25 month speech update

I figured it's about time for a Camden Speech Update.

He is doing awesome. Really, really great, and we are so impressed by his progress.

Today, I asked Amanda, his SLP, what she thought of his speech as far as age appropriateness and apraxia vs. not is concerned. Not surprisingly, she prefaced her thoughts by saying that apraxia can't be completely ruled out at such a young age, but her gut instinct tells her that Camden simply has (had?) a speech delay and needed a little extra push to get talking. At 2 years old, she said he should be making 2 word sentences (he is) and that he should have about 100+ words now* (not quite there yet, but close). She noted that she was very pleased with how quickly he's been flying through all of the Kaufman and PROMPT cards she's been using with him and that she's glad that he picks up new words and sounds so quickly. She did say that he's making a couple of speech errors that aren't typical* and she'll be keeping an eye on those, but overall, he's breezing through therapy.

At home, Camden is regularly using two word sentences now. It's common for him to walk up to me and request "Babba on" (when he wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba-- such a strange little show but that's another story). This morning, he told me he had "two choo choos" while holding a pair of trains. And yesterday, he was excited to point to his mouth and say "Me teeh!" while showing off his pearly whites. These are just a few examples of the adorable sentences he's often putting together these days.

With an expanded vocabulary (over 75 words now!) come some animated dreams. I used to wonder what Camden dreamed about at night; now I'm getting a little window into his mind. Over the past few nights, he's animatedly yelled  out from a deep sleep, shouting "doh!" (as in play-doh, his new obsession) and "uh oh! ISH!" (not sure what was happening to the fish in his dream, but something was amiss). I love getting insight into that sweet little blonde head of his.

It's tempting to slack off on practice when I hear him walking around chatting all day long, but I keep reminding myself that it's the therapy combined with practice that got us to where we are right now. So, we continue to plug along.

*It's funny to me how pediatricians and SLPs differ in their opinions about speech development. At Camden's 2 year check-up, the pediatrician told me that they look for a minimum of 20 words at 2 years old (though 50 is typical). Amanda looks for 100-200 words at 2 years old.

*When a toddler can't make a difficult sound (for example, the "c" sound), they'll substitute it with an easier sound (like a "t"). That's a typical error. A couple of Camden's substitutions aren't typical, and that's what Amanda was referring to. Honestly, I'm not concerned about it at all. Amanda is paid to be a total perfectionist and to pick apart speech (which is why she's amazing at her job), but sometimes I think two year olds are just going to make their own errors.