Speech update

I have not given a speech update on Malcolm in quite a while.  Last spring, he started to try to say more words - a real breakthrough.  Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to understand what he is saying.  We can usually figure it out given the context but people who don't know him most likely would not even realize he wasn't just babbling.

We decided to ramp up the speech therapy.  He was only being seen once a month through the public system so we found a private therapist.  Her office is located close to our house, which is convenient.  The activities she does with Malcolm are similar to those of his regular therapist.  Malcolm seems to respond well to both and I think that it's beneficial to have the weekly sessions with a trained professional rather than just Jan and I struggling through a whole month...

This fall, he is being seen twice a month through the public system.  This is fantastic as we love his regular speech therapist.  We continue to see his private therapist on the alternate weeks for a slightly longer session than in the spring so it is a win for everyone I think.

But have the extra visits resulted in improvement?  This is very difficult to say.  Some days he tries to say words on his own and some days he does not.  He usually will try to say words if prompted by an adult (or sometimes his brother!).  He generally likes to do the word games that are suggested by his therapists to help with his pronunciation.  So we'll continue on as we are and really try to promote more speech development.

In the meantime, he continues to communicate quite well through signs, sounds, pointing, etc - let's just say he doesn't usually have trouble getting his point across!

Mary Ellen