2 and a Half

We met with our SLP last Friday for a reassessment of M's speech & language to date. After almost two hours of interactive play, learning games and some subtle note taking for good measure, she looked at me with a HUGE smile on her face and said she was thrilled to tell me that M no longer even qualifies for speech therapy! She was so happy with his progress and noted that he was surpassing most of the language milestones for the 36-42 month range (M is currently 30 months).

We are so pleased with our little guy! Patience, modeling and working together constantly has paid off. Yes, I became that mum that I always vowed I wouldn't be... you know, the one saying "grEEn PePPer" at the grocery store while pointing to my mouth and repeating said word over and over. The Hanen course I was invited to participate in turned out to be invaluable because we finally figured out how M needed to learn from us. He chats constantly and we are finally having those "for the love of God, be quiet!" moments that people warned us about. It's worth it though. So so so worth it.

She wants to reassess M again in 6 months to make sure he's still progressing. She took note of some pronunciations that are typically developmental (th as d, etc.) and wants to make sure he outgrows them. If he needs therapy again, we're on their radar and will never have an issue being seen again. Phew.

The best thing about M's speech therapy is that it was almost like a parenting book all wrapped up in a fun little package. We learned so many obvious things that we'd been skipping over in our attempts to get him to communicate more and ended up learning that those same things that taught M sounds and words would also diffuse tantrums, distract from tears and get him to WANT to chat with us more.

Best ever.