Being the often overzealous person that I am (and that I'm very eager for Ryan's speech to improve even more) I recently asked his speech therapist to start sending homework for us to do each night. What was I thinking?
Last week wasn't so bad. The main focus last week was to practice "I want green chip" each time changing the color and object. He's learning to use what the therapist calls "carrier phrases". Things like "I see....", "I have.....", "I want.....", etc. Ryan has gotten really good with the phrases he's practiced most. His two favorites are "I love....." and I see...." It's actually very cute how he uses "I love...." for so many things. I am trying to teach him that you can say "I like...." instead of love. But, for now he just sounds like he's very passionate about everything he sees. ;) So, back to my point. Last week's homework went well because it didn't require much "shifting gears". "I want" stayed the same and I would just have to remind him of the color and object each time.
Then the therapist had to go and send HARD homework this week. He and I split up a bunch of different colored balls. I would say "I have blue ball" and he was supposed to say "you have blue ball". The idea was that we would switch up so that he would learn to use both "I" and "you" instead of always saying "I". Not only were we switching up I and you, we were switching the carrier phrase because then we'd say "I glue blue ball" and "you glue blue ball". For a child with motor planning problems this can be a monumental task. His brain gets stuck on one task and wants to keep doing that. Even if I asked him to say "I have blue ball", he'd accidentally say "I see blue ball" because that's what he's used to saying. Same thing with "you have.....". He's now trained to say "I have....." so that's what comes out. Anyway, we did not finish our homework correctly.
Now, being that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist I was a little stressed this morning when I took him to school. I hunted down his ST to let her know that we did not do the homework like she wrote in the instructions. I'm glad I did. She made me feel so much better. She said it's not important what he says or that he says the wrong color. She just wants him to have the correct order of the words and begin to understand how those words can be used to build a sentence. So, even if he uses the wrong carrier phrase or the wrong color or the wrong object......don't correct him. She said to just keep it low key and fun. She'll worry about correcting his mistakes. She also said that it's just important that he get continuous exposure to switching phrases and pronouns. Whew....that helps. Now maybe we can enjoy his homework next week.
Of course, the good news in this is that he's obviously doing sooooo much better! 2 months ago I wouldn't have guessed that he'd be working on putting words together in sentences. I was just hoping for more words. He can now say most words he wants. His only real problem with words at this point is that he can't say words with 3 syllables or more. But, if it's 1 or 2 syllables, he can either say it perfectly or come up with a very close approximation. I'm THRILLED with his progress!
Seeing his progress makes me worry less about Aaron. He more than likely has the same issues as Ryan. He's having an evaluation next week when he's 18 mos to see if he now qualifies for speech therapy. I haven't decided what I'll do if he does qualify. I might just take a once monthly consultation appointment until he's 2. I have learned so much about how to encourage speech in the younger kids that I sometimes feel like I could be a speech therapist myself. But, I just have to wait and see what happens. I've never been a very patient person, but these kids are teaching me a great deal about patience.
UPDATE: I guess Ryan's ST decided to take it easy on us. His homework now is to just use 2 different colors at a time (red and green) and only say "red ball" or "green ball". I guess she sensed my stress this morning. :)
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