Monday, June 8, 2009

Funny The Way It Is

I figured I would keep on with the Dave Matthews Band kick that my family has been in lately, and title this post after one of their new songs. It's really appropriate for what's going on around here lately.

It's funny how our therapy has shifted over the past 6 months from honing Christian's auditory skills to really concentrating on articulation and annunciation. While Christian has a vocabulary that exceeds his age, and sentences that are often 5-7 words long, his articulation needs some work. His brain moves faster than his little lips, and sometimes we get words smushed together. I know he gets frustrated when it happens, and my poor man tries so hard to get all his thoughts out. I've been working hard on this whole issue lately. In addition to telling him to slow down, I also model his words and the annunciation that I expect out of him. According to our SLPs, this is COMPLETELY normal for Christian's age (and not just because he has a hearing loss). Yet, I can't help but get frustrated with him.

We're also working on specific sounds, such as the /f/ and the /v/. Again, while those sounds are mastered later and we shouldn't expect Christian to have them yet, we're still working on them and practicing them as much as we can. I've had good friends of typically hearing kids tell me I shouldn't worry at all about these little issues, as Christian is doing so well. But, as always, I'm a worry-wort, and trying to keep Christian one-step-ahead. I think he can handle it.

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