Speech Therapy Week 1

I am writing this entry in hopes that I will continue to provide an entry after every speech therapy session so that if I ever need to refer back to a session in the future I will have them handy.

One of my good friends is absolutely awesome about blogging on any major event, including all of her daughter's weekly speech therapy sessions. She is definitely an inspiration as a blogger, but especially as a mom! I don't know how she pulls everything together, but she is the mom that never forgets birthdays, always writes very nice thank you notes timely and always responds to e-mails almost immediately. I just wish I could say the same for myself! She loves her little girl more than anything, and it definitely shows as her little girl, Audrey, is one smart cookie. So, here is hoping that I can motivate myself to blog after every speech therapy session as she has done.

Annabelle had her very first speech therapy session with Ms. Andrea this morning. It has worked out well (coincidentally) that Annabelle's speech therapy will be held at a location near my parent's house, so I was able to drop Sophia off with my parents while Annabelle and I went to her speech therapy session.

We had to locate the correct building this morning, so we were running a little later than I would have liked. I was only 5 minutes early according to their clock, and yet again (for the 3rd time), I had to complete paperwork. The same paperwork I have completed at the other two locations for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. So, Annabelle's speech therapy actually started 5 minutes late. Ms. Andrea ended the session at the end of the hour, so we were shorted a few minutes, but I won't complain this time around. Of course, I don't like paying 10% of $300 and being shorted 5-10 minutes, but we'll deal with that later.

Ms. Andrea led Annabelle and me to the "playroom," and Ms. Andrea told me I could observe from the room next door. The room had a one-way window, and the sound from their room was projected into my room. It was actually quite fun watching her interact from another room.

You never know who you are going to get with any kind of therapy, but so far, I have been pleasantly surprised with Ms. Andrea. Annabelle opened up to her immediately, and she was willing and ready to play with Ms. Andrea from the start. My little girl no longer has fear of me leaving her. My have things changed quite a bit in a very short year. She was reluctant for us to leave her in Sunday School last August, but now she doesn't even blink when we leave her somewhere. That is definitely a step in the right direction towards independence, but it makes me realize that my little girl is growing up way too fast!

Ms. Andrea started off the session by playing the Cranium game, Cariboo, with her. They used a key to open slots based on the card that was drawn. For example, if the card had a color on it, Annabelle had to find a picture that had the same color. Or, if the card had a letter on it, Annabelle had to find a picture with that same letter. Ms. Andrea used the colors and pictures as an opportunity to get Annabelle to speak to her.

While playing Cariboo, I noticed that Ms. Andrea focused on the "L" sound with Annabelle. Ms. Andrea pronounced "yellow" as follows with a strong emphasis on the sounds. She also made it very clear to Annabelle with her tongue movement where her tongue should be placed when she said "low." I think Annabelle got it just by watching her.

yellow = yeah low

Here are some funny things Annabelle said to Ms. Andrea while playing Cariboo and after they picked out some new games together.

"I just learned balloon." - I'm not sure Ms. Andrea knew what she meant by that phrase, but Annabelle was trying to tell her that she just learned to say balloon correctly since we've been focusing on certain words that she pronounces incorrectly.

"I have the party game that Nonnie gave us. Nonnie gave it to me at Molly's house for her birfday." - Again, Ms. Andrea has no clue what the "party game" is, but Annabelle was all too excited about telling Ms. Andrea about the party game. The "party game" is very similar to Candyland except everyone is supposed to win. Of course, Mommy and Daddy have altered that game a bit as that is a little too correct (according to today's standards) for us. In our opinion, there is only one winner.

"Maybe when I get rid of not really loving it." She was telling Ms. Andrea about a puzzle she has that is geared more to younger children (18 months +). It has a fishing pole, and you go fishing for the puzzle pieces. She told her, "I have a fishing puzzle that I wheely wheely love." Then she told her that maybe we could get rid of it later and put it in the attic for Sophia. But only when she got "rid of not really loving it." Ms. Andrea laughed at that one!

After Cariboo, they played the Disney Pretty Pretty Princess game. That was a hit, and she is still talking about it! Ms. Andrea told her they could play that one for a little while, but after that she wanted her to play a specific game. I could tell that Ms. Andrea wanted to focus more on the speech games, but she also wanted to give Annabelle an opportunity to make a decision.

