Therapy Progression - Speech

Nick's speech is amazing. He is inquisitive and asks about words and why we say different things.
He has the funniest expressions. My favorite right now "I did not see that coming"

He also likes to say bad words. Whisper them really, because he knows they are bad. "What the heck" is the extent of his 'swear words'. And I think that he picked it up from Ninja Turtles (Thanks Raf).
But like I did for the physiotherapy and how far we have come. I want to look at how far Nick has come with his speech.

This is the boy that didn't speak for 2 years.
And I worried and worried. Got him in speech therapy with his sister early, and he just wouldn't speak. He was very happy to just play quietly, watch and listen (and laugh)
It was 18 months before he even started to babble!

(This video is from May 2011)

Katheryn also did speech therapy, and she was Nick's greatest supporter.
There were times that I caught Katheryn coaching Nick to say words "Say Daddy Nick, say da-da-daddy"
Once he started to make sounds you could tell that he was excited to show off! (This video is from July 2011)

Just after Nick turned 2 he would talk, but he wouldn't always answer the question you were asking. Every colour was blue, every number was four. 

And then he finally started to explore his vocabulary (around the same time he got his first wheelchair). And if you watch the video from April 2012 you can hear that attitude and personality that we always knew was in there.

After Nick's words started coming, then it was working on the sounds. But that wasn't really anything new with us. The same sounds Katheryn needed help with, so did Nickolas.

Last year Nick got distracted too easily in group speech therapy. He was quiet and he was shy.

Speech therapy progression showed what we already knew. He is getting more comfortable and overcoming at least part of his shyness. And he wants to work on his sounds.

L is a big one. Leo Leads. And you can correct him, he will try again to make the right sound. He wants to speak well.

Now he sings, he has favorite songs. This is a video of his favorite song "R-E-D red"

We have made up some other songs, but this one is his favorite, and he will sing it LOUDLY, if he sees anything in the song (i.e. firetrucks).

And recently he has an O-R-A-N-G-E song (which of course is helping with his spelling as well)

When Nick was 18 months old and I worried so much about his language, I had a number of fellow parents (of older kids) who told me it will come. It was really hard to believe them at the time!

Song and Dance

We have had a lot of singing and dancing in the house lately

Nickolas has been cha-cha-chaing to any type of musical tune

 

Katheryn has been singing her bullying-awareness song

Katheryn actually sings everywhere. Especially in the public bathrooms.

Makes keeping track of her easily.

Katheryn has also been taking acro-dance classes, and it was her recital yesterday.

She had so much fun! Skipping and jumping, bridges and somersaults.

In the middle of it she kept coming over and hugging Nick.

Went well, until he accidently head-butted her in the nose.

After the crying she went back and finished.

They had time to pull someone from the audience to dance with

Nick grabbed Nick and kept dancing and spinning him.

Even after she ran him into the wall (which they both thought was hilarious) 

Rockstar!

 Nickolas has become a rockstar!

He is singing and dancing and working any type of drums he can (literally) get his hands on!

Some of his talent has gone to his head (as you can hear), he is aware of his star power!

 

Nick will climb on anything so he can make more noise with is hands.
SHHHH he's getting a drum set for his birthday (I can't believe we asked for it).

 

Nick already has the beginning of a fan-base. You can hear Katheryn cheering him on at the end. And he's dancing (he dances with his eyes screwed shut). And singing his favorite song EVER! (From Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

 

I'm always looking for magical musical talent in my kids, Katheryn has a number of different piano's and keyboards, some flutes, a xylophone and they are always making some kind of noise. I'm considering a guitar or 2 for them as well.

We are definitely not a quiet household!

 

Rock-Star!!!!