Monday, March 17, 2008

One Green Day for Briton

Our little guy is taking his time speaking. What is his need? He has five big brothers to speak for him! We help him and try to encourage him to form words with his little mouth. But it is hard. He is so funny!

When Austin was 3 years and 9 months, our doctor thought he should see a speech pathologist because he couldn't speak so well. I don't remember much except I know he spoke way better than Briton does. Mind you, Briton is only 3 years 2 months.

I took Austin to see this speech guy and he immediately was concerned. He ran him through a battery of tests and said he was 'profoundly delayed'. I told the therapist that Austin was a fourth child and wasn't there any possibility that it was simply because he didn't *need* to speak? He didn't think it had anything to do with it.

We set up some appointments - as in - about 5 - and proceeded. We only did five because the guy moved from our small town and we were left with noone. During the course of these few visits I was scrutinized. It was *painful*! This guy kept analyzing how *I* speak. Man, oh, man!! I don't even like public speaking at the best of times. And here I was, sitting on the ground in this guy's office 'speech therapying' (is that a word? LOL) my son, while he was *watching ME*. It was killing me!! Who was there for the therapy?

For all you who don't know me - I talk quickly. I conserve time by saying more in a shorter period of time. *grin* This guy figured I was stunting my child by how I speak. *You* try continuing therapy with that guy!! Well, lucky for me, he left town!

This doctor had wanted us to set up some 'play dates' since poor Austin wasn't in school where he could be properly socialized *grin*. I told the doctor that didn't he think it was *better* that Austin was speaking to children (ages 6, 9, and 11) who could speak clearly? And not just a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds who had speech issues of their own? He didn't think so. :o/

Anyhow, we put up little pictures in the kitchen to work on the sound 'sh' and he learned it easily enough. And then we got back to real life and just continued what we had always done. Living with him. Speaking to him. Playing with him. And having him spend time with all ages - big and little. We didn't focus on his speech - we focused on him.

Six months later, a lady speech therapist came to town. She was only going to be coming into town for one day a month and we could pick up where we left off. Austin was now 4 1/2. Therefore, as a homeschool family, we were at the dropping off point. He could only be seen by the public system for another couple months before he was considered 'school age' and therefore, not covered by the government.

Somehow, as homeschoolers, we fall between the cracks. And there is no private speech therapy in our little town! So what are you to do? I wasn't too worried. I knew he was coming along fine!

When I went to see this lady she wrote him down as a 'miracle'. Why? Because his speech had come so far in 6 months. I told her what I had told the doctor about being around people of all ages and that I felt that being child number 4 he was more likely to take his time. She agreed with me and said he was proof.

So, now today we have Briton. Much the same story.

His speech has been slow to say the least. He has other ways of expressing himself. Since he was tiny he would use his body language to tell you what he wants or feels. It is quite hilarious, actually! My sister couldn't believe what he could show he was feeling simply by his shoulders, hands and facial expression - at 2 1/2.

Next he learned every sound under the sun. They say boys make noises instead of speaking. Well, they are right! I live with the best one of all!! When he doesn't have the word for the item he is trying to tell me about (which is the majority of the time) he will give me the 'sound' that it makes.

Go for a ride in the car - "mmmmrrrrmmrr" accompanied by hands and shoulders going like he is driving around corners

A runny nose - "eeeewwww"

An airplane - "yeow yeow"

A whistle - he wanted to ask where his whistle was: "ooooohhhh oooooohhh"

Another time he is looking at photographs of helicopters beside me right now. There are multiple photographs and he holds them both up and says, "Eight, eight, eight." Then I tell him I am working and to take the photos out of my face and he says, "Me, me, me." And makes a noise like a crashing airplane, cause don't you know, that is what helicopters sound like! "Chhhchcchh"

He continues looking at the picture of the helicopter hovering over the ocean. There is a man on a cable below the helicopter. He points to the man and then at the water. He says, "ai ai ai - wah ee." He is telling me that the helicopter is above the water and the man might fall in the water.

Or, as just happened as I am writing this:

He comes out of the bathroom down the hall holding a toilet roll holder and saying: "Eeeww!!!!" As he waves it in the air. I quickly figure out what he is saying as there is water dripping off the thing. He shows me by waving it over the toilet that he dropped it in the (clean, thankfully!) toilet.

You get really good at figuring out a whole situation by ONE word!

A few examples of his use of the word: Done -

"Done" - meaning, "I am done drawing on the wall. I don't need a consequence."
"Done" - meaning, "I am done my dinner. That is why I got down from the table."
"Done" - meaning, "The paint tub is empty. Can I have some more?"

Briton has shown me how little vocabulary we actually need to get by! This child can get across the majority of what he is trying to say with either a noise or one word!

He does a lot of one word speaking with a lot of stress on that one word - for instance: "Me, me, me," to show he wants to play with something. Or "Done, done, done."

Briton wanted a cupcake. I told him he could have it when he had done dinner. This is his reply:

"Done, done, done, eat, eat, eat, me, me, me." Apparently, he is 'done' dinner and wants to 'eat' the cupcake.

He just came to me with a bag that has some African necklaces in it. He wants one of these necklaces because the boys got them. He holds up the bag and says, "Me, me, me". And then he puts his hands to his mouth and says, "Whooo whooo," because he thinks that the necklaces are whistles because they have pendants on them that look like whistles.

This is how he gets his meanings across.

Some of his new words are:

weevee - tv
pant - paint
wor - four
wox - socks
we ah - right there
wah ee - water

Here is a recent conversation I had with Briton, while trying to get him to count properly. I was showing him toys and as I pointed to one or the other I would say a number.

