Tad Speaks – Parrot edition

Tad is doing very well in the individual and group speech therapy that he is getting at school. We get nothing but good reports back from the speech therapist.

One of his new skills is the ability/desire to repeat words. This was one of the hardest things to get him to do a year ago, because he simply WOULDN’T. In fact, he’s probably only been really willing and able to do this for maybe six weeks.

It’s great because we can finally get him to repeat individual words that can be strung into a small sentence, like “Juice please, Mama?” or “Cookie please, Mama?” or “Do-nat please, Mama?”

Notice how this all has to do with FOOD. Yes, he’s a boy, through and through.

But we can also prompt him to say “hello” and “bye” with a person’s name attached. Grandma is “Amama” right now, and Gichan is “Chani.” He can make a pretty decent attempt at Auntie’s name, calls Ane by her home nickname, and is very consistent with “Daddy” and “Mama.”

Slowly, but surely, he’s beginning to talk to us.

Last night, though, at bedtime, he was a total parrot. He usually has a book in mind when we sit down to read (lately, it’s either been Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – he calls it “Chia Chia Boo Boo” – or I Am Invited To A Party!), but he drew a blank as I kept asking him what he wanted to read.

“Tad, what do you want to read?”

“Wead.”

“Pick a book.”

“Book.”

“Do you want a story?”

“Story.”

“Which book do you want to read??”

“Wead.”

Finally, because I’m mean, I just said, “Echo.”

“Ecwo,” Tad piped up.

Once I gave him a stack of books, he finally picked one. I only felt mildly guilty about exploiting my son for my own amusement.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 1:15 am and is filed under Children, Speech Therapy Saga.
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