Blake's speech

Blake had his first speech session on Friday. Most of the time was spent filling out the paperwork and providing a picture of his developmental levels across the spectrum of skills.

Blake was fascinated with his speech therapist, ST, and even spoke to her quite a bit. Starting this Friday his sessions will be at 9am which will be good because that is Colby's nap time. This is good for two reasons... one Colby won't be a distraction and two Blake will get the full attention of both myself and ST.

We have begun working with him on some simple signs. The first goal is to eliminate his frustration and provide him other means of communication. We will continue to encourage him to speak for as much as possible while giving him a few signs to help too. ST had suggested beginning with "more" and "open". Blake picked up on "more" very quickly. We haven't really had a lot of need for the word "open", but do use the sign when it comes up.

Richard and I decided to jump in and add a few more words. We decided that "help" was an important one for us to use with him. Blake is very strong willed and independent, and if you try to help him when he doesn't want help he gets even more frustrated. But, at the same time if you don't help him and he wants help... yep he gets even more frustrated with the situation.

We are also using the signs "milk", "yes", "no", "thank you", and "sorry". But, we aren't expecting him to master these ones first. My thinking, knowing Blake, is the more he's exposed to Richard and I using the signs the more likely it is for him to begin using them himself.

The exciting thing is he is trying to say the word while doing the sign so he seems to be making the connection between the spoken word and the sign already!

As things progress, I'll keep you posted on the things we are doing.
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14 comments:

  1. Sounds like things are going good to begin with! I think it's awesome that Blake is handling it and adjusting so well:)

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  2. Glad the first session went well and Blake liked his new ST.
    ~Elyse~

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  3. So glad Blake likes his 'teacher' I think signing is a WONDERFUL idea. Now he can know he has various types of communication to try.

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  4. I saw post when I was eating breakfast and I made a point to come back to it. I am a school speech pathologist, so I was interested in how this is going for you! I'm glad things are going well and I really hope he makes progress quickly. "Help" was one of the first signs that my G-man learned and we found it very useful. Another one of the first sign that I teach my kids at school who are just learning language is "all done". Then they have the option of more and all done.

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  5. I am so interested to see what they do wtih Blake at his sessions. E is very strong willed too and signing has helped us a lot. I am excited that Blake will be using signs and can't wait to hear about his speech progress.

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  6. THAT is wonderful Lori! We used sign language with Kamden when he was about a year and half and it helped so much and really quickly.

    I have a feeling in 6 months or so his vocabulary will have grown exponentially!

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  7. Sounds like such a great first session. So happy it is turning out well. Can't wait to hear all the updates.

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  8. Whenever you are able to reduce fustration level, it is a good thing.

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  9. That is awesome. I taught Actress how to sign at 9 months old and i truly believe that that helped her language skills so early on. I taught my kindergartners sign language as well and they did reallly well with it. We all benefited from it.

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  10. I'm s glad that everything went well for the first session! I hope it continues to go well!

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  11. That's fantastic! Sounds like he is off to a great start. I know there has been a lot of research about using signs with young children. I hope it continues to go smoothly!

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  12. Signing is awesome! I LOVE it and used it with my son and am using it with Emily now too. She's 10 months old and has learned the "eat" sign already and we're working on more. HOpefully Blake will pick up on more signs quickly!

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  13. Signing is supposed to help with frustration. My little guy uses "more" "thank you" "milk" you know, simple ones. But then he's just say "mo mo mo mo mo" and I have no idea what that means at any certain point in the day - it could be milk but it could mean I want in this cupboard... I'm still holding out for him to use them more independently as he gets older (he's not even 2 yet).

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