"One" Me talking

"Wa" Briton replying

"Two" Me pointing at two

"Wor" Briton replying (meaning "Four")

Two " Me trying again to get Briton to say "Two"

"Wor!" Briton trying again.

"Two" Me trying *again*

"EIGHT!" Briton's loud response with a great big smile!

He is so funny. When you try to get him to talk - he will look at you so earnestly, look at your mouth, mimic your mouth with great expression, and out will come another sound/word altogether.

At this point we try again. He will willingly try again. Then he will make a mistake and then like a clown, throw up his hands like, "what a joke!" and then drop his head to his chest and shake it, laughing at himself. He is hard to take serious!

The interesting thing about Briton is he has all these letters and numbers locked up inside him that are just dying to get out. When he is talking about something and it is a quantity of something he will say, "four, free, eight" or some order of those numbers. What he really means is, "There is more than one."

Or when he is talking he will spit out random letters. One day we were watching the movie, "Akeelah and the Bee". This movie is a wonderful family movie about an innercity little girl who beats the odds and goes on to win the National Spelling Bee. While this little girl was onstage spelling out words, Briton was sitting on the couch, knowing full well what she was doing. He was yelling out letters to help her along!! It was a hoot!! He kept calling out, "A, E, S, R, B" and on. This child can't speak but yet he can spell!! Well, not literally, but he has the concept of what letters are!

He draws a bunch of symbols on a piece of paper and babbles to me, 'B, A, R, D."

Obviously we work hard to help him learn to talk. He just doesn't think it that important yet. Throughout the day I will take little moments and a few words and have him look me in the face and practice saying certain sounds and words. He works hard but we don't pressure him. Little by little, he will improve, just like Austin did. He is quite content to have less words right now.

So why was today ONE GREEN DAY?

Because this morning when Briton was at the counter and Cassidy was working on all the green decorations, he picked one up and said, "GEEN" - clear as a bell!! Oh, what praise he received. Hugs and kisses and clapping. First, he recognized it was GREEN and not any other colour, but more importantly because he SAID his new word!!

Later on, while he was painting the picture up above he turned to me and after thinking carefully (you could see the wheels turning) he very solomnly formed his lips and pulled them in together and then pushed them out to create the sound, "WWWUUUNNN" - ONE. Oh, the excitement again!!

(Earlier today I had been working with him on the word ONE. He had painstakingly done it. But he has never voluntarily tried a 'new' word on his own before. Hence the huge praise.)

I asked him to do it again, and with great determination and effort, he pushed that sound out of his mouth. And then when I asked him to do it again? Laugh. He said, "DONE!"

A few moments later, as he was painting his picture and I was chatting with him about it I said, "It's a green day, today." And he turned to me and said, "Geen day".

He is very rarely using two word sentences. Mostly one word repeated two or three times, to get his point across. So today he used two new words and then put two words together to form a sentence!

YEAH FOR BRITON!!! Each small step is a HUGE step!!!

After I wrote this post, Briton came in the backdoor from being in the tent outside. I hear him, "Mum?" I go to the laundry room and there he is waving his muddy little foot in the air. "Feet," he says as he wiggles it around. "What happened?" I ask him. "Me, I." He was telling me that he (me) went outside (I) and walked around the house from the tent and proceeded to get a muddy little foot.

So here was a two word 'sentence'. He is slowly progressing. Bit by bit...

2 comments:

Beth said...

I had a similar experience with my 4th child. When she was about 3, her pediatrician expressed concern over her speech development and suggested speech therapy for her. Like you, I knew her speech was progressing slowly but regularly, and told the doctor that I thought it was just the "4th child syndrome". She was skeptical, but didn't push, and I forgot about the whole thing. A year later, the same child was sitting on the table in the doctor's office chattering a mile a minute, and the pediatrician looked at me at said,"So the speech therapy seems to have helped a great deal". I smiled and told her that we hadn't done speech therapy. She was duly impressed, and I think learned something about the value of parents' intuition.
<><
Beth

Playful Platypus said...

My little guy, fresh from Ethiopia three months ago, is having to learn a new language. I'm pretty sure he's already forgotten most of his (active) Amharic (though he would probably still understand), and has yet to pick up English to the extnet one would expect an almost-t-year-old to speak. But he, too, is making great progress.

He, too, relies a lot on sounds and actions to get his meaning across - and it usually works just fine. Every once in a while I have trouble figuring out what he means (and he gets frustrated) but I ask questions about it until I get it right.

And he's also having trouble with the th sounds. I keep showing him how to make them and trying to get him to repeat the words with the proper sounds (especially "this" and "that" which are used a lot!!!). He usually cracks up at me sticking my tongue out and blowing air out, and thinks it's a ridiculous way to talk. But every once in a while he'll try, and every once in a while he'll get it right without too much effort.

I figure he'll learn eventually to make the sounds right, just as he's learning new words all the time.

My experience with speech therapy was with my daughter, now 8. She needed it to learn to form sounds properly after cleft lip and palate suggery (at age 5). Since she, too, was school age and had to wait 6 months to be seen by the school therapist, I did "sound practice" with her at home. In the four months I worked with her, she learned the majority of the consonants well enough that everyone could understand her well (as opposed to just me and a few close friends) and she even started to try to produce properly the sounds I hadn't yet worked on. Then she finally got in to see the school therapist and the therapist spent the next two years (I kid you not) working on s, z, sh, and j sounds to get rid of a slight lisp. It took that long because by then I figured her speech was clear enough that I didn't do much practice with her at home!

I think you're right, the home environment is best for Briton and as long as you're seeing progress, there isn't much need for therapy at this point. Sounds like the green day was a great day!