Speech Therapy - 8/29

SLP -"Peanut, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to the park or go eat?"

Peanut - "Eat lunch!"

This is such a good example of how Peanut is changing. He is making two word sentences with words that aren't being optioned for him. And sometimes he will even throw a 3rd word in there just to impress us. It used to be that he would only put two words together that he was repeating directly after optioned but now he is taking the choices and words he hears and pulling out words that he knows to make his own statements. It is so awesome.

He sang Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle for his SLP and she was so impressed. They just played and talked for the hour and he was attentive and cooperative even though he is snotty today. His mood and concentration were where he needed to be to have a productive session.

We are still working with the pacing card and at the suggestion of the SLP I am going to see if I can make a leather bracelet that has three or four pacing squares on it so that he can use it whenever he needs it even if we don't have the card around. It really helps him to slow down his words and get them all out and clear. "iwannnannana" becomes " I want nana (banana)". The more he uses it, the better he gets.

His SLP continues to be impressed with the changes that have come over him in the last 3 weeks while on the HFCS-free diet and fish-oil supplements. I asked her if she really thought it was a big difference because I worry about the placebo affect and she pointed out that normally when he would make progress in one area, he would backtrack in another. He might get 4 new words but then lose 2 of the words he already had. This has been a different type of progress where it has been giant leaps forward without any sign of the backsliding we are used to.

We are working on putting together a word-book for him to use at school for people who aren't used to his pronunciations. We want him to be able to communicate well and without frustration as much as possible so giving him pictures to point to if people don't understand is one option for him. We will just have to wait and see if he needs it and uses it.