Some progress!

We are amazed with the rate of Ethan’s speech development this year so far. Something seems to be “clicking” in his brain in regard to speech and language. And since he had grommets inserted in his ears in October last year, being able to hear properly obviously helps too!

Due to Ethan’s problems with coordinating his mouth/ lips/ tongue, his articulation continues to be difficult, for example substituting “f” sound with “g” or “k” (says “gish” instead of “fish”) and “l” with “w” (says “wuv” instead of “love”), difficulty approximating “s” or “sh” and the more complex consonant blends “tr”, “st”, “bl”, “br”, “dr”, “pl” etc! This makes his speech difficult for others to understand and he still needs me to interpret his speech at times, but not nearly as often as before.

His sentences are becoming longer/ more complex spontaneously and everyday I am astounded by something he says. We have worked so hard at getting him to elaborate on his nouns by adding an adjective. Now he rarely just says “a ball”, instead saying “that’s a big red ball” without prompting!

I think being at Kindergarten and around other kids for two full days a week has helped spur on this burst of speech and language progress. It delights me when I drive him home on Wednesdays I can ask him to tell me about the book he chose from the library, and he can answer eg. “library book about a lion (“wion”)”. I can ask him what he did at school that day and he can list a couple of things eg “I played with teddies with Sharon” or “I build blocks with Samuel”.

Ethan is still far from “age appropriate” with speech/ language development but we are excited with his progress. Alongside his improved speech is much improved interest in others and a strong desire to share his thoughts and interests and social games, particularly with Nathan, Eli and I. It is good to celebrate and reflect on the gains he is making!