So we met with the speech therapist the other day. I worried my shy little boy wouldn't make a peep during the session. He takes a while to warm up to people. But he quickly got used to her presence in the room and crawled out of my lap to explore the toys on the floor. And he started doing his baby jabber almost immediately, so she got a good look, or listen, at what Cruz considers "talking". She also asked me tons of questions about how much he understood, when he uses the few words he knows, etc. Based on my answers she concluded that Cruz understands language at a 19 month level (a little ahead of his age), but his actual speech is at an 11 month old level...way behind (he's 18 months old).
Then she brought out some bubbles. Cruz loves bubbles. She blew some bubbles and he was mesmerized! He tried to grab them and really wanted to blow some on his own, but just kept putting the entire bubble blowing stick in his mouth...YUCK! After a few minutes, she put the cap on the bubbles tightly and sat them down. He wanted more, so he pisked up the bottle, grunted and tried to pull off the top. He kept making his grunting noise of frustration and handing it to her. She acted confused about what he wanted, and said "open?" a few times...then opened the bubbles and blew some more. She did this a few times over about 10 minutes. Then the next time, he said "open" himself! Wow, in about 15 minutes she increased his vocabulary by 2 words. She also taught him "pop" when he touched a bubble and it popped. Why can't I do that? I can't even keep his attention for that long! Although, since Friday at therapy, he hasn't used that word again. So do you count a word as "in his vocabulary when he says it once, or if he repeatedly uses it?
Anyway, based on her amazing success we decided to bring him in for therapy once a week for a few months to give him a "jump start" on his vocabulary and perhaps bring him up to where he should be at his age, which is basically a vocabulary of about 15 words.
Now to brag a bit...the therapist did seem somewhat impressed that Cruz is already putting multiple words together. He says "I want that" although he does make it sound like one word (and usually whinny).
But we'll give this therapy thing a shot for a while. Even though it's going to mean driving from work 30 miles home, to wake him up early from his nap and turn around and drive 30 miles to the hospital for a 30 minute session, then driving another 30 miles home. But alas, this is the job of a mommy, right?
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