"Da... ah!"

The other day, Isaiah came in here, handed me what he calls his magic fire truck shirt, and said "da...ah!" (that on).

January 9th, 2010, at age 3.5yo, Isaiah said his first unprompted 2-word sentence. ::happytears::

I haven't posted about his speech progress lately, because honestly there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Due to various reason, he's only had three 45m ST sessions in the past 2.5 months, so hopefully once we start having it regularly, that will help. At home, we've been doing lots of scripting (recently explained by Jen here: http://jenkrause.com/blog/2010/01/posting-an-old-post/ ). On his own, he just uses one word sentences. His vocabulary is increasing, but pronunciation is still poor for the most part- tends to use largely vowels and 1 syllable most of the time.

But I'm still SOOOO over the moon happy for "da... ah!". And while it might take a while to become regular, having said it once breaks that barrier and it'll be that much easier for future sentences to come through. I'm so proud of Isaiah. <3

Wish us luck!

Wow, it's been forever since I last updated on Isaiah's ongoing issues. I thought I would give a quick little rundown before our appointment with a developmental specialist at UVA tomorrow afternoon.

Speech-wise, we are definitely making progress! Vocabulary is really growing. Still mostly one-word sentences, but two-word phrases are becoming more frequent (maybe 25% of the time). He is more vocal, in general, throughout the day. His words are still REALLY hard to understand, preferring single syllables and vowels over more complex sounds.

However, and I have been meaning to blog about this, we have a wonderful SLP who's been coming out to the house once a week since school started. Isaiah absolutely loves him, and I think he's fantastic. Mr D. knows how to coax sounds/words out of Isaiah, being firm enough to get the job done, but also being super-fun and following his lead.

On other issues (which I last listed here), it's about the same. The toothbrush example in that post? Still does it almost every single time he goes into the bathroom. :-/

I'm nervous/excited about tomorrow's appointment. I've been debating making it since he was around 18mo. And then when I made the decision last July, of course there was a waiting list. I'm so curious just to see what they say and their opinions. Wish us luck that it goes well!

Other concerns...

Wow, 3 blog posts in one day. I promise this will be the last one, and I'll stop being such a worrywort. I just wanted to write out "other" concerns I have re: Isaiah. Mostly doing so for my own record. That way, when mommy-brain strikes (which it will), I can look back here for reference. Of course, if anybody has any feedback, I'm all ears.

* Still frequent meltdowns (screaming/sobbing) over little things, not all of which we understand. I feel they are more than just typical toddler tantrums. He is either sobbing a broken-hearted cry. Or is in a sheer panicked frenzy. You can see the anxiety in his eyes.

* Hates getting dirty unexpectedly. Total meltdown.

* Hates changing clothes. It's a fight most mornings to get his night-time diaper off, even when he poops. (Thank goodness he's 100% day-trained!) If he spills juice on his shirt, he screams because it's dirty... but then screams when we try to take it off.

* When one of the above happens, it takes him a while to calm down, even after it's passed. He'll often shut down, getting very quiet, won't talk at all or answer you.

* Still very sensory-seeking, orally. Everything goes in mouth. Licks, tastes and smells anything and everything. Chews on shoes, licks inside of dishwasher, tries to taste icky kitchen sponges (now locked up).

* Proprioceptive problems(knowing where his body is in space). Constantly running into walls and doorways. If there is a single toy in the middle of the room, he'll trip over it repeatedly. Ollie gets bowled over at least once an hour. He's just now starting to get better on this, but still has a lot trouble getting in the position for me to put his diaper on.

* The above gets a lot worse when he's distracted. Doing an activity at the table, he's falling off his chair. He's like a rag doll when we go out somewhere. He trips over his own feet, hard to walk in a straight line, very floppy.

* Part of the routine thing, but repeats certain things over and over. When I get done vacuuming, he immediately stops what he's doing and races to unplug the vacuum. Every. Single. Time. for the past year or more. I've never encouraged this, he just does it. Same thing with when the microwave dings, he runs to open the door (doesn't seem interested with what's inside most of the time- he just wants to open it, then scampers back away)

* Lately, he's been doing similar with labeling things (which is good in a way, yay words!). For example, Every. Single. Time. that I go to the bathroom, he follows me, and will point out everybody's toothbrush. "dada" "mama" "aa-aa" "me". He's done this dozens of times in the past month. Another recent example: I have a shirt that has a little boy and girl on it. He'll point and say which one's him and which one's Abbie. All day long, every few minutes that he's around me, he gets really excited and points them out as if he's never seen the shirt before.

