Ok, so Roa hasn't completely been laughing and joyous over little Gunnar's arrival. Honestly, we are getting a little two year old tantrum time and alot of tears over minor things, but that is to be expected.
We are definitely entering the communication frustration stage in Roa's life. He is not yet talking. Not yet even giving us a 'yes or no" verbally or gesturally. We are ALL frustrated and tired of the cry for no and giggle for yes... the scream if we don't understand what King Roa desires.
Roa receives speech/language therapy twice a month through the school district. However, we haven't seen much progress with the therapy. I am an "old school" Early Childhood teacher and feel that motor-based delays should be supported with an oral motor approach along with drill and practice with beginning sounds. The philosophy of today's speech therapy seems to be language-based "give them words, talk to them, and ..wait"
I am not a patient waiter, I guess.
I am frustrated that Roa can identify shapes, animals, objects, colors, even a few numbers. He can follow simple directions and comprehends so much! Yet expressively, he just laughs, cries, screams, and gives us a few occasional sounds and attempts at words.
We've tried the assistive tech. switches and communication board. We tried the picture approach. He's not interested.
Speech therapists and parent of "speech" kids, PLEASE respond and help me sort through my frustation!
Congratulations!! What a beautiful family. Gunnar is so precious.
ReplyDeleteI feel your frustration with the lack of expressive language. It is so awesome that Roa is attempting words but the waiting is so hard. Have you tried sign with Roa? Our guy has very limited motor abilities but he is able to sign 'yes', 'more' and a variation of 'all done'. He just recently started shaking his head for 'no'. I'm thinking you've probably tried sign. Just wanted to throw it out there.
Janet