A year's worth of history to fill you in, if you are interested:
A testimony of God's goodness:
After only 10 weeks of Speech Therapy, I'm thrilled to report that Mary Beth has been discharged from Speech Therapy!
A few weeks ago we started working on her word list and I was surprised to count up 82 words that Mary Beth says voluntarily (and there are dozens more that she will repeat when asked)
A huge thanks to Leah and Brooke for all that you've helped us with!
It was over a year ago, that we first noticed that Mary Beth was not on level with speech guidelines for a 12 month old. She was constantly jabbering to herself but not yet saying 2-5 clear words.
We began teaching her a few words in sign language so she could have some way to communicate without getting frustrated.
At 15 months she was still not interested in talking. The pediatrician advised us to give it a few more months, and if she was still not talking by 18 months and we could discuss getting a referral.
By then she was signing really well for more, please, thank you, eat and drink, but would repeat our signs for many others.
At her 18 month visit (we were off schedule, so MB was actually 19.5 months old at that point) she was still saying only about 5 words. The doctor was not concerned yet and educated us about a natural "explosion" of verbal skills that typically comes around 18 months and would likely happen soon.
We had the option to go ahead with a referral and we took it. Its not that we were concerned but we wanted to be intentional about working with her, and I just did not feel equipped. At that point she was not trying to repeat us or anything, so other than reading to her - I felt like we weren't helping her.
In April we began meeting once a week with our Early Interventionist through PlayWorks. Leah has been wonderful. At the beginning Mary Beth was only interested in Leah's bubbles, but she always bring several toys and games and works with Mary Beth. It helped us to get a feel for her overall development and how to intentionally work with her, not just reading books to her but having her point out things etc. It was quickly confirmed that speech was the only developmental delay.
In late spring, Mary Beth began trying to repeat words to us.
After paperwork, referrals and doctors etc.. we started working with Brooke, our speech therapist in June. Evaluations showed that Mary Beth was approximately 3 months behind in verbal expression, but 3 months ahead of schedule comprehending. As you can imagine with any toddler, that is what caused her frustration - she understood what we were saying but couldn't make us understand what she wanted.
At that point Mary Beth used about 20 words consistently. (I can't remember what the exact guidelines were for 20-24 months but I think it was around 50-75 words)
Brooke comes once a week and worked on key words, repetitively (she'd bring several activities, puzzle, book, games, pictures that were all animal themes) for a month until she had those words down. Then move to another unit.
We began teaching her a few words in sign language so she could have some way to communicate without getting frustrated.
At 15 months she was still not interested in talking. The pediatrician advised us to give it a few more months, and if she was still not talking by 18 months and we could discuss getting a referral.
By then she was signing really well for more, please, thank you, eat and drink, but would repeat our signs for many others.
At her 18 month visit (we were off schedule, so MB was actually 19.5 months old at that point) she was still saying only about 5 words. The doctor was not concerned yet and educated us about a natural "explosion" of verbal skills that typically comes around 18 months and would likely happen soon.
We had the option to go ahead with a referral and we took it. Its not that we were concerned but we wanted to be intentional about working with her, and I just did not feel equipped. At that point she was not trying to repeat us or anything, so other than reading to her - I felt like we weren't helping her.
In April we began meeting once a week with our Early Interventionist through PlayWorks. Leah has been wonderful. At the beginning Mary Beth was only interested in Leah's bubbles, but she always bring several toys and games and works with Mary Beth. It helped us to get a feel for her overall development and how to intentionally work with her, not just reading books to her but having her point out things etc. It was quickly confirmed that speech was the only developmental delay.
In late spring, Mary Beth began trying to repeat words to us.
After paperwork, referrals and doctors etc.. we started working with Brooke, our speech therapist in June. Evaluations showed that Mary Beth was approximately 3 months behind in verbal expression, but 3 months ahead of schedule comprehending. As you can imagine with any toddler, that is what caused her frustration - she understood what we were saying but couldn't make us understand what she wanted.
At that point Mary Beth used about 20 words consistently. (I can't remember what the exact guidelines were for 20-24 months but I think it was around 50-75 words)
Brooke comes once a week and worked on key words, repetitively (she'd bring several activities, puzzle, book, games, pictures that were all animal themes) for a month until she had those words down. Then move to another unit.
A testimony of God's goodness:
After only 10 weeks of Speech Therapy, I'm thrilled to report that Mary Beth has been discharged from Speech Therapy!
A few weeks ago we started working on her word list and I was surprised to count up 82 words that Mary Beth says voluntarily (and there are dozens more that she will repeat when asked)
A huge thanks to Leah and Brooke for all that you've helped us with!
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