* Listening and following direction is still a big issue. If he's focused on something, he goes into "deaf mode" and it's like he literally doesn't even hear me. I can actually scream his name and he doesn't respond. I have to repeat myself constantly.

* Still utilizing techniques such as physically holding him in a "time-in", or physically removing him from a situation. Particularly in the kitchen, as he repeatedly reaches up for the hot pot, or a sharp knife.

I think that's about all the major things. We are continuing doing therapeutic brushing, as well as some OT-type activities around the house. For his birthday in a couple weeks, I'm making him a weighted blanket and lap pad. (The last one I made has disappeared, and besides- I don't think it was heavy enough). Since we don't qualify for school-provided OT, I'm going to call around and see about private therapy (although I have a feeling it's not going to be feasible, financially).

I hate feeling like I'm obsessively worrying about what's "wrong" with my Boo. And maybe I do worry too much. However, I also hate seeing my son so unhappy so much of the time. Having to comfort him through meltdown after meltdown. Watching him WANT to do things and TRY to do things, but can't. I just want to be able to make him happy, learn how to help him learn, give him the best possible chance, just like all my kids.

Isaiah's Speech Update + list of words

Here is where Isaiah's at right now (a couple weeks shy of age 3), speech-wise.

* At his last evaluation (at 30m), his receptive skills were at the 28m level, and expressive skills at 12-15m.

* When he first started EI at 17m, he was evaluated to have a receptive skills at the 15m level, and the expressive skills at the 6m level, so we've definitely made some progress!

* He currently has 50-60 word approximations, although he only uses a handful of them on a regular basis.

* About 15 of those words are actually animal sounds or sound effects. To this day, he has never said "cat" or "dog" or "car", but always uses the appropriate sound effect instead.

* The majority of his words are pretty vague. I would say strangers would understand him less than 25% of the time. He uses mostly vowel sounds, even though he can say a large variety of consonant sounds on their own. Also, some inconsistencies in how he pronounces them from one time to another. (See list below)

* No 2 word sentences or phrases.

* He can be very vocal, especially in high-energy situations (such as when him and Abbie are running in circles around the kitchen table, bathtime) lots of non-specific yelling/sounds. Not always, but usually.

* During lower-energy situations (mealtimes, car rides, playing with trains), he is on the quieter side, using one-word sentences to request something he needs/wants, or maybe point out something (like a cat walking by the window). Not a lot of extraneous babble or chatter.

* Every few days, he'll get in a "no talking at ALL" mood, which lasts a few minutes to a few hours, where he doesn't make any sounds, and won't even respond to me, just very withdrawn. (I hate these)

* He NEVER imitated on command ("This is a X, can you say X?") up until a couple months ago. Even now, he *rarely* does it, and when he does, it's a very, very vague attempt (again, mostly vowels).

* He does request, although due to his limited vocabulary (and my limited comprehension of what he's saying), we still have LOTS of frustration, LOTS of tears, LOTS of meltdowns because he's not able to fully communicate his wants and needs.

A few weeks ago, out of curiosity, I wrote down every single word that he said that whole day, including how he said it (and if he said it multiple ways). This is what I came up with:

mama : mama
juice : ee-uu
butterfly : aw-aw
two : toooo / ooh
bacon : eh / deh
yellow : eh-woh
meow (word for cat) : meow
pee-pee : tee-tee
teeth : eeee
bubble (word for soap) : bu-bu
cartoons : tooos
Oswald : aw-aw
splash (?) : ta--sch
booboo : boo-boo
more : ma
ham : hey
hat : hai
strong : aww
eww : eww
eat : ee-um
cereal : ah-aw
light : iii
bye : bye
dada : dada
fish : eee
baby : bebe / meme / dede
wet : eh
off : aww
cheese : dee / nee
turtle : toe
shirt : ee-ur
brush : da
blanket : nee
broken : bu-bu
straw : taw

(It looks like a long list, but when you keep in mind that other than a handful of them, most were only said once. Spread it over a whole day, and he's still very quiet the majority of the time.)

His speech therapist has recently mentioned apraxia, which looking at the symptoms, it does seem to be a possibility. Unfortunately, this past week was our last session, so we'll be ST-less until next fall. Which sucks, because I felt like we may have been on to something. If anyone has any experience with apraxia, does the ^^ seem to resonant with what you know? I'd love to chat with others who are dealing with apraxia, especially in younger children.