing with the boys and teaching James and I the new strategies.  The kids have even started to look forward to her arrival knowing that it meant a full hour of play with 3 adults.  Lucky kids!

By the third visit, we could see a drastic improvement in Cooper's speech.  He has gone from one word to 2+ word sentences and we hear his little voice constantly.  I still can't understand half of what he says, but the fact that he is trying so much more is great news.

At R's first visit, Cooper's only 2 word sentences were 'Goodnight Dada' and 'Dada's Car' and variations of these by replacing the name.  Now, Cooper will say things like 'Dada Cooper bed'  Meaning that he wanted James to put him to bed. He'll also say 'I don't know' and the newest one is 'where'd they go' that sounds more like 'whered-eh-o', but I'll take it.  We now says cookie, cracker, boy girl, apple, truck, and the list goes on.  This kid is kicking it into high gear.

When R showed up for her last appointment and we said she was here he repeated her name and she heard it through the door.  She was so pumped.  I loved how much she praised him and got excited with us.   By that third visit she was thrilled with his progress and she noticed that he was using words more and screaming less.  I didn't really notice the reduced screaming until she pointed it out.  I have also noticed that Cooper bites less but I don't know if this is related or just coincidence.

I asked her if it was normal to see this much improvement in such a short time and she said when it is just an expressive language delay that it often happens fast.  That means that they understand everything and just can't get the words out.  I couldn't help but wonder if it was a coincidence and wonder if the speech path was really working or if this would have happened on its own.  I guess I'll never know, but in the meantime having R come to our house twice a month has been great!

R also told us that she was proud of us, like James and I.  That was a very nice thing for her to say as I openly tell her each week what I didn't do and what we could have done better.  I am the first to admit that these strategies aren't always easy to work into the day when you only have about 4 hours with your kid each night.  We do our best and I felt kind of funny accepting her words as I feel that there is so much more we could be doing.

At the same time, it was very reassuring to hear from someone else that they notice a difference.  As a parent, you wonder if you just want to hear it so bad that you think you hear a difference when really you don't.  One of my friends also commented that Cooper's speech had improved.  I could have kissed her.  I can understand how my friends may feel funny talking about Cooper's speech improving which acknowledges that he was delayed, but to me hearing that others can hear the difference means so much.

On the same topic, as part of the public speech and language program we had to attend a parent only class.   I was well aware going into this that it would be a review of what R had already taught us.  She is a public speech pathologist as her day job after all and essentially covering the same material.  I was still happy to go since I wanted to hear from other parents with speech delayed kids and just wondered how Cooper would compare.

Well..... Cooper was by far the oldest kid.  The others 3 families had kids between 17 and 20 months.  I was very surprised that a parent was concerned about speech at this young of an age.   I guess with Cooper I started being concerned at about 18 months and watching for words and paying more attention to it, but I didn't actually put him on the list until a few months over 2.  Here I thought we were potentially in the program on the early side, but I guess not.

The one mom I just wanted to hug.   They taught 11 strategies at this class.   Eleven.  Had I not known over half of them already from our sessions with R I would have been so overwhelmed and let there deflated.  I just wanted to tell her that it would get better.  I think her daughter was 20 months.

I have to attend part 2 of the class next week.  I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much open discussion. We all did introduce ourselves and talk about where our kids were at but beyond that, the other parents weren't all that chatty.  Just me I guess.  After this next session, we just wait until he is called to be assessed which I think will be before the end of June.

So far, with a little perseverance, we are making moves in the right direction.   I still light up when I hear him say a new word.  It just shows the progress that he is making.  Last night when I tucked him in and said goodnight and that I loved him.  He repeated the I love you back for the first time - 'uv you mama'.  That makes all the stress and frustration worth it.

Random Friday Facts

Cooper’s sleeping has been crap. He has been waking up in the middle of the night and after a long rocking session still will not go back to bed.  Cooper is still sleeping in a crib and a sleep sack.  With these recent waking we are considering moving him to a bed so I can lay down with him rather than sitting in the chair with him.  We are in no rush to get him out of the crib and were waiting for a sign from him that it was time… maybe this is his sign?

