Today Nora had her first speech therapy session and it went better than I would've expected. The therapist is right-kids often dish out more speech for people other than their parents. Not that she was speaking with words, but her signing came out stronger and she was verbalizing more-ie imitating words to get what she wanted.
This experience with Nora in speech therapy gives me an appreciation for several things-
1st-home exercise programs for home therapy with kids would be very difficult to carry out. Today I asked Nancy, the infant learning lady, do I need to be setting aside specific times of day to do games with Nora, because that could prove to be challenging some days with Stuey and Nora. She said, "No, make it all functional communication. All the skills we're teaching you to use with her can be used in functional, eating, dressing, etc...situations." thank heavens. Make me realize how my work in physical therapy should always have functional basis. For the most part when I give out home programs, I try to make them functional.
2nd-What a huge difference between Nora and her peers the same age with vocabulary. Wow. By this time nora should be speaking 150-200 words and shes barely at 10. I know she'll catch up, thats not it. Knowing these little facts, however, makes me feel more bummed that Nora's not where she needs to be-even though we're doing everything right. Every child is different. This gives me insight on how parents with kids who are slower in one area of devlopment feel.
3rd-Yes, our daughter has a stubborn streak to her. I always joke that this is the Saltonstall side of the family in her...he, he,he...she tends to withhold saying something because she knows that we know what she wants. Pretty amazing how she is working us already at a young age. The infant lady today said, "Toddlers are teenagers in training." Nooooo!!!!! I don't want to hear that already!
All in all, patrick and i are light hearted and positive about it all. Nora is such a sweetie ( or at least we think so, but we're completely biased) and she makes us laugh so much every day. Kids are amazing that way-they can brighten your world more than you every imagined. Zoya
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