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...

Speech Evaluation Part II

Part I Here

Well, the Early Intervention group called two days ago to let me know that Nathan DOES qualify for help because of delayed speech! I was so surprised! However, I guess when you play the rule of averages and take into account my ANSWERS to their questions and not just Nathan's evaluation, he probably just skimmed the line into the qualifying zone.

Someone will be calling to set up the first appointment. I don't know how long we'll need the help as he is really starting to spit out words. He gets lots of praise and smiles so he thinks it's great to repeat a word when we request, "Say ....xyz..." We can't understand him sometimes, but he is at least trying. Maybe the therapy will help him with his enunciation?

I'm happy with the progress he's made so far. It's been so sweet to hear his little voice! I'm sure it will be all too soon when we'll be wondering, "Why on earth did we want him to start talking? He won't close his mouth!" LOL!! :)

Part III here

Speech Evaluation

I signed Nathan up to be evaluated for speech issues. Alabama has an FREE early intervention program for children that qualify. They came to the house for the evaluation. They also checked other areas beyond language - such as motor skills, emotions, and the like.

Two ladies did the evaluations. They asked general family questions and some medical history on Nathan. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until they asked how many words he uses on a consistent basis. My answer was 35 - 50. Apparently that's WAAAAYYYY too many for him to qualify for the program. That really floored me! He's 28 months old and doesn't speak more than 35-50 words. As they dwelled there, I took a moment and said, "Ok, let me think about this because maybe I'm giving him more credit than he deserves." One of the ladies told me to start naming the words he uses (or tries to) and she'd write them down. When I got to 10 words, the other lady said that she's going to pretend she didn't hear the 10th word because that would disqualify him on her end of the test. 10 words would disqualify a 28 month old! Wow. (To be fair though, it's not just the 10 words. Her test is averaged between speech and comprehension. He comprehends just fine, so that throws the average... but still!) Anyway, they continued through the test saying they would do the final evaluation towards the benefit of Nathan.

They also had him stack blocks, put like objects together, choose which object does which task (spoon for eating, shoe for the foot, etc). Then they pulled out a sheet of paper with some black and white pictures on it and asked him to point to certain ones (a car, shoe, dog, etc). Then asked him to say what the object was when they pointed to it. (What's this? He answers.) Oh, yes, he answered... EVERY SINGLE TIME! Ugh. He said something for every picture that at least resembled the correct word. My mouth dropped. I was astonished. I know the kid passed the test with flying colors. I know he won't qualify. I also now know for certain that he's a stubborn little bugger that can talk when he wants to.

Oh well! I'm thankful to know that he is doing fine (as far as the state of AL is concerned anyway - go ahead... insert funny Alabama redneck joke here; I won't mind). The evaluators did make the standard suggestions for helping him along (ie don't give in unless he says something, don't ask yes/no questions where he can just nod his head, make him say something when he signs, etc). To be honest, I've already been using these ideas for a while now and I have seen an increase in his attempts at talking. I've heard about 5 new words in the last few days alone!

I also was able to see how excited he was to sit down and do some one on one things with these ladies. I need to take advantage of the times Will is in school and Witt is asleep - when it's just the two of us. He'll probably really start to thrive when I give him some EXTRA attention! :) Poor little thing...mama doesn't love you enough... ha! Seriously though, I am going to make an extra effort with him.

This mothering thing sure isn't easy. Once you think you're getting into a groove, something else pops up...

CLICK HERE FOR UPDATE!

Where You From, Boy... New York?

A few more words this week!! Every time I think of calling a speech therapist he starts spitting out new words!


"See?" - always as a question

"caa" - car - He sounds like he's from New York!

"ock" - lock (sounds just like sock and without the signs he'd probably get frustrated quickly!)

"Hup" - help (with sign)

"ees" - keys (with his made-up sign like he's turning a key)

Nathan is also becoming VERY independent; he wants to do everything himself! Climb into the car, climb into his seat, open the fridge, pull out the drawer, push the button on the DVD player, etc. He is quite adamant about it all and demands "Nay-Nay!" as in, "Nathan do it!".

My Three Sons

(By the way... these are videos for those of you that didn't know...)

Nathan is "Talking"

Nathan, almost 27 months old, has *finally* really started talking . Now, of course, I'm about the only one that understands him and half the time if he didn't have a sign to go with it, I wouldn't have a clue... but he's trying and that makes me soooo happy!

