24.4.12

20 month speech delay

Remember this post when Lily was 18 months old? We're still there. Practically in the same place. With more hope, more information, but not necessary more words.

Here's the scoop:

After her last hearing test we consulted a speech pathologist who recommended signing as well as using words and sounds constantly & always asking the child to repeat the sounds/words we were using. Lily caught onto signing in an hour and never looked back. She loves communicating, so another form of communication that will a) get her what she wants and b) get praise from us was an easy win.
The problem was that two full months later she was signing up a storm but no sounds or words were coming.

By no initiative of our own, we stumbled upon another speech pathologist. She was adamantly against signing. Super. The second speech path encouraged us to draw the hard line with sounds and words, only giving Lily things when she made a non-whining, non-crying sound. Even if the sound wasn't anything like the word. This would teach her that verbal sounds and words are how she gets things, not gestures, which she already had down pat. She also taught us about gross approximation words, and how when a child has a speech delay, speech paths look at "words" the child is using, even if they're not used exclusively for one object. Mama and Dada came to mind immediately - she uses them correctly for us, but also babbles them or uses them in other contexts. But they were counted as words and we needed to celebrate!

By no fault of the first speech path (there are different schools of thought regarding speech delays and ways to combat them), we had some back tracking to do. It's frustrating for Lily and us, because she still signs all.the.time. We've been instructed to never ignore a sign (because that would mean ignoring communication) but to do our best to not see them. And never do them ourselves or encourage them. So when we know Lily would normally sign for milk, we make sure we're not making eye contact when her and then say Lily can you say M M M if you want Milk? So far she's repeated sounds back after us for objects - something she was never doing when signing! When we ask her to say Berries she'll say ba ba ba (a sound she rarely even used in babbling!). When we ask her to say Yes she'll say ya ya. When I ask her who I am or to say Mama, she'll respond with Mama. Not every time, but much of the time. These might seem like silly things to celebrate, but we are thankful, and it is indeed progress. We also understand that because we spent two months signing which we're now not doing, it may be even longer before she's yammering away, but based on the progress already we know stopping sign was the best thing for Lily (though it works for lots of children!).

We are thankful and encouraged. She loves to communicate and is very social and is taking steps towards verbal communication. Discouraged, because she's still signing (she prefers it most likely because it's so simple) and not talking yet, but also hopeful because her hearing is excellent and she's making progress in such a small time. Today she had her second and final hearing test to make absolute sure hearing was not the problem for her speech delay. She passed with above average hearing. So proud of her.


14 comments:

  1. Encouraged to hear that your research and preserverence have paid off in terms of helping find strategies that will work for Lily as she learns.

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  2. Hillary Fay24.4.12

    Hi Emily! I always like reading your blog posts. I don't know anything about speech pathology, but I do know about music! I know that music can often help where other areas can't. I've read stories about adults with speech problems who have used music to help. Even if they weren't able to speak, some were able to sing and communicate that way! There are some incredible stories about this.

    I know its not related to Lily but its interesting all the same.

    Hope you're doing well!

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    1. Thanks!!
      I have never been the type of Mom to sing to her kids (because I'm SO not musical!) and we don't listen to music at home often, so that could REALLY help! and really be an area she's not getting much of right now. I have some kids praise music that I should play a lot more. Thanks so much for the suggestion.

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    2. God Rocks is an AWESOME group for simple works, repetition, rhymes and most importantly every.word is scripture!!! I love hearing London singing verses from the back seat. And I agree, London started "singing" before full on talking (then again we play music all the time). And with my sister who is autistic, we were given music as speak therapy and it did WONDERS! Great suggestion from Hillary.

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  3. I wanted to let you know that I know 2 little ones who barely said a word before 2 and suddenly were speaking in phrases and are now right an track. Also wished to encourage you to keep up your efforts. You are a great mama.

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    1. oh that is encouraging Mandy! and thank you for your kind words :)

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  4. Just wanted to add my two cents for the first time.

    In the world of developmental delays, just as in parenting, there are contradicting ideas and advice. So just as you have already done in parenting, choose a method that works for you and your child and stick with it until proven otherwise. You've done a great job so far from what I can see!

    Also, another second for the music. But I would actually suggest preschool/toddler tunes (which I remember you writing you loathe) only because there are repeated beginning sounds, intonations and patterns which we don't think about but are integral to early speech patterns.

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    1. Just realized you'll have no idea who this is...it's Gamoon.

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  5. Thanks for sharing Em. It's so encouraging to hear your progress and we celebrate with you & Lily!

    We'll be taking Matthew to our doctor soon in regards to his speech. He's supposed to be learning new words each week but hasn't. We've left it a bit (what with the new baby arrival) hoping that he'd have a "speech spurt" but it hasn't happened and he'll be turning 2 next month.

    Interesting about the signing. I started signing with him again after your last post about signing. But I will stop doing it until I hear what our doctor says, and focus more on making sounds and words.

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    1. Ps. Adorable pic of Lily!

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    2. ash I don't know if stopping sign is necessary with Matthew, you'll have to decide that, but I do want to remind you that a lot of kids thrive with it. Lily didn't grow verbally at all from sign, but many do. I'm not sure what type Matthew is, so I just don't want to "give medical advice" from my blog haha! Let me know how things go with him and what a speech path says!

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  6. I totally commend you guys on striving to find what works best for your little girl and how she will grow and learn to her fullest. It makes me excited to see you guys go on this journey because I know that when Oli and Lily are older and if they struggle with reading or math or anything else in life they have parents who will do all they can to figure out how to best help them as individuals!

    Glad you are seeing progress and praying it keeps up! Im sure the hearing test results were another relief to see again! And I agree with Ash adorable pic of your adorable girl!

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  7. Emily just to encourage you...kids learn at different speeds. Two of our grandkids were really slow...now real words until long after 2 years old, and both speak lots now, no problems at all. We have had the opposite too, the little girl that had 50 words plus at the age of one, but she was the exception of our 7 grands, not the rule.

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  8. Thank you all, you've been such good friends through the confusing, discouraging, and celebratory times as a mom :)

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