My Best Christmas Present

I received a wonderful, wonderful Christmas present yesterday.

It is official. Hubby-jr no longer has to go for speech therapy. His speech therapist “discharged” him after doing a formal review. (He has been attending fortnightly one-hour sessions since Nov last year.) Hallelujah!

His current language is now average for a kid his age. Yes, he has acquired age appropriate language skills. Hallelujah!

I will still have to work on a few concepts with him at home (just for reinforcement). Four concepts to be exact. But that’s it. Hallelujah!

He may or may not need a review in a year’s time, depending on his progress in the year ahead. That translate’s to me as NO speech therapy sessions for one whole year minimum! Hallelujah!

This is the best Christmas present.

Thank. You. Jesus.

(For those of you who are new to my blog, you can read about my journey with Hubby-jr’s speech delay/mild hearing loss by clicking on the Speech Delay category on the left hand column).

Teaching Who, What, Where.

A while ago, Hubby-jr started asking ”what” questions and that was followed by “where” questions. I was absolutely thrilled then as he picked it up on his own and not from speech therapy sessions. However he had problems distinguishing one “W-question” from another. This became more apparent when we (speech therapist and I) started introducing “Who” questions to him.

For example he would ask me, “Who is that?” while pointing to a bus. And when I asked him a question, it seemed to be more of a guessing game for him. If his first answer was wrong he’d proceed to give me different answers. He knew it was a question, he just couldn’t tell what kind of question it was.

To help him with this problem, I modified one of the therapist’s ideas into a game and it worked! After playing this with him twice, he got it!

1. I drew 3 rooms of our house on a large piece of paper (mahjong paper).

To pique his interest, I got his input while drawing (I didn’t ask him to help me draw as I knew he wasn’t interested in this type of thing). I told him that they were PLACEs and for that we use WHERE questions. Then I pointed to each block and asked him, “Where is this?”

2. I took out 3 small sesame street dolls and told him they were PERSONs and for them we use WHO questions. Following which I held the dolls one by one and asked, “Who is this?”(Yes I know technically they aren’t people but I also knew that he knew tv characters were “pretend people”. You can use photos or photo cut-outs of familiar people instead.)

3. Similarly I took 3 toy-food as THINGs for the WHAT questions.

4. I placed a doll and a toy-food in each “room”.

I then pointed to a specific block and asked these questions. Who is eating? What is he eating? Where is he eating?

As advised by our speech therapist, I kept the questions as generic as I could. I didn’t ask “Who is eating the banana?” as that would give him the hint that the answer couldn’t be banana. The whole idea was to facilitate his ability to give the correct answer based solely on his understanding of who, what and where.

I moved my finger from “room” to “room” and rotated the questions as randomly as I could. Initially he had problems answering my questions. So I stopped and lifted each toy/doll and asked, “Is this a thing or a person?” When he answered correctly I then put them in the WHO and WHAT boxes respectively and reiterated to him that WHO is for persons and WHAT is for things.

After that, I went back to step four.

I must add that it worked very well for Hubby-jr as he already had a firm grasp of things, persons and places.

I am happy to say that Hubby-jr has now progressed to a stage where he understands “when” and “why” (incredibly “why” came to him intuitively right from the start!) We’re working on the “how” now (…hmmm, how now brown cow? Jeeps, I’m so corny). As I was saying… even with “how” questions, he’s been displaying signs that he has grasp that too.

I can’t tell you the relief I felt feel with each of his progress. It was is utterly indescribable.

P/S: I spoke with his speech therapist and she says he may be able to do without speech therapy sessions before the end of the year. She’ll make an assessment again soon. I’m praying, I’m praying.

To read my previous posts on speech therapy ideas click here.

A Year On…

Mid July we met up with Hubby-jr’s class teacher for the kindergarten’s bi-annual parents’-teacher meeting. It was at such a meeting a year ago that his class teacher (then) was concerned with his lack of socializing and delay in speech. She (the teacher then) prompted us to have him checked and that led us to discover his hearing loss.I can’t believe it was just one year ago. Somehow it seems much longer. Maybe it is because we’ve gone through so much since then.

Looking back, I am very amazed at the progress I he we’ve made. (It’s great to look back once in a while to see where we started just to see how far we’ve come!)

His present class teacher reported he is doing well academically (even without me having to go through lesson plans with him). His written work is improving and he participates well in class activities. PLUS he’s interacting well with his classmates. Her only complaint was that he’s restless in class and often dozes off when she’s teaching! (Of which she has since rectified simply by changing his sitting position!)

He met one of his “buddies” while we were waiting that day and it was such a joy seeing him laugh and play with his friend. Just knowing he has made friends is huge enough on my happy indicator as it is. To be able to see him interacting and his friend reciprocating, it blew me away! Indeed he is such a different boy now, much more confident, friendly and talkative!

A year ago I went home with such a heavy heart. That day, I went home smiling (BIG smile) and extremely grateful (tearing grateful).

It’s Mine!

“It’s mine!”

