Speech Therapy

Niran has officially started speech therapy! The first session lasted an hour and a half. We had to stop since he was losing interest. I was able to go in with him and watch the initial test. I actually did have to help the speech therapist acknowledge when he did say the word correctly (in his language) or help guide him in a way for him to answer. I was nervous about going because Niran is very quiet around strangers. We have friends that he has been around regularly since we got here in June and he just starting to talk to them, still nowhere near as much as he would talk to Dusty and me. Before we went in I had a talk with him in the car. I explained what we were doing, that this was needed for him to talk to people and for them to understand him better. This is also needed if he wants to start playing sports and learning his ABCs and counting for preschool. Of course that really excited him. When Ms. Rachel came to take us back to the room he was very excited to go with her. He talked to her right from the start and he did really well answering her questions and participating in her games. He is right on track for comprhension, sounds, itendification, and some other things. The only thing he is behind in is articulation. She said it has to do with him not closing his mouth properly. That actually makes me laugh because he was pain to feed when he was younger. He would never open his mouth!

I could not go into his second session, but I was able to hear him in there. We have little exercises we get to do at home and I have to remind him to close him mouth when he talks. At first he would get very mad at me for reminding me, but after a couple of days he has opened up and he will sit with me and work until he gets very giggling. I can really hear the difference to in his speech. Of course before he started he was already improving by leaps and bounds, but this will catch his articulation up to the rest of his speech. I can't wait to be able to enroll him in activities, but for now we need to wait since he is only understood by Dusty and me.