While playing Pretty Pretty Princess, Ms. Andrea focused on the "L" sound, but mostly on the "ng" sound. She emphasized riNG quite a bit. While they were playing, Annabelle's game piece had to pass Ms. Andrea's game piece. Annabelle politely said, "Scuse me." Of course, Ms. Andrea thought that was funny too.

Ms. Andrea pulled out some speech flash cards with pictures on them intermittently while they played Pretty Pretty Princess. She focused on the "ng" in the following words.

writing, playing, walking, eating, drinking, cooking, baking, poking, riding, honking, barking, packing, napping, falling

It is no wonder she doesn't say these words properly. You know, living in the south and all. "What are you doing?" "Nothin." We southerners always leave off the "g" in those words!

Then Ms. Andrea focused on the "Sh" sounds while playing Pretty Pretty Princess. She again used the speech flash cards. She told Annabelle to say, "Shhhh." Then she led into each word.

"Shhhoe," "Shhhy."

"People always say I'm shy or bashful," Annabelle responded after Ms. Andrea said shy. Again, Ms. Andrea got a kick out of that. I think the word "bashful" threw her for a loop. She responded and said, "Well, I don't think you're shy or bashful. Are you shy when you meet new people." Of course Ms. Andrea didn't think she was shy! Annabelle was talking her ear off! Following are the "sh" words that Ms. Andrea had Annabelle repeat.

shopping, share, shine, shore, shoot, shampoo, shadow, shapes, ship, shoulder, sharp

After repeating "shadow," Annabelle had to tell Ms. Andrea all about Shadow and Jezebel and how Jezebel wasn't very nice and Shadow was nice some of the time.

The last game played was a speech therapy game titled Artic Chipper Chat. Ms. Andrea had Annabelle line up clear game pieces on the game board. It was quite fun to watch Annabelle from a distance as she was quite anal, as I suspected. Ms. Andrea watched her, and I am sure she picked up on how anal Annabelle is. She lined those pieces up perfectly!

They never really played the Artic Chipper Chat game, but once again Ms. Andrea focused on the "sh" sound.

shark, fish, squash, sheep, ship

While playing Pretty Pretty Princess, Annabelle asked to leave on her jewelry that she collected to show Mommy. She was so excited to show me. And, like I said, she has not stopped talking about Pretty Pretty Princess. I am quite afraid that I am going to have to buy her that game. My how boring it looks!

After Annabelle's session, Ms. Andrea told me that today she spent more time just getting to know Annabelle. Obviously, she wanted to understand the articulation errors she was making. Ms. Andrea told me that the sounds they (from the initial evaluation) recommended the speech therapist focus on (the medial N, L and ng) were not typical sounds that are typically recommended for a child her age. And, she also mentioned that it seemed that Annabelle already had the medial N down when she asked Annabelle to repeat words with the medial N in them. She mentioned that it may just have been the word they used to evaluate her or she may have already made a lot of progress since her initial evaluation. I suspect it was a little of both. The word they used to evaluate her was "banana." That is a hard word to say since it sort of has two medial "N's." But, she has learned to say banana since her initial evaluation.

Ms. Andrea gave us homework on "Medial N Words" with two or more syllables that we are to practice between now and next weeks session. Ms. Andrea said that next week she wants to focus on the "sh" sound. I was actually pleasantly surprised since the "sh" sound is actually not supposed to be mastered until age 7. So, I was glad that she wasn't going to only focus on the 3 and 4 year old sounds.

Annabelle really enjoyed herself at school. We told her she was going to school today. She was so excited to go, but she told me later that she was expecting a room full of other kids. She didn't seem disappointed, and she was happy with my explanation that she got one on one time with Ms. Andrea without any other kids around.

And, after today's session, she's been really open to practicing the sounds in each word with me. She used to tell me, "I don't want to do that any more." But, as of this evening, it was still fun to her! I hope I am able to find a happy median so that she doesn't get discouraged as she has in the past when I try and get her to sound out the words.

Also, I asked Ms. Andrea if I should consider purchasing some of the speech games she used with Annabelle today. I mentioned that I was afraid to purchase the same ones because I don't want Annabelle to get bored with her if we have the same games at home. She gave me the website where I can find these games, and she told me to check it out and bring a list of any of the games I am considering, and she will make sure they don't have it before I purchase it. The name of the website is www.superduperinc.com. And as Ms. Andrea mentioned, the games listed on this website are fairly expensive, so we may have to make our own!