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Grady is a crafter.  He most certainly didn’t get it from me.  This kids likes, no loves, to paint.  We have a strict rule in our house that we only paint once a day as Grady has been known to ask multiple times.  At this exact moment he likes to paint rainbows.  Not just any rainbow but ones that are in the exact order that rainbows are supposed to be. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.  If you are out of this order he will let you know. And for the record, painting at school doesn’t count.  He still needs to paint once at home as well.

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Cooper had a great speech session this week.  His gal is just fantastic with both boys.  We learned some valuable tips from just watching her interact with Cooper.  She emphasizes eye contact and getting at his level.  So I held the soap to my face and said 'soap' in the bath the other night.  At first he didn’t say it.  I touched my chin and said it again.  Eventually he did say it. She did the same with bubbles the night before.  It was so cute to see Cooper touch his chin when he said the word to because she and I had both done it.  She says imitation is a great step! So happy with how the speech is going.

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With Grady being home all day now, he often goes next door to have an unparented play date with the little boy next door.  What a big boy he is getting to be!  Grady has loved playing weekly with our neighbors.   The boys are 4 months apart and  seem to be into the same things.  Except crafting, his friend does not like to paint as much as him I’ve been informed.

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The weather is expected to be nice this weekend so we are finally heading out to get a bike for Grady.  After our attempt on the long weekend failed because the store is closed on Sundays I have it penciled in for tomorrow.  I hope he is still as excited to bike once we get him on a ‘real’ one with training wheels!

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I am so far behind on my shows and now Big Brother Canada is starting.  I really don't know how I am going to keep up!  Thankfully Biggest Loser and the Bachelorette are wrapping up here soon.  You guessed it... I'm a reality TV junkie!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Speech

We all know that i am a talker. Maybe talker is an understatement.  I like to ask questions (or so my mom tells me) and am always interested to hear what people have to say.  As a talker myself, it was hard to accept that my son's talking wasn't coming along as quickly as I hoped.

Last week, we had a speech pathologist come over to work with Cooper.

I've alluded to the fact that Cooper doesn't say much but haven't really opened up much about it.   I've contemplated many times how much I wanted to share of this journey or if I wanted to share it at all.   In the end, I decided to share for 2 reasons.  First, because I have always wanted to be a blogger that is real.  One that doesn't always talk about how great her kids are or how well behaved they are, but one that talks about real life. Yes, my kids are great and yes they can be well behaved, but that isn't the case 100% of the time.

Second, it was from reading blogs and the advice I've gotten from others that helped me move forward in having him assessed and seen by a speech pathologist.  And if I can help another family that is wondering whether they should have their child assessed I would be happy to know that our experience has helped someone else.

Don't get me wrong, Cooper can talk.  Right now his favorites are 'Apper's turn!' 'I to!' and 'Milk'.  He tells us goodnight by name, points out whose cars is whose, and the list could go on.  But comparing him to other 2 year olds I just had some concerns.

I was waiting for that ah ha! morment I had with Grady and spoke about in this post.  I just thought he would catch up.  And I am still more than confident that he will.  We see improvements with him weekly and are happy to see him still learning new words. But, I wanted to speak with a professional who sees 2 year olds every day and knows what 'normal' is.  I wanted to talk to someone who could give the tools I needed to help Cooper succes with his communication.

We first got him on the public system (free!) waiting list, which we were informed was a 4-6 month wait.  You do NOT need a referral from your doctor to do this. I acutally didn't find that our family doctor had a lot of information on speech development and what to do if you have concerns.   When I spoke to him about it he didn't mention the public place and gave me only the name of one private clinic to call.  I have always been an advocate of looking out for you own health so I started using google and contacting others who had been through it.  Becky has talked in detail about her experience with her daughter's language development and happens to live in the same city as me. 

Thanks to her we found this website and contacted the number and left a message. Surprisingly, they called back!  They were very informative about what the next steps were to get on the list.

