Speech Milestones

When I returned home from my weekend away last week, Ty and Patrick were super-excited to show me that they had mastered “bagel” while I was away. 

“So what?”

While Ty’s speech has come very far in the last 6 months, he struggles with poor enunciation.  Being smart and strong-willed, he has figured out when we are trying to work on enunciation with him (even when it’s games) and usually puts a pretty fast stop to it.  So when we can get him to track with us long enough to correct a word, it’s a BIG deal.

Since then, we have added “PJ” and “Mia” to his repertoire (they will replace “EB” and “Nia).  I say “will” becuase he still addresses them incorrectly but can say their names correctly.  We’ve found that putting hand signs to the different syllables gives him something tangible to associate with the correct enuncation. 

Speaking of hand signs (no pun intended), Ty continues to pick up new ASL signs, too, which has really helped his frustration level.

The other milestone worth mentioning is he has entered the “why?” stage.  Ugggghhhh.  Try answering that question a hundred times a day to a kid that doesn’t understand the explanation most of the time anyway.