The Hoppers: Speech Assessment

So, as many of you know, Evan had his speech assessment today. Three wonderful ladies came over to see what Evan could and could not do. They had some book where they had activities to do with Evan and then they would rate his reaction or lack there of. The tasks were pretty simple. They would ring a bell behind their back and see if Evan would look for it. They would ring a bell near his ear and see if he could hear it. It was a little concerning that his left ear did not give as much of a reaction as his right, but they said it was probably due to him being interested in something else. Either way, they suggest we get his hearing testing, though they don't really think he has a hearing issue. After the hearing activities, they moved on to expressive language. This is the area the doctor was concerned about. They did things like making a sound and seeing if Evan could mimic it. No. They asked if Evan experimented with vowel sounds. No. They asked if he would experiment with constant sounds. No. They asked if he was jabbering at all. Finally a yes. He would babble baba. AND he did it for them! Lastly, they tested his receptive language, or ability to understand speech. We showed him how Evan could sign a few signs and they were really impressed. They said mama and dada to see if he associated the words with us. No. Held up a toy to see if there was any word association. None. The big test was whether he could understand the word 'No.' He isn't there yet either. The assessment only took about 30 minutes. Evan seemed to have a fun time with all the activities. They said he was very social and it was fun to have such an interactive baby. He is definitely a thinker. He would just sit there and study their faces.

What we learned: Evan scored a 35%. You need to receive greater than 25% to qualify for speech therapy. So he did qualily and he will be getting speech therapy twice a month. He scored five months behind for expressive language and two months behind on his receptive language. The ladies were very thoughtful and encouraging. They don't think Evan will need speech therapy for long, but agreed that it is better to start now, than wait and have him be further behind later on. Evan is advanced in his motor skills and will be a child that associates things easily with motor skills. Signing is a great activity for him because he gets to move and associate language with that movement. They were proud that we were already signing and encouraged us to keep signing. They also said we could do thing where when he is crawling, walking, pushing a toy, ect each movement you say a sound to associate with it. For example, when he pushes his bus around we can "vroom" or "beep" while he does it. The more he hears the sounds the more likely he is to repeat them. Lastly, they encouraged us to mimic any sounds or noises that Evan makes. If he sees us responding to his noises he is more likely to continue making them. This wasn't even a speech therapy session and I already feel like I learned a lot. We have to wait two weeks to get contacted by our speech therapist, but that is just because of the holiday's. We can't wait to see what she can teach us, so we can get Evan on track.

What we want Evan to be doing: We are going to be working on getting Evan to say a variety of vowel sounds: eww, ahh, Uhoh, ect. in addition, we want him to have a variety of constant sounds: mama, baba, dada, rara, ect. He needs to recognize his own name and turn to the sound of voice. (He is already turning to the sounds of voices, so we have that down.) We want him to recognize the word "NO!" Last, we want him to mimic sounds we make, but this is probably the goal we are farthest from. A lot for this lil' man to work on, but he says he is ready for the challenge. :)

In some very sad news, I need to request some prayers. A friend of mine, Lindsey, has a girl Evan's age and a four year old daughter. Her four year old daughter slipped the other day and broke her femur. They saw a mass when they took x-rays. It turns out her four year old has cancer. So prayer would be appreciative! They have a rough road ahead. My heart just aches for her! Thanks!

In happier news, Evan started walking yesterday. Now, he is not walking full time, but he took at least 7-9 steps on his own. It is so crazy to see my lil' man walk. I never would of guessed at 9 months he would have started walking. In interesting new, Evan found the toilet the other day and proceeded to throw a news paper, a piece of paper, and a toy in it. Fun times! He also learned how to climb ALL the way up the stairs, with mom cautiously standing behind him. Evan is just growing up too fast :(