Cade's Speech Troubles

Back in October I spoke with Cade's doctor because I was concerned with his lack of speech.  He only had a couple words that he used and he didn't imitate sounds.  This was so different than or experience with Drew.  Before Drew turned two he was speaking in 5 word sentences and always used proper pronouns.  He just talked and talked and it was never silent at our house.  So when the only noise we really ever heard from Cade was "aaaaaah", it didn't seem quite right.  Our pediatrician told us that he needed to learn 3 new words a month for the next three months so that by Christmas he should have added 9 words to his vocabulary.  When we came to December, we had gotten Cade to say about three new words a month but he only said them once just repeating us.  He failed to incorporate any of them into his speech.  The doctor then referred us to a speech therapist.  We had to wait until February to get in to be tested.  It was an hour of the therapist playing with him observing and asking me tons of questions.  When it was finished he was determined to have a speech delay and was eligible for therapy.  Then we just had to wait to get on to the schedule.

In April, we were finally able to start therapy.  We now go once a week and spend 45 minutes with his therapist.  They play fun games and work on making different sounds and do exercises to get his mouth working properly.  They also work on signing as a way of having him communicate.  Baby Signing videos were suggested to us by our therapist so we've gotten a bunch from the library to watch.  The boys really seem to enjoy watching them and are quickly picking up different signs.  Drew really seems to be getting into learning signs too.  He's always asking me what the sign is for a word he's interested in and he's always showing the little boys the proper signs.  At first when the therapists seemed to be pushing signing, Mitch and I really questioned it.  After all, we were paying a lot of money every week for them to get our son to talk using words.  I have now come to see that signing has become a very good thing in our house.  Cade is using many signs now instead of just pointing and grunting.  We know what he wants most of the time now which is so great.  I think it has made him more comfortable with his ability to communicate with us and so now he's trying to say even more words than ever before.

We also started with the AEA and have 2 people come to our house once a month to work with Cade.  They have been here once for testing and once for therapy and Cade loves having them here.  He seems warm up more more quickly with them being at our house instead of an unfamiliar location.  He is such a little ham when they show up.  I'm so happy that he enjoys having them here and plays so well with them.  Hopefully that will transfer into quick progress.  I think in the fall I'm going to request that they come more than once a month.  The more access he has to all these therapies the more progress he makes.