Thursday, October 2, 2008

Speech

Ian had his first speech appointment yesterday. I was a bit worried, considering how shy our little guy is. The doctor pretty much asked us questions to determine where he is on two levels: comprehension and production of language. Ian understands at the 12-14 month level. Yay! The doctor was very pleased with his understanding. She made me feel like a good mom, saying it was so good that I read to Ian every night. I've never felt like a bad mother, but it felt nice to hear such positive words from someone who works with cleft children professionally. On the other hand, Ian can speak at the 8-9 month level. He has not yet spoken his official "first word", although he's been saying ma-ma for months. He hasn't completely associated ma-ma with the person. The doctor did not seem concerned with this, considering Ian has only had a "full" palate for 2 months. Overall, it was a good visit. We go back in April to have a more thorough assessment. We will be able to determine what else needs to happen since he will have more verbal language by then. Until then we will be stressing words with "p", "b", and "d". Wish us luck!

5 comments:

John, Shannon, Broderick, Camden, and Adalynn said...

we are working on the exact same thing and Adalynn in 15+ months. She says a lot and knows what she is talking about but so much of it sounds the same. The early intervention people are coming to the house in about 2 weeks to do a formal assessment. We already met with the speech people in Atlanta but now that we moved I feel like we are starting from scratch. Isn't it amazing at all the little things that we take for granted. Never before have I worried as much about speech development and Adalynn is my 3rd kid.

Jessica said...

i'm glad to hear ian had a good speech and language assessment, i'm really impressed by his comprehension level, sounds like he's going to be a little smarty pants!~JB

Krissy said...

Sometimes I feel like it is a constant speech leason at our house because Jon and I have gotten so use to really stressing certain sounds! Like he'll point at a tree and one of us will say, "Tree" and then make multiple "t" sounds! :) Drew can pretty much only make /m/ and /b/ sounds, but hopefully the rest will come soon for him and Ian!

Heather said...

Just curious when you started reading to Ian every night. When Aidan was first born, I tried, but he was always sleeping. Now he doesn't seem to want to sit long when he's awake. I guess I could read to him when he's drinking his last bottle, before he falls asleep. Anyway, I want to get a head start on this speech thing! Sounds like Ian is doing great!!

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