A Speech Update

Camden started speech therapy at the new company (with a new therapist) about 2 weeks ago. I keep meaning to write about it, but life got in the way with some good and not-so-good things that have been keeping me very busy lately. So, here at last is my long overdue speech update.

The minute we walked into the new therapist's office on the very first day of therapy, I had a gut instinct telling me this was going to be a good match. This was a welcome change from my gut instinct telling me to run in the opposite direction from his EI therapist (okay, so it wasn't that dramatic of a gut feeling, but I did just know she wasn't the right fit from day one). His new therapist, Amanda, has a tiny little office lined with shelves that are filled with toys. I imagine the closet-sized office is an attempt to keep her little clients from running amok and it works well. I come into the room with Camden for now, but will eventually be moving out of the room (once he's more comfortable) and will be observing his sessions through a two-way mirror in the hallway.

Amanda starts off every session with lots of energy and it never dwindles during their entire 30 minutes together. She gives him choices of toys to choose between, and works on sounds with him while they play together. When he starts to get bored or restless during one activity, she'll finish it up with him quickly and then will switch to something else to redirect his attention and keep him interested. She's very in tune with what's holding his interest and what's boring to him and that's very refreshing to see. She is using a variety of techniques with him right now, including using picture cards (if he wants her to blow bubbles, he has to pick up the picture card with the bubbles on it and hand it to her; this demonstrates that conversation is give-and-take), and the PROMPT method. Prompting involves Amanda taking her hands and actually touching Camden's "articulators" (mouth, throat, lips, etc.) while prompting him to say words or sounds (like "ba").

I also like that Amanda gives me a lot of "homework" to do with Camden on my own. On our very first day, she handed me a CD that had the "ABC song" on it. It's a very basic phonic song (the first verse is "Apple, apple, Ah, Ah, Ah") set to a catchy tune. We play it on a loop in our car and Camden smiles and starts kicking his feet to the music as soon as it starts. He has also started attempting to make some of the sounds in the song which is really encouraging after only 2 weeks of therapy (and it also makes listening to that CD 5000 times a day completey worth it).

He's opening up a lot in therapy too. On our first day, Camden stayed glued to my lap in Amanda's office and participated with great hesitation. Today, he walked straight into her office, climbed up into a chair at the table, and started pointing to toys he wanted to play with. He also let Amanda pick him up and carry him around to reach toys off of high shelves (no small feat with my very selective child; not just anyone can pick him up!). Every session ends with a lollipop, and Camden makes no secret that he's ready for his "candy" (his newest sign).

I think it's been really helpful to have therapy twice weekly (as opposed to his once a week EI therapy). For kids this age, having a week pass in between sessions is just too much time; they forget what they did in the previous session and it takes them longer to warm up to their therapists. Camden sees Amanda on Mondays and Fridays and that's worked out really well so far. He has definitely warmed up to her more quickly than he did his EI therapist and I credit that both to Amanda's personality and the frequency of the sessions.

So far, so good.