On Tuesday, Ryder's birthday, he did very well. Of course, "very well" for Ryder does not mean sit still and parrot sounds/words, and make attempts without issues. "Very well" is more like try one approach, change it when he refuses, do something to engage him, have him repeat a few sounds/words, change the activity, repeat more words/sounds, have a snack (one fruit snack/goldfish cracker/animal cracker/etc), repeat a few sounds/words, another snack, change the activity - and, really, this happens (easily) within the first 3-5 minutes. Repeat that order of activities 5-9 more times - for a 30 minute session.
As I mentioned before, Tuesday's therapy included a new (giant) train puzzle - the SLP had actually purchased it for Ryder, for his birthday. Ryder was so excited about his gift!
Today's session didn't go as well. He still participated, but put up much more disagreement. Thankfully, his SLP is skilled in working with young children, and has no problem with adapting to Ryder. This is not something we experienced with PCMC. The more we attend Ryder's Private Speech Therapy sessions, the more we consider the break from PCMC to last more long-term.
Ryder's verbal speech is improving. His words are becoming more intelligible to people who do not interact with him frequently. Just this week, I ran into a friend I haven't seen in 9+ years (but have connected with on Facebook!). Her, her (identical) twin sister, and I were friends - her only awareness of Ryder's speech was through recent posts on the blog, and at that, I'm not sure she has read too many of them. She was able to help Ryder with his requests (we were at the Dollar section at Target, and he wanted to touch/hold/see everything). Now, she is around young children (her own, and nieces/nephews) frequently. This does help. But, I walked away from my conversation with her happy with how well Ryder was able to communicate what he wanted with someone who has never heard him talk - doesn't know his idiosyncrasies in his speech. She understood. And, that, was very encouraging. She understood.
So, now we focus to increase Ryder's verbal vocabulary. He is very good at finding easier (for him) ways of saying something. The other day I told him to put his book in his room - he looked at me, and asked "in my night-night-time?" - it took me a second - he meant bed. "Bed" is a hard word - in contains both a "b" and "d" - two sounds hard for him to correctly distinguish when speaking. Really, "night-night-time" seems more difficult to me - but, for Ryder, it is easier. To do this, we increase the CV combinations, switching the words. So, instead of repeating "bye" 4(+) times, then "boo" another 4(+) times, we will work to have him alternate between the two words - "bye. boo. bye. boo.".
One-step-at-a-time.
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