Speech Therapy - The Six Week Review

We took Taters back for his assessment with the speech therapist yesterday. If you remember we initially saw her for five sessions, then we were sent away for six weeks to put everything into practice before heading back for a final assessment. In that time my little man has amazed me; going from having no words whatsoever to 27 words and counting. All in the space of five weeks.  


So here’s the run-down of his words to date: Poo, there, go, more, daddy, three, hurray, two, car, bee, eye, higher, four, five, six, clean, bean, stool, chair, hi, tea, green, blue, stop, knee, moon and yes.

They’re really rather random but that doesn’t matter, before he said nothing, now he’s coming out with a few new words every couple of days.

The therapist was really pleased with his progress and Taters was happy to see her and have a little play. He was a proper little show off, although obviously he didn’t utter a single word in her company – but apparently that’s to be expected. I think he’d exceeded her expectations too which is brilliant. However, obviously compared to other nearly-three year olds, he’s still really behind, so we haven’t been discharged and sent on our merry way, the support will continue as long as it’s needed.  

So now we’re back on a waiting list for the next, more intensive level of therapy available, which I’m really happy about, Taters starts nursery in January and I’d like him to be as far on as he can be by then. So the more help the better. Apparently the new therapist will work with us at home and visit him in nursery too, so it’s nice to know we’ll be supported. I’m quite terrified of him slipping backwards into silence again, or getting stuck at this level, so I’m really glad we’re not just being left to it.

In the mean-time our instructions are to keep putting the lessons into practice. Which means continuing to talk to him in single words wherever possible, giving him choices, teaching him more sign language to help him communicate, and not putting pressure on him to keep saying things – because worryingly that could send him backwards. Anything and everything that encourages him to communicate without piling on the pressure.