speech update

I thought I would give a speech update on Jakob and Alex.

Jakob is talking up a storm these days.  It’s simply amazing.  I often forget that Jakob is still technically behind in his speech development because to us it seems like he talks non-stop.  The speech therapist recently gauged Jakob to be at about 18 – 24 months in speech development.  That’s not too shabby for my 27 month old.  So basically he is right on target for being a 34 week preemie.  Jakob still attends individual speech therapy on a weekly basis in addition to group therapy on a weekly basis.  We will be eliminating Jakob’s individual therapy and group therapy in just a few weeks.  It’s going to break his heart when he no longer gets to visit Miss. Jen on a weekly basis.   But there is more excitement on the horizon.  Some of my favorite phrases at the moment …

“my turn too”
"my turn"
"my turn pick too"
“me picky”
“pick up me”
“papa” (Grandpa)
“no mine”
“me turn my turn”
“milk please”
“more farts”
“aaalllleeeexxxx”
"me helping clean too"

Alex is also slowly starting to climb the hill in his speech development.  Alex now does a wonderful job repeating most sounds or single words when you request it.  Alex struggles with spontaneous verbal communication.  We have stopped “signing” with Alex but he often resorts to it before speaking the word.  There are some words that he both signs and speaks simultaneously including “more” and “milk” and “please”.  Alex still has many, many, many moments of frustration.  There are times I swear he knows the words to speak but he just can’t convince his brain to get them out.  This is usually in a moment of frustration.  I often wonder if it’s because Alex has to be focused in order to speak and so if he is frustrated he just can’t put all the steps together.  A couple of weeks ago I was in the kitchen and I heard, “Momma.  Momma. Momma. Now.” come from the playroom.  And my heart literally melted into a big pile of mush.  It was the first time that Alex ever “called” for me to give me a direction.  He will typically just walk up to me and start to do his “Alex grunt”.  It was awesome!  The speech therapist recently judged Alex to be at the 12 – 18 month range in terms of verbal development.  So we have a ways to go.  But he is definitely improving week to week.  There are moments of regression but I am proud of my little man.  Alex continues to go to individual therapy one time per week and then group therapy one time per week.  We will continue Alex in individual therapy for as long as necessary.

My favorite Alex phrase at the moment is “NO! MINE!” but only in the appropriate context.  Alex has a bit of a temper.  Who does that sound like?  And if Alex reaches his breaking point he will scream “NO! MINE!” followed by an “AAAAHHHH” while clinching his fists and pumping his arms.  You can literally see his face turn bright red and the veins pop out.  And be careful if Alex has something in his hands at the time because the object will go flying and while my 2 year old is behind developmentally in speech he is actually quite advanced in his ability to throw.  He has got an arm.  I so want to get this on video one day but the problem is you can never predict the moment!    

So there are big adventures on the horizon.  But unfortunately we are still in the dark as to exact details.  The boys will be starting preschool in September through the early intervention services offered through our community.  And that’s basically all we know at the moment!  We know the boys have been accepted into the program and we know that the teachers start back to school on August 18th.  We will be contacted by their teacher some time after that date to set-up a meet and greet.  We are thrilled to be given the opportunity to send the boys to school at no cost to us.  We hope that it allows them to get on track developmentally so they are all ready to go next year when they officially enter preschool.  I will keep you updated.  And no worries … there will be a million pictures taken their first day of school.  We already bought them adorable backpacks.

Mary