Since Ian had chronic ear infections, and wasn’t talking at one year, his doctor ordered tests — to have his ears checked by an ENT, and his hearing checked at the children’s hospital.  The ENT said Ian’s ears are fine, and he doesn’t need tubes (although he’s had at least 4 infections since that visit), and his hearing was excellent.  His comprehension was also excellent for his age.  I was happy with those results, and didn’t think Ian needed any more intervention, but the woman who runs the speech pathology department at Children’s Mercy insisted that Ian needed speech therapy, and his regular pediatrician was encouraging therapy, too.  But there was a wait list for ST, and our insurance didn’t cover it anyway, and I didn’t think he needed it, so I didn’t worry about it.  That was last November (yeah, his pediatrician wrote the referral for his hearing test last April, Children’s Mercy has a 6 month wait list).  In January, I got a call from the speech therapy coordinator, saying, “Hey we have 3 openings, this this and this time and day, pick one NOW or we put you back on the wait list.”  Wow, ok.  So I picked a day, because I didn’t want to lose the spot, but I knew we couldn’t pay without insurance.  The coordinator sent me paperwork for a grant, and we qualified before the first appointment, so it was all good.

Anyway, I took Ian to speech therapy, even though I didn’t think he needed it.  Ian and I spend so much time together that I always know what he wants, even if he can’t talk.  To me, that’s fine, because if I hold out for him to say a word, it leads to a tantrum, and I just really don’t want to deal with that.  The first thing the therapist did was show Ian really neat toys, and then force him to say a sound or use a sign to get the toy.  Leading to… tantrums.  Yeah.  Ian hated therapy.  I hated watching him go through it.  He wouldn’t cooperate, he’d grab for the toys, the therapist and I would tell him no, and it was just sad.  I didn’t care if he couldn’t talk, I knew he’d do it eventually if there was nothing physically or mentally wrong with him.  But then the therapist would ask what Ian calls me, and I’d have to admit that my toddler couldn’t say “mama,” and I’d get sad about that and consent to more therapy.

Ian didn’t make progress in therapy for the first few months.  He learned a few signs, mainly “want more” and “cookies,” (yeah, the SPEECH therapist started off by teaching him sign language), but Ian wouldn’t make sounds–except “kaboom.”    Of all the words he could have picked up in therapy, why kaboom?  I’ll never know.

Speaking of cookies… part of her process was to offer Ian either cookies or juice, and get him to say/sign for one or the other.  Ian always chose cookies, but then couldn’t talk while chewing.  Then he’d get thirsty, but couldn’t/wouldn’t ask for juice, and she wouldn’t just let him have it.  That drove me crazy, because I knew the poor kid really NEEDED a drink and couldn’t get one, and I was too uncomfortable to speak up for him.  I thought maybe it was just my reaction to therapy, but Justin and his mom both went to sessions and agreed that it wasn’t working for Ian.

By his second birthday, he knew maybe 5 signs and 5 words.  Then Leah was born, and I couldn’t give Ian my full attention, and I couldn’t follow him to see what he was pointing at.  Then Justin’s mom was here for a week, and she was very interested in Ian’s therapy.  She came with us to a session, and worked with him the rest of the week, trying to get sounds out of him.  The next two week’s after her visit, we didn’t have therapy.  Guess what?  Ian started talking.  Non-stop, like a parrot.  He’d repeat everything, and he started retaining sounds and words.  It was amazing.

After his two-week break, we went back to therapy the first week of June.  The therapist said that our last session would be in July, but she’d try to get him into another program.  I said, No Thanks.  The therapist was offended, worried about Ian’s well-being, wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing, pointed out that he still wasn’t saying “mommy”… then she heard him talk.  And she backed off.  She actually had the nerve to say, “Wow, you must have really been working with him at home this month!”  No, I’ve been working with him at home since therapy started in January.  He just started talking on his own, when he wanted, just like I knew he would.

Two weeks ago, Justin taught Ian to say “Mom-mom.”  :)  My dad has been trying to get Ian to say Mama for a year now, and was quite shocked to hear it on Friday.  Dad said that I shouldn’t wish for Ian to talk, because once he starts he’ll never stop  :)  He was right, Ian drives me nuts repeating words, and the boy has no volume control.

The whole point of this is… I’m writing down all of the words Ian can say now, so the therapist can have a record of his progress.  Not all of these words are comprehensible to anyone but me, but he has 38 words and 21 signs in his vocabulary.  Wait!  40 words, I forgot yes and no.  And lordy does Ian know how to say no.  I’m not including words that Ian has just repeated once or twice, I’m only counting words he uses spontaneously on his own.  41, forgot purple.  42, forgot butt.  Yeah, don’t teach your child to say “butt,” you’ll regret it.

In combination, he can convey complete thoughts.  Example:  Our neighbor has two red trucks, and parks one on the street and one in the driveway.  We walked by the other day, and there was a truck on the street, but not in the driveway.  Ian pointed to the red truck on the street, made the sign for “one,” said “red,” pointed to the empty driveway, made the sign for “where,” and said “red” again.  And I totally understood that he was asking where the second truck was.

One day last week, Justin went to work before Ian woke up.  Ian made the sign for “where” and said “dad-dad.”  I said, He went to work already.  Ian said “go up?”  I was really confused and asked what he meant.  Ian repeated “Go UP?” and pointed to the attic door.  OH!  When Justin works from home, he goes upstairs.  I said, No he went DOWN the hill and got in a bus.  Then Ian repeated “dad-dad go go bye bye” for an hour.  Woops, bye isn’t on the list.

I know, no one else is impressed by this, but when you’ve been waiting a year for a kid to reach a milestone, it’s big.

Signs Ian uses:  (21)

where
done
hot
cookie
milk
juice
water
want
more
help
sleepy
hear
one
wash/bath
brush teeth
bird
see/boo!
hungry
thirsty
binky
around

Words Ian uses:  (43)

uh-oh
butt
yes
no
open
close
cold
bug
park
out
off
boo
yum
boom/kaboom
bird
snack
blue
yellow
red
black
brown
bath
car
cat
green
laptop
diaper
up
down
dump
bubble
pop
go
mama
dada
Leah
Tom
Eli
Pooh
in
more
glue
purple

I know I should have done the list in a spreadsheet so I could count easier and alphabetize, but I did it in Word.  Oh well, Justin can redo it later, he actually likes doing that.

Yeah, you’ll notice that “laptop” is on the list.  Only Justin’s son could be mute for 2 years, then come up with laptop as one of his first 50 words.  It sounds the same as “diaper,” so I need context.