Re: What can a speech therapist do at 21 months?

[Guest guest]

--- In @y..., " lauracorin2001 " <lauracorin@i...>

wrote:

> DS has one or two words, neither clearly pronounced. His older

> brother has SID. He often looks like he's trying to produce a

word,

> concentrating hard, then nothing comes out, or just an

unidentifiable

> sound. We first saw a ST a couple of months ago and have just

> started ST once a fortnight.

>

> The ST plays with DS with toys, speaks words clearly to him,

> encourages him to make noises (which he rarely does - maybe one

noise

> per session). She gets him blowing pieces of tissue and

making 'puh'

> sounds. That's it.

>

> I don't know what I should be expecting at this age - is the ST

> worthwhile with such a young kid? What would you expect the ST to

be

> doing with him?

>

> Thank you,

Hi ,

I, too, didn't think the ST my son was going to was doing any good at

first. My son was 23 months old and I thought that blowing cotton

balls with a straw and trying to lick peanut butter off his nose was

silly and of no use. Was I ever wrong!!!

I started asking his therapist exactly what she was trying to

accopmlish and she explained that Eddie needed to acquire the oral

movements of speech before he could accomplish actual speech.

He needed to be able to blow the air properly to produce sounds

like " H " and to be able to curl his tongue up to say " L " etc. I took

him 3 days a week for several weeks and then I started to notice

Eddie could say " Mommom " and " Daddaddy " along with the oral motor

skills he'd been practicing his ST had started to incorporate

different sounds. She also started to teach him sign language so he

could communicate with us and eliminate some of his and our

frustration. I was worried he'd rely on the sign language and never

talk but she reassured me that he would associate the word with the

sign and eventually drop the sign and he has started to do that now.

He's been in therapy for a little over a year and now has a 10 to 15

word vocabulary and attempting to say just about everything.

Stick it out. It's well worth it!! And, ask your Speech Therapist

about what he/she is doing and what he/she thinks it will

accomplish. If you have any questions or need someone to talk to who

understands what you're going through, please let me know.

Good Luck,

H. in PA