Ashlynn’s at four words! Update
Ashlynn is literally making leaps and bounds in her speech. Sometimes, I feel like we are actually having a mini conversation. I think the greatest aspect is her being able to tell me where she’s hurting, or even tell me what she wants to eat. She tries to repeat everything now, and even has some sponteaneous four word utterances!
The past week, her new thing was “too” as in, “Ashlynn go ni night too?” or “Ashlynn eat dinner, too?” That counts as four words! Yeee haw!! She’s also said, “I want more ketchup.”
This past month, after hard work from both her SLP’s and myself, she marks every final ‘t’ ‘p’ and ‘n’ consonant. Getting to that point though, wasn’t easy. Practicing CVC words, you could see her brain thinking as she groped for the correct sound. She needed a visual and verbal cue every time. For example, when saying “hat” she would say,
ha t. The pause time could be up to 3 seconds, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but is when you are talking about speech. Now she has it down though! Such a small step, but so big at the same time! Having a child with apraxia makes one wonder how we ever learn to talk at all??
She puts chapstick on her “yip”, and has Jace sit in her “yap.” She puts a “hat” on her head, and drinks with a “sup.” She can tell me perfectly “I want down” and that she wants “out” or to put something “in.”
She also gets tickled by everything and laughs “Silly_____.” My favorite is of course, “Silly Momma” but “Silly baby” and “Silly Daddy” are pretty popular around here too.