We had Jameson’s six month evaluation last week for his speech progress.
He has come a long way.
Things Jameson loves: Buzz Lightyear and a good leaf pile
He uses his words when sharing (or not sharing) with peers, instead of his hands. A big relief!
He imitates new words and sounds with confidence!
He can string together a number of phrases and can be understood most of the time!
According to his speech therapist, he is still about 6-8 months behind his non-speech delayed peers but we are confident he will close that gap eventually.
He requested a side of cereal with his chicken tikka masala. An odd choice, but a choice he was able to ask for!
I am just so happy my little boy is trying out new words every day. I’m so happy we are able to understand him more and he gets the joy of feeling understood.
We still have many moments when it is hard to understand what he is trying to say, and he will still resort to gibberish often when he is playing. We still have moments when a meltdown occurs because we can’t understand what it is that he wants. It isn’t perfect or easy, but its progress.
It’s another step forward for our baby boy. He’s speaking more and more each day, and for that I am so very grateful.
I am writing this post with a happy heart. With speech sessions occurring 1-2 times a week, and lots of practice and repetition at home, Jameson’s speech is really blossoming.
Two months ago I had Jameson evaluated by the Birth to 3 services that CT offers. I had noticed that ever since his ear infections became chronic his speech development had almost completely stalled.
At two years old he was only saying about 30 words, but used babbling and pointing as his main form of communication.
Everyone around me was telling me to give him time. I lost count of how many people told me anecdotes of kids they knew who never spoke a word until 3 or 4, etc. Their intention was to make me feel better of course, but as a special educator who frequently worked with kids well out of toddlerhood who were nonverbal, my heart was still worried.
What if he never caught up with his peers? How would limited language affect his behavior? His emotions? His ability to learn and to be understood?
I spoke to a friend of mine who is an Occupational Therapist and doing that gave me the nudge I needed to make the call and get him evaluated. She assured me that the only negative that would come from an evaluation was a wasted hour if they decided his development was fine. And wouldn’t the peace of mind offered by the results be worth it in the end?
It was.
The evaluators came to our home and assessed Jameson’s skills through that play, observation, and a parent/caregiver questionnaire.
At the end of the assessment I was able to hear the results immediately. It was as I suspected: my sweet boy had a mild speech delay that was also effecting his ability to understand (receptive language).
The morning of his surgery to get tubes put in and adenoids removed. All went well, thankfully!
Cut to two months and a surgery to get ear tubes put in, adenoids removed, and countless speech sessions later. I’m so happy that I went with my gut and got to the bottom of Jameson’s speech delay.
Yesterday he said I love you for the first time.
He now says small phrases like we’re here and where’d they go on a daily basis.
He’s able to ask for help and name items he wants when given a choice of two.
Yes, my heart is singing today because I’m so happy for my little boy.
Paige is Parenting 