Thursday, April 24, 2008

Speech Evaluation Part III - Here's Your Sign

Because he qualified, Nathan had his evaluation with the actual speech therapist this past week. However, even before the evaluation, I knew he wouldn't qualify any further than the first meeting with her. He's been trying out new words a lot lately. However, without the sign, I would have no clue what he was trying to say half the time, but at least he's trying. And he's getting better. Much better than two months ago.

During the evaluation, one of the questions she asked me was to list the signs he uses. She was at the bottom of her paper, ready to write and all I could think was, "You're not going to be able to fit them all on that little piece of paper." What I actually told her was that it would be easier to list what he doesn't have a sign for. She was quite surprised. And she was very impressed during the evaluation when he signed horse and cow (while trying to say them as well).

So, with that question of "What does he sign?" I thought I'd list some of his common signs, although he knows more (and says more) than I've shown:

Colors: red, orange, green, blue, the word "colors"

Fruit: apple, banana, grapes, pear, orange, strawberry

Letters: A B C D E F G I K L O R T V (and recognizes H M N P S U as well)

Outside: grass, flower, airplane, tree, star, rain, windy

Toys: ball, train, bike, ball, book, doll, scissors

Concepts: dirty, clean, share, more, thank you, please, hurt, yes, no, hot, cold, up, down, all gone, all done, wait, sick, silly, out, broken

Food: eat, milk, juice, bread, cracker, ice cream, cereal, water, cookie, cheese, candy

Animals: dog, cat, horse, cow, tiger, lion, bear, penguin, fish, starfish, lizard, frog, caterpillar, turtle, dolphin, chicken, bird, mouse, alligator, owl, deer

Action: bath, sleep, walk, play, stop, go, read, kiss, sit

Clothes: socks, shoes, boots, coat, hat

People: Mom, Dad, baby, Grandmother, Pa-paw, boy, girl

Other: potty, medicine



He is now at least attempting to say something with each of these signs. And soon I think the signs will disappear as he begins talking more. Maybe not, though, as I am starting to sign with Witt now...

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like he is well on his way - congrats on finding the gift on sign language. It helped us a lot and eased the frustration of the little one when she was trying so hard to participate in conversation and not being *heard.* The songs from the Signing Times videos are still sung around here.:)

Mary@notbefore7 said...

Wow! He really knows quite a bit. My oldest knew the most (we got lazy) and she only had about 10 or less.

Hope things continue to progress.

Kate said...

That is too cute! What a little smartie!! I recognize that refusal from my own toddler. They let you know when they've had enough, huh? Too funny.

bella214 said...

Damian had some major speech issues when he was that age but they kept telling me he was fine. When he went into Headstart they said he needed to be in therapy. I taught him sign language when he was about 2 and it worked great! The best thing is that his older half sisters have best friends that are actually deaf and they worked weith Damian alot to teach him all kinds of words I had forgotten! Nathan is adorable and he is really great at signing! I always thought it was cool showing kids to sign.

Me said...

sign language is a great way to communicate with kiddos.... my two youngest didn't talk as "early" as they were "supposed" to and sign language helped with the major woes... actually, their most favorite signs were "mad" and "more" :-) we still do mad just because they have a hard time putting their faces into a mad state when they are smiling :-)