Since James and I's benefits covered Speech Pathology, we decided to make some calls to find a private one that could come in immediately.  The great thing about the private ones is that they come to your house.  Talk about service!  So last week was our first vist with R.

I was scared.  They were going to assess my child.  Thinking he is delayed and knowing he is delayed were very different for me.  At first I was excited to have made the call and got the appointment in the calendar, then I immediatley got scared of what they would tell me.

All that fear was for nothing.

R was great.  She started the hour session by watching the kids play and asking James and I lots of questions.  We went over his words and any concerns we had.  Then she actually got on the floor and played cars with the boys.  I found it so informative to watch her interact with Cooper and the language she used.

She gave us a hand out for Step 1.  Essentially, James and I each have to spend 10 minutes interacting with Cooper and showing lots of interest in what he wants to play with.  She said it is really important for us to stop talking and start listening.  So after asking Cooper  a question, instead of answering for him or asking another questions, she told us to count to 5 and wait for his answer.  It feels very uncomfortable but after seeing her do it with him it seemed to actually work.

So for the next 2 weeks, we will be listening to cooper and trying to give him 10 minutes each day of special cooper time where it is all about him and talking about what he wants to talk about. Something tells me that getting this time is going to be easier said then done.

So my assessment of the session is that it did go good and we are happy we did it.  I feel like we took charge of the situation and despite being nervous or scared we made the phone call that we hope will help develop Cooper's language while we wait for the public system to call. 

I hope that by the time they call, Cooper has caught up, but I know deep down that it is probably optomisitic to think that.  But in the mean time I will be doing my best to zip it and listen to my precious little boy who needs that extra quiet time to express himself.

Vocabulary

I have been wanting to do this post for a while now but time just seems to slip away.... I wanted to post it to help any other parents that have/had just a little anxiety over their child's speech development.

I had always heard that kids started to talk at 18 months. Many other moms where posting on facebooks and blogs all the words their 12 month old was saying and here we were at 18 months and our little man said nothing.

I remember the exact timing because Grady turned 18 months on cmas eve and we were at visiting my family. On that visit, Grady didn't say anything except the occasional buh-bye (which by the way I believe was his first word, followed closely by 'daddy').

We went for his shots in late December and I expected to be drilled about his speech and what words he could say. I dreaded this visit. One of my friends had a bad experience and was told at 18 months that her son needed a speech pathologist. That is a rant for another day.... What not even 2 year old needs a speech pathologist??? Any how, due to staff limitations from h1n1 my appointment was less than thorough and his speech development was not discussed. This however did not help me understand why Grady didn't talk yet.

So for the rest of my cmas vacation I spend oodles of time working on Grady's body parts with him. Not so much how to say them but teaching him where they were. We worked on the face in particular. Low and behold, by the time I went back to work, Grady knew where his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were. He could even find them on my face... bonus!

Then it happened. As if over night, Grady started to say words. More, up, please, daddy, mommy, nana and more! We were delighted. We then started doing animal noises and it exploded. Over night.

All this worrying over something that essentially resolved itself in the blink of an eye. One week he babbled, the next week he talked. Don't get me wrong, there is still lots of babble, but some of that babble was evolving into words.

A mere 6 months later, Grady can count to 10 (usually skipping a few numbers), sing songs (the itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle little star, ABCs), and even use 2 word combos!

The sound of his sweet voice singing to you a smile on his face and a cheer at the end is music to a mother's ears!

Just the other day Grady came running into the computer yelling 'Mommy, come, come , come' he actually was telling me to follow him! On the weekend as James was prancing around the house with no shirt on he said 'Daddy shirt' as in 'put some clothes on Dad'! Some of the things he says are just so endearing and you could just eat him up.

Others such as 'no pool, no ocean' when you want to go to the beach, 'no gym' when his gym class is about to start, or 'home' when you take him to the grocery store after work, are less appealing but still fantastic that he is able to express himself in words rather than in screams or cries.

I was lucky enough to have a friend reassuring me that her son was the same way and that Grady would start to talk. I wanted to reassure any other parents out there that your child's time to speak will come - sometimes it just takes a little patience....