Speech Therapy - 25 Mar 2010

It was 5 mths ago since our last speech therapy session. I've made 3 appointments since Jan but it never happened because he fell ill on 2 occassions, and the therapist fell ill once. So, since his cold was mild, we went for it (even though it meant picking him up and strapping him in the car seat while he was still napping!)

The therapist was happy with his progress. She noted he's much more stablewhen in motion, has better sitting posture, trunk control has improved etc. Ah, the wonders of Neurosuit (even though I've not been consistent lately as he fell sick often) and CST. She was happy that he was less gurgly, less breathy, and that he didn't need to put in the effort to sound out each word. I hadn't noticed those points! Perhaps because I see those changes very gradually on a daily basis, whereas she hadn't seen him for 5 mths.

She said that it meant that things were coming into place for him (his toilet training progress being one of them). And since she knows his intellectual faculty is all there, she was confident that his speech will continue to progress. That's also because she knows that I do my bit to help him in his daily life.

When I shared that I hadn't been doing all that much with him lately (gross motor, fine motor and speech wise), she said that that probably indicates I may not need to be as intensive with him as I once was. I think there's some truth in her comment. I do know that I want to focus on OT skills (self care), while doing "maintenance work" for his gross motor. As for academic skills (reading and maths, and BM) I do it informally when I remember, or formally when I have the time (which is seldom now really). I feel terrible about not being as intensive, but honestly, that's the best I can do right now. I've digressed...

I shared that he's able to put 8 word sentences together although it's seldom; that his volume has increased a lot; that he's beginning to express himself without prompting; that he hardly speaks in school; that his articulation still isn't clear with certain phonemes. On the part of articulation, she said that /r/ comes in later at around age 6. Also, since he can sometimes say /k/ (e.g. when it's in the middle or end of a word) he will eventually learn to say it at the beginning of a word.

Since we hadn't met for so long, we spent several minutes talking about schooling. She mentioned of a school in Shah Alam that employs the Montessori method beyond the preschool age. Sounds great except that Shah Alam is too far! She also shared about a mom who decided to homeschool her child because she didn't agree with the schooling system here (too academic, too much rote-learning, too much being pushed down to preschoolers which should be for Year1 kids) and that the teachers at the child's kindergarten were not supportive of her very mildly dispraxic child. That's so similar to how I feel, that I started thinking that perhaps I should find out more on homeschooling.

Since she was happy with his progress, we'll be meeting her next, in 3 mth's time! : )