This isn't the normal Tiny Talk Tuesday, but it's a great milestone for him that I want to record. Here are some recent words and some that I haven't heard in a while that have popped back up:

Tee- "tree" with sign
Eye
Eeee - ear
Noe - nose
Hi
Bye
Caaa - car
Down
Dol don - "all gone" with sign
og - "frog" with sign
bi - "bike" with sign
RaRa - "Deborah" (she's visiting)
sirt- "shirt"
ock - "sock" with sign

That's all I can think of in the time I have right now. I'll add more later.

More information on American Sign Language

Also, going through an alphabet book this past week, Nathan correctly identified and gave the sounds for the following letters:

A
M
R
S
T
U

I'm impressed with that! :)

My Silly Little Introduction-Making Noise-Maker

A cute little thing Nathan does is usually in the morning when we are all piling into the master bed for morning drinks (coffee and hot chocolate). He's the first one in there so it's just the three of us and he sits between Jeff and I. He will stretch out his right hand palm up in my direction and say, "Mama". Then he swings his hand over to Jeff and says, "Dada". He'll repeat, "Dada" and then swing the hand back over to me for, "Mama". After the introductions, I tell Nathan, "Thank you, I know him." :) This has been going on for a few weeks now - too cute!!!

I could describe Nathan as a mime that makes noises instead of motions. It's turned into a bit of a game to figure out what he wants, but other times I know exactly what he's "talkin' about":

• If he wants a drink, he purses his lips and makes a "sssssssslurp" sound as if he's drinking out of a straw
• When he pretends to sleep, we get a nasally "honk-shoo, honk-shoo" for pretend snoring
  
• Wanting to have a bite of something to eat is always a fun one: he comes walking up opening and closing his mouth with a "num num num num"
  
• He makes the noises of some animals instead of calling them by name: moo/cow, cack-cack/duck, nay-nay/horse. (Nay-nay is also what he calls himself).
• Reference to Jeff's drill is a high pitched: "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEE"
  

The latest addition to his noise making is when he's asking about his Pa-Paw, Jeff's dad. He thought it was great thing to learn the sign for grandfather. So, he signs it and whispers "Pa-Paw". (I don't know why he whispers it.) Anyway, recently he spent the night at their house and I'm sure he rode some of the great big tractors while he was there because now its: "Pa-Paw brrrrrmmmmm". Every time he sees a tractor, he says it. "Pa-Paw brrmmmmm!"

And just so ya know, yes, he can talk and does, but I think he's just having some fun with this right now. ;)

Signing with My Boys

Yes, we've taken up sign language. We started when Nathan was 9 months old (he's 21 months now). Nathan was a colicy baby and whined an awful lot. I decided to start signing because I thought it might help him communicate better and I thought it would be fun. I've always wanted to know how to sign. I remember being in middle school and there was a girl that was deaf. I would pretend to communicate with her. Looking back, I don't know if she thought I was tormenting her or if she thought I was just nuts.

So, back to signing with the kids. I purchased the book Sign with your Baby and started with the most common baby signs: milk, more, eat. Then at a consignment store I found the video to help me with the signs a bit more. Nathan was 10.5 months old when he signed back "more". Just in the last two weeks has he said the word, so I'd say it has helped him communicate faster. :)

He started signing things more and more quickly. We bought the first volume of Signing Time videos because he was really showing an interest and so was our oldest son, Will. Wow! Signs everywhere!! However, very few words. I got a little concerned and stopped with the signing and really focused on vocal words. There was a small improvement. However...

About this same time, Nathan had been having significant ear infections and it was time to get tubes in the ears. After the tubes were in, the dr said he should be hearing better and his speech may improve. Within 1 week of the tubes, he had said at least 5 new words!!!

With the vocal improvement, we've gone back to signing for fun and plan to get the next volume of videos for his birthday in November.

Will I sign with the youngest, Witt? Most likely. It has been a lot of fun for us and had we not done it with Nathan I think he would have been much more miserable. It's almost like I had foresight in what would happen (of course I didn't - don't want to be psychic!).

Occasionally, Nathan will look to me for a sign even after I've told him the word. I visit the ASL Browser for a quick learn.