That’s what I’ve been hearing a lot lately from both my kids. Yup, the usual siblings’ squabble.

It’s amazing isn’t it, how a (once upon a time, not too long ago, sorely neglected) toy’s appeal increases exponentially the very second one child picks it up and decides to play with it. Before you know it, the other child wants to play with it too. Yah, and just as suddenly, the toy that they were playing with earlier is no longer “current”.

The grass is just always greener on the other side.

Anyhoo, the tussle over toys isn’t new at all. It started way back. What’s new though is that now my son (almost 5, speech delay) can declare, “it’s mine!” (It used to be just, “No, Mei-Mei, No!”) And my two year old Little Missy can counter that with, “no, it’s mine!” (Hurray! Her speech development’s “normal”).

Of course the “it’s mine” goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…
Add this, “Mei-mei (sister), you play with this (another toy).”
And this “No!!” Scream!
Then back to, “it’s mine” banter.

It is quite a racket. It can and does drive me nuts. Yet at the same time…
It is so good to hear those two words come out of my son’s mouth (and my daughter’s).
It. Is. Good.

Teaching “My” and “Your”

Even as Hubby-jr speech development is progressing well, he still lags behind his peers. One key problem area is in using “I”, “You”, “My”, “Your”. He frequently mixes them up or just refers to himself by name.

To address this, his speech therapist introduced these two activities. The second is a progression of the first.

First Speech Activity

She played a simple game in which she and Hubby-jr had to take turns. After playing for a while and Hubby-jr understood the rules of the game, she stopped and asked, “Whose turn is it now?” His natural reply was “his name” (if it was his turn) or “teacher” (if it was the speech therapist’s turn). She’d then intervene and teach him to say, “It’s Hubby-jr, MY turn” or “It’s teacher’s, YOUR turn”. She’d ask the question, “Whose turn is it now?” at every “turn” requiring my son to reply correctly each time before the game could proceed.

After he got the hang of this, he was taught to drop the name and just say, “It’s MY turn” or “It’s YOUR turn”. But she was the one always asking the question and all answers came from Hubby-jr. Back home I did this exercise with him too but with different games.

Second Speech Activity

As a progression, she played this very simple game with Hubby-jr. Sitting face to face, it’d start with her giving specific commands to which my son had to respond. “Touch my nose” (he’d have to touch the therapist’s nose), “Touch your nose”, “Touch my shoulder”, “Touch your lips” and so on (you get the idea). If he made a mistake, she’d repeat the command and guide his hand to the correct place.

After he got the hang of this, he’d get his turn to give the commands and the speech therapist would respond. The game then became one where both of them would alternate in giving the commands and always required the use of “my” and “your“.

This is quite a fun game which my son enjoys. I’ve played it a few times with him at home too.

Since the above exercises he is using “my” and “your” more although he still mixes them up at times and he still prefers to use names rather than pronouns.

Through the process of teaching him ”my” and “your”, I discovered that unknowingly I’ve acquired the habit of using “mommy” instead of “I” or “my” when talking to him. Slowly I’m undoing this and when I consciously change my sentences to use pronouns I can see that he too makes an effort to respond using pronouns!

Music to My Ears

Finding out that my son has mild hearing loss in his right ear was difficult for me. And after some “grieving” I’ve come to terms with it. I no longer quietly wish somewhere in a corner of my heart that things would be different, that he would be “normal”. I’ve accepted that it is what it is. The hearing problem is not going away and that we’ll just manage it.

Having said that, I’m not above feeling pangs in my heart every now and then especially when I see (hear?) other boys his age rattling off stories to their moms. It’s worse when I observe younger boys with amazing speech ability. This “pain” (I think) is only something moms of “different” kids know of and struggle with. 

At such moments I tell myself to NOT compare but to focus instead on Hubby-jr’s progress.

And I am so thankful that he IS progressing.

“What are you doing mommy?” he asked me several times this week. It’s the first real question he’s ever asked me. Yeah sure he’s been asking me for stuff like water, food, tv, etc. for the longest time now. But this, this was a real wanting-to-know question. Not a request.

Today he even asked me, “What are you eating mommy?”

Let me tell you these questions are music to my ears.

A year ago, his language ability was so delayed he couldn’t even answer me when I asked him what he did in school. These days he can tell me a thing or two about what he did in school. And now he’s starting to ask me questions. For a speech delayed child this IS progress people!

To top it off, he told me sometime this week, “Mommy I enjoyed talking to friends on the school bus.”

Friends? Talking? Wow! A year ago he wasn’t even socializing well!

Hallelujah! Just keep the music coming. Sweet music to my ears.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Since Hubby-jr started speech therapy one of the things I’ve to do with him at home is “shadow reading”. Basically he has to repeat after me word for word and imitate the tone and rhythm as I read a storybook to him. This is to improve his articulation. According to the speech therapist he’s too nasal and speaks without really pausing between each word. His sentence could sound like one long word with many, many syllables!

