Stinger is still continuing his speech therapy. He is combining words now and even talking in sentences. The problem is most of his words are vowel sounds only or just the ending of words. Some examples are "un" which means "done", "oh" is "snow", and "oo" can either mean two, moo, or boo depending on the context. We are now focusing on getting him to use initial sounds of words consistently. Stinger is working on simple words that start with M, B, and P like moo, man, pan, my, pie, and bye ect. Stinger currently pronounces these words as oo, an, an, I, I, I. Do you see the problem? To understand what he is trying to communicate you have to think about the current situation or what we are doing at the time. There is a lot of guessing involved! We started using picture cards to practice words correctly. We usually incorporate these picture cards in a game to make it fun for him instead of work. Here are some of his "P" picture cards.
He cut and glued these on notecards with the help of his therapist. Stinger is a visual learner. Although still difficult for him, seeing the "P" in the word helps him remember to try to say the "P" sound first.
It is hard to believe that Stinger has been in the Early Intervention program an entire year now. The therapists that he has are required to retest him to see if he still qualifies for services. They have already tested his cognitive ability and he tested on the level of a 4 year old. They still have to test him on his expressive, emotional, and self help skills. I have a feeling he is only going to qualify for speech and that is fine with me! He has come so far in a year!
I remember him walking around last year at this time like my lost little boy. He didn't play with toys, didn't care about us, didn't sleep at night, and always complained. Since then he has been bounced on balls, has crawled on scooter boards, has had his joint compressed, and has been "brushed". We have played in sand, pasta, beans, rice, and shaving cream. We have blown bubbles, blown cotton balls across the table, and did lollipop games to move our tongues. We have learned about allergies and why "W" sitting is bad. We have also learned to pray and trust God.
Since doing all this, Stinger now gives hugs and kisses, can eat at restaurants without screaming, tries to hold conversations, sleeps through the night, looks at books, and smiles! I am still convinced he is going to go to kindergarten sockless and shoeless and maybe with just a backpack on but we have 2 1/2 years to work on that!
