Tuesday, August 19, 2008

One, Two, Three...

Clare can count to 10! Popped out of her mouth one day. Her vocabulary continues to rapidly expand, and she is doing a great job forming sentences. I love her top three new sentences - "Fight me, Mama," (as in brandishing a sword at me), "Go away, Simon," and "Leave me alone, Simon" (poor Simon!). There is a big BUT, though... unless you hear her say the same word over and over (and can realize in context what she is referring to), she can be very difficult to understand. Her consonants are very soft, especially her final consonants, and her speech is somewhat slurred. Clare receives one hour of group speech therapy in school (which was cut to one half-hour during summer session), and we have noticed great results, but I still feel that she needs something more. I also don't necessarily want to increase her services at school which would cause Clare to be removed more often from her classroom. Therefore, we are looking into private speech therapy outside of school. Lucky for me, I have some great friends with some great connections! (You know who you are!) We are hoping to get her in with the best shortly (fingers crossed). In the meantime, we are content hearing that sweet little voice count, "One, two, three..."

5 comments:

Noel said...

Abi is hard to understand sometimes too. Sometimes it is like a puzzle and we are trying to figure out the chain of thoughts that got her to where she went with a sentance. I love puzzles so usually I can figure it out...Chris on the other hand is totally lost most of the time.
( example: she told me last night that I needed a drink of pop and my tummy would be aweful...after having her repeat it and trying to figure out what she meant, the lightbulb went off for me and I came up with the answer ALL FULL ! )
I hope you find a good speech therapist

Aunt Joan said...

I am so excited to hear about the increasing speech/language skills!! I believe she will increase her skills, and as long as you have the patience to "listen" to what she is saying, she will continue to try harder & harder! I am very proud of ALL of you. Hey, Simon, my big brother (name withheld) used to tell me to "go away", too. (don't listen!!) Love to all, Aunt Joan

Michael and Michelle said...

If your interested in doing HIPPO therapy which is speech therapy while riding a horse, (we had talked about it), let me know. Joshua's speech as improved tremendously since he started in July!

Nichole Fisher said...

Yeah Clare :) I can just hear her little voice in my head saying "Fight me, Mama". I hope you all enjoy the rest of the summer.

Auntie Becky said...

Seeing the kids last week was THE BEST!! I got to sneak out of work for a couple of hours and visit. Clare and I played Disney Memory and she did great. I stopped back over after I got out of work and when I walked throught the door Clare yelled "Becky" about 5 times...That was it she made my day, an Auntie's dream. Even Simon said Auntie..really he did I heard it! :-)
Love ya guys!
Auntie Becky