Speech Evaluation

On Friday we went and had our Speech Evaluation done. It went well relatively speaking. Holly was playful and expressive; in that she was “Babbling” one thing that I learned is that “Babbling” is not the same way that I would define it. It is specifically when you are mixing sounds so for example, “Ba Ba Ma La GaGa BaMa LaMa GaBa” ect. Instead Holly says “Mamamamamamamamama” then will pause, and then say “Bababababababababa “so while this is great, it isn’t really considered to be very sophisticated. But she did do things like look when we said her name, watched out conversation, came when I said come here, and when she was getting fussy, I made the sign for Milk and Said, do you want Milk? And she brightened up and stopped fussing, which the Therapist thought meant she clearly understood that I was going to make her a bottle and she patiently waited for it. She isn’t yet waving, or following when I point, but she seems to be stronger receptively.

While we were there she blew raspberries and initiated a “conversation” she also initiated a game of Peek a boo and actively sought out activities to entertain herself and let me know when she was getting board. Coupled with my reports of the feeding issues, and the Oral Aversion she demonstrated when the therapist tried to have her play with some chewy vibrating toys, and look at her tongue, she strongly felt that she had Oral Motor issues and would definitely benefit from Speech Therapy, and would in fact recommend it.

She indicated that she seems to have trouble using her tongue, and as she learns to eat more sophisticated foods and uses her tongue more, she will begin to make new sounds. However the therapist felt that her Onset of “Words” would be delayed, but that she seemed eager to communicate and that we should reemphasize and amp up our use of signs with her, and that cognitively she would be able to communicate her needs with the signs before her mouth would be able to form the words, yet her determination to be so expressive lead her to believe she will have language, just maybe delayed and the sooner we start speech therapy the sooner words will come and we will learn how to help her exercise her mouth and use her mouth muscles.

The next challenge is to convince Regional Center to approve it, and it will be 2-3 weeks before I get the report, and once I get it, If the Director approves Speech therapy I then need to do another evaluation with their people to start the process, but at least I am on this past 6 months earlier than they would have me be.