Shadow reading was a tough assignment. I had to correct his pronunciation and rhythm more often than he liked. It made storytime grueling. I got quite disheartened. Thankfully I wised up and tried using his favourite nursery rhymes. It worked a lot better as they were much shorter.

Then recently I discovered a couple of wonderful short videos of storybooks on YouTube and that helped tremendously. You see Hubby-jr loves almost anything that moves on the computer! (I seriously think it’s the male genes, my daughter takes to computers too but at a much lesser degree.) And these videos were perfect because they were basically close up shots of the books (of which I had borrowed or bought), moving page by page as someone narrated the story.

After he watched the videos he was hooked. He watched it again, again and again memorizing not only the words but the tone and rhythm of the narration as well. So much so he could read the book (the real book with the computer off) to me and all I had to do was correct some of his pronunciation!

Here are the videos. The first is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The children’s classic by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle. He loved this one so much that he’d recite the story to himself every now and then!

(The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHCYgO9zh8)

The second is Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha.

(The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOz_dz0vf4)

I have noticed that Hubby-jr has since started speaking slower and clearer. It works!

Another wonderful site

At Hubby-jr’s last hearing test I found a brochure on this wonderful website I’m about to introduce to you.

It’s called the Listening Room at www.HearingJourney.com. It’s Fabulous! In their own words, it’s a web resource full of (re)habilitation activities and ideas to support the development of listening and language skills in children, adolescents and adults.

So far they’ve only stuff for kids but they’re working on activities for infants, toddlers and adults too.They’ve great game ideas for speech therapy that comes with DIY downloadable pdf files complete with instructions. They even have online video instructions. What’s fantastic is that they feature weekly activities. Yes! They introduce a new activity each week! And guess what? The resources are absolutely free!! Isn’t that just Fantabulous?!

Alrighty mommyfied, now get your act together and get them printed and do them! (Me pysching my “reluctant to add on more to my daily to-do list of things” self.)

Alas! Good News

It’s been busy, busy, busy since the long school holidays have started. Keeping my two little ones occupied is exhausting! That’s the reason for the infrequent posts but I will try my best to write whenever I can (it helps keep me sane!)

Anyway, I recently had two pieces of good news that I’m just dying to share and it’s all about Hubby-jr my four year old son.

First, Hubby-jr has progressed quite a fair bit in school – he’s playing with his peers! We had our last parent-teacher meeting just before the school break and it was so great to hear some good news for a change (as you can guess, the first meeting wasn’t too great). Apparently he initiated play with some of his classmates on several occasions! With some help from his class teacher in the communication process they end up playing. It’s great news considering one of the major concerns of his class teacher the last time we met was that he didn’t play much with his peers.

Second, Hubby-jr doesn’t need to wear a hearing aid (at least not for now)! Yup, that’s what the audiologist told us at our last hearing test a week ago (audiologist wanted monthly checks just to make sure hearing loss was not progressive). When she tested him on hearing using both ears he could pick up sounds on a normal range. So that means he is able to use his good ear to compensate. What’s more there were no deterioration in his right ear hearing loss, so now they’d only need to monitor his hearing every 6 months instead of every month! Needless to say I was estatic and relieved! I feel like we’ve reached the silver lining!

We still need to work on his speech. Almost the entire holiday is filled with weekly speech therapy sessions. And when school starts I won’t have the luxury of resting on my laurels. The audiologist advised me to get the daily lesson plans from his class teacher so that I can either prepare him for his school day beforehand or revise it with him when he gets home. The pressing matter for now is to aid him in acquiring his speech. So that when he reaches primary one, in a bigger classroom albeit noisier setting even if he can’t hear 100% he’d have enough cognitive ability to guess what is being said most of the time.

So it’s gonna be a lot of hardwork for both of us but at least I know what we can and should do and I know we’ll progress. It’s wonderfully hopeful and simply great. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the school year.

This is a photo of Hubby-jr at his first hearing test or as he knows it a “hearing game”. He gets to play a few different games at each session. At this one he has to put one of those red wooden buttons into the board each time he hears a sound.

Impact of Hearing Loss

Here’s a very interesting chart on the impact of the various degree of hearing loss. Take a look, it’s quite an eye opener.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am very thankful that I was advised to send Hubby-jr for a hearing test. As I was talking to a friend recently, we wondered if there were kids that were misdiagnosed as autistic when it was just a simple case of hearing loss or impairment. The delayed speech and social skills certainly made it look like Hubby-jr may have “PDD-NOS“.

Yes, I’ve learnt and am learning quite a fair bit!

By the way, Hubby-jr may need a hearing aid after all. Even though his hearing loss is mild the effect on his social skills and learning can be quite significant at his age. (See the chart for a clearer picture)

The most obvious that was pointed out to us was that he may not be able to pick up subtle conversational cues thus affecting his social skills. And from what I observe of him daily, he is a little awkward when trying to play with other children.  

He’s starting his formal speech therapy sessions next week and has another hearing test coming up a week later. At the meantime we’re praying for God to completely heal his right ear. Pray with us.