A Tale of 4 Micks

A Tale of 4 Micks

Friday, July 8, 2011

fletch update

i don't think i've posted anything about this before, but some of you know that fletcher is not very verbal. i was a bit concerned at his 18 month appointment, but the pediatrician said not to worry, that he would get it and would be talking soon. at his 2 year check in april, it was still a concern since he only had about three words he would use consistantly. at that time, the pediatrician thought it was time to contact our local AEA and get help with his speech.

after numerous phone calls, we had an appointment scheduled in early may for them to come into our home and evaluate fletcher. one of the ladies asked me tons of questions and the other 'played' with fletcher to see what he could and couldn't do. some of the things i was asked pertained to his social/emotional behavior, his cognitive behavior and his physical behavior. some of the things fleltcher was asked to do were to match shapes/colors, tell what certain animals say, follow two step directions, all while the lady observed his behavior.

once the initial meeting was over, they had to take the info they collected and rate him on a few tests/scales they use. he had to score below a certain percent to qualify. a second meeting was set up for the following week to discuss the results. when they came, we went over the scores of everything. the only area he did qualify for was in communication development with a 25% delay and scored high in all other areas. we went ahead and agreed to services which will be done in-home, two times a month for 45 minutes each session. they said that there could be something inside that just isn't jiving or that it could be his self-confidence and stubbornness, or all. i think he is stubborn and he knows he's going to eventually get what he wants so why try. only time will tell if it all clicks for him.

the first three sessions have gone pretty well. diane (our speech therapist) works with fletcher by playing games with him and trying to get him to imitate sounds and mouth movements that she does. he has to do a special task before he moves on to another turn or something else. she watches for communication cues and listens for verbal and vocal responses from him and works with that. at the end of each session, she asks about new things he has done since our last visit and gives us new things to try. adam and i are suppose to write down new words after he uses them three times, unprompted. we have taught him some new signs that allows all of us to know what he wants and is easier to communicate, without the frustration of not understanding.

some of his current words/phrases are:
  ma/momma=mom
dada=dad
bu bu=brynlee
puh puh=please
gampa=grandpa
gog/god=dog
caw=car
baw=ball
go=go
s at=what's that? 
joosh=juice
shoo=shoe
choo choo=train
huh=what
moo=cow
les go=let's go
go t=goat
or joosh=more juice
mie=mine
bu bye=bye bye
na=no
uh huh=yes

the signs he knows are:
all gone/done
down
eat/hungry
help
more 
please
thank you
book
milk
water
yes
drink
listen
play
sleep

working on:
come
on
off
in
out

we continue to work with him and try to get him to say things and to learn more signs. we just want him to be able to tell us what he wants or what he is thinking without it being a struggle for us to understand. there are things that we want to teach him, but its hard to do with a kid who can't communicate with you. we know he knows a lot and understands more than he should at his age, but we don't know to what extent and that makes it hard. we keep encouraging and keep aiming for improvement week by week and we have noticed a difference since this all has started. 

since starting this post, we fletcher has had a session with ms. diane. yesterday afternoon, he greeted her at the door and they soon began to play. the first activity she did was a shape puzzle. he had to point to one and attempt to say what it was after she said the name of the shape. the second activity was building a train.  he had to say car to get another train car to add to it. once the train was complete, she had blocks to stack on the cars. he had to attempt to say block or the beginning sound of the color when she said it. he did a good job with the train activity, but the next activity wasn't his cup of tea. she had a book that she tried to read and asked him to point pictures, it didn't really happen because he was enthralled with the barn set she brought. they played with the barn and made animal sounds. the last activity was a sheet of different objects and diane would say: "what does a ____ say?". there were a few sheets she went through and also left those for us to do with him. that activity is for him to make the sounds each say and eventually, once he has the different sounds, he will put them into words. overall, i think the session went well and she was able to see some of his new words and sounds. our next session is scheduled for 3 weeks, so hopefully he will have a few new things at that time. 

1 comment:

  1. hey jill! great update! just had to say that "or joosh" is the cutest thing ever.

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