Showing posts with label speech therapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speech therapy. Show all posts

Sunday, October 11, 2009

ENT in One Days

Get It Down; 31 for 21
I know that I will post to keep you all updated, but Penny will finally have her ENT follow up on Monday with Dr. S at CCMC. I am really exicted and I hope that we will get some practicle solutions to how her speech is progressing. Wish us luck!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

ENT follow up

Well, we were asked to wait for awhile, which is ok, I happen to have patience for this sort of thing. Penelope's ENT visit is scheduled for Oct. 12 at 9am. Hopefully I will be laid off by then, but if not, I will just take a morning off so that I can be with the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor that morning.

Wish us luck!!

Audiological Report

Hear (pun intended) is the audiological report that came in the mail over the weekend. I think these things are interesting to review and I figured I may not be the only one. We spoke with her pedi last night to get a referral to an ENT . . . and another journey has begun!
hearing report pg1

hearing report pg2

click to enlarge

Monday, July 13, 2009

Little Miss Delicate Fingers

Like most parents, I continue to fall into the trap of obsessing over what my child is not doing, when I need to celebrate more in what Penny is doing. I so wish she could talk to me, is saying "mama" too much to ask?

Don't get me wrong, I love to listen to her beautiful babble. It is wonderful that she vocalizes as much as she does. And she understands a lot. Sometimes I really feel she is saying things but I don't understand her. Like "what's this!" I really think she says that, but it is very high pitched and jumbled I might be making that up. She certainly has a very respectable vocabulary for a 2 year old. (New 2yo at that!) She says dog, duck, all done, dada. And she has at least two dozen signs that she uses consistently.

I love that she is so social. She is never shy around strangers!

One of the things that I have been noticing a lot lately is her ability in fine motor skills. She has been building megablock towers since about Christmas time. Although she does yell at the blocks a lot to get them to cooperate :) She is good at putting tiny pasta or Cherrios in a narrow necked bottle. (Such as a water bottle or empy trial size shampoo bottle) She even amazed the OT last week when she held the bubble wand on her own and showed everyone she could put the wand into the bottle on her own and then proceeded to blow bubbles. I love watching her tiny fingers pick up blueberries and eat them. Her mouth has been blue a lot from this new experience.

Also she is so strong. She will think nothing of picking up the entire bag of megablocks or her farm house or doll house and walk around the house with it. Looking for a suitable place to camp out.

Our new adventure is the terrible twos. I remember that three was much much worse with Nathaniel. Maybe with girls it is two? She has been having temper tantrums more often lately. I know, I should let herself dive down the stairs in an effort to keep her happy. :)

I guess the bottom line here is that of course I think she is wonderful no matter what milestone she has reached yet. I just want her to stay happy and healthy!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Has anyone else done this?

Information on PECS (picture exchange communication system)

"The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative communication system developed to help individuals quickly acquire a functional means of communication (Bondy and Frost, 1994). PECS is appropriate for individuals who do not use speech or who may speak with limited effectiveness: those who have articulation or motor planning difficulties, limited communicative partners, lack of initiative in communication, etc."

My good friend Audrey, is employed at a school that utilizes this system. She is very enthusiastic about it and gave me a bunch of resources for me to learn about this program. Audrey mostly works with autistic children and PECS seems to be helpful in her experience. The last time our ST came out she introduced us to this as well. There hasn't been enough studies to show if this encourages or inhibits verbal communication, but for those that are verbally delayed, any alternative method to communicate has to be good. I can't even imagine how frustrating it is not to be able to communicate my needs and wants.

Basically, you have this board with Velcro and you stick pictures of people or things or ideas (like "want") and the child will come over to the board, grab a picture to exchange it for the real thing. The transfer has to be immediate, almost overlapping, to ensure that the association is strong. Sarah (Penny's ST and Marni (her sped) were both very impressed at how quickly Penny got the idea of this method. . . and her strength to rip that picture off the Velcro. That was pretty tough. And Penelope didn't even tire of these exercises for a good 30 minutes. I think that the B23 office is making her a board of her own. Hopefully, we will have the time and energy to be consistent with this sort of thing. As of now, Penny knows to walk over to our pantry cabinet, stand at the door, point and wine until she gets a snack. How cool would it be if she exchanged a picture for her graham cracker?

If anyone Else has any experience with PECS I would be interested to hear about it. Thank you.