A few more

Tacta - tractor
Keewee - Keely (his carer at school)
Hi
Bye
Ta ta
Two

He is getting there isnt he!!!

More Words

We can add spider, shower, dinner, down, icky (bickie) , ecky (brecky) and all gone to our vocab. Will doesnt have speech for a month as our ST is on holidays, so we have some homework to do. For some reason he deletes the on set and says the rime. So we have activities for him to do that will encourage him to develop the skills for the onset.

It is great to see him voluntarily use the sign language and the fact that he uses them in situations not just with me. He will use them with family and at care which is great and it enables them to communicate positively with him.

Will is a bit grumpy at the moment, bit of a sick bear, I am certain he is getting the last two molars. And so am I, not happy considering it is the school holidays:(

I am so happy with Will's progress since we have started therapy and having seen how much he has come along. It certainly has made a change in him, dont know about the biting, I think it could be linked more to his low muscle tone and need for development rather than a communication frustration link. We will see, but all is going well at the moment:)

Update

Long time no post, quite a bit to write so brace yourselves lol!

After seeing the speechie we went to the feeding clinic. They said Will was a complex little character as he has some skills and not others. Most children who have eating habits like Will cant chew properly and have a linked bodily reaction, or have a psychological issue - chocking. Will chews like a regular child should - except he refuses to eat things that would increase the muscle tone in his face.

Outcomes: we have to practice lots of lip exercises. This will increase the tone in his face and stop the constant dribbling. The dribbling occurs as his lips are strong enought to curl up like ours do. We all produce that quantity of saliva, we swallow, Will dribbles:(

* Make vegetables in cuts (like Julienne) as well as meats so that he can eat them like the finger food that he eats

*continue with the muesli bar thingies that he eats as they are good for the muscle production

*offer continuously and hope he gerrys that he needs to eat it

*miss out on foods if he doesnt eat. He isnt going to starve and they think that he also chooses not to eat rather than cant eat as he shows the skills of an eater

We are practising the lips, kissing with mouth closed. Tomorrow we are going to try the 100s and 1000s. These are spread on the table and Will has to pick them up with his lips - not open mouth or tongue. What a mess - we are going to be doing this outside!!!!

They seem very positive about Will and what he can do, and hopefully by the time his next appointment comes around in a month, he will have improved. He ate a meat pie at the Easter Show - can you believe it. Paula broke it into small pieces and he wanted it!!!

Other than that, we are looking into his headbanging. When he chucks a tantrum - frequently but only very short, he headbangs the floor, or door, or wall etc. I have found some research to suggest a preservative found in foods. Am going to investigate it some as well as my cupboard and fridge to see what we have and what could be contributing to this. It has only just started in the past month or so and only occurs if he is frustrated or angry. It usually stops the tantrum as he hurts himself, so it is quite horrible and we want to stop it. Have been looking at Sue Dengates website for reference.

On the speech front - he has said cat, park, sees (trees) lately and is really good at signing 'in' and 'help'. The help one we use when he grunts/screams in frustration. I say 'help' and he signs back to me and we figure out what to do next. It has been working well this past weekend.

Speechie on tuesday. More feedback then:)