Speech Status Update on T & P

Well, it's been awhile since I've taken a few moments to update you on Tavin and Penn's speech progress.  So here's a few quick notes on where we are to date.

Tavin
To recap, about this time last year I did a major "cry from my heart" blog post about Tavin's situation and the throws I was in trying to navigate medical assistance on his behalf.  The Lord has provided above and beyond my expectations in the past year.  After struggling with our first therapy match from April - August of 2013, we were paired with an amazingly gifted therapist in October of 2013 that Tavin has been with ever since.  Miss Christal and Tavin have a special relationship now.  She gets him, she loves his sense of humor, she understands that he can be silly, but doesn't let him run her down, she understands almost all that he says and she knows what keeps him motivated, interested and challenged.  It has made the walks through the germy halls of the hospital twice a week so worth it and so much less stressful and frustrating.  Miss Christal has been engaged to be married since we met her and finally this weekend is her big day!  Tavin and I wanted to find her a gift from her registry (so we totally stalked her online a bit to figure out where she was registered).  Tavin was so excited to give her this special, big present ever since we pushed "purchase" online.  On Monday, we brought it in and they unwrapped it together.  Tav used his scissors that we keep at Miss Christal's office for all their crafts.  It took them forever to wrap this overly-protected glassware item from Crate & Barrel, but they had fun with it.  I had to take these pics through the observation room glass, so you can see the reflection of Penn and I and Tav and Christal sort of look like they are in another dimension. =)

They had the cutest conversation about the gift after she opened it.  I'll try to recap it.  I was crying I was laughing so hard to myself and just loving how poised Tav was.
Christal: Tavin, do you know what this is?
Tavin: Yes, it's a trifle dish.
Christal: Oh wow.  Do you know what a trifle is?
Tavin: No.
Christal: It's a really yummy dessert made with cake.  Do you like cake?
Tavin: Oh, yes.
Christal: Do you like cake with strawberries.
Tavin: Oh, no.  That'd be yucky.
Christal: What kind of cake do you like?
Tavin: Chocolate.  Maybe with chocolate chips?
Christal:  Ok, well, good to know.  Maybe when I get back I can make us a treat in my new dish and we can have it together.
Tavin: Well, I'll have to ask my Mommy because we usually have treats after dinner.
Christal:  We can definitely ask your mom first, that's fine.  And if you should wait until after dinner, I could package some up for you.
Tavin: Well, then you would have to send enough home for Koen too.  Koen likes cake too.  But not Penn Rye.
Christal: I'm sure I could make enough for Koen too.
Seriously, no joke.  This is my Tavin that a year ago was only probably 65% intelligible due to articulation issues.  I'm telling you that anyone sitting listening to him, whether they were familiar with his sweet speech style or not, would have understood 98% of what he said.  Remarkable.  Amazing.  So rewarding.  He's always been verbose, talkative and intelligent (clearly), but do you know how awesome it is to know that now everyone that your son talks to can understand all the wonderful things he has to share with the world?  It's been my prayer and it is daily being answered as Tavin's speech improves.  Tavin still has some hurdles and definitely will be in speech therapy privately and at preschool for the school year to come, but I'm also feeling confident that he will be so ready for Kindergarten and will be highly understood by his peers and his teachers there.  Currently, Tavin is still focusing on "th" and "s", but moreso in conversation then in isolated words.  Tavin has those down, especially when prompted.  Conversational consistency is what we are working on currently and he is a great sport about therapy and working on it at home too.  Tavin Dale, I hope you read this one day and know how proud of you we are, how we rejoice over the provision of Miss Christal in your life and the sharp brain the Lord gave you to pick up these concepts so quickly.  

Penn Rye
Penn started speech therapy with Early Intervention in April of this year after being evaluated in March and just barely qualifying for services due to his receptive communication being so high (but his expressive was low enough to pull him into the qualifying zone).  At that time, Penn basically just made noise through his nose or in the back of his throat, he didn't babble and his best words were "moh-moh" (more, more) and "ah-duh" (all done) and "da-din" (Daddy, Tavin, Koen, all the same!).  Speech therapy at this age is very different from what Tavin does at his age.  It is all play-based and definitely at the pace of the child.  Penn's pace at first was basically nill.  He had no real interest in participating with the speech therapist and didn't show much progress, but slowly as we continued the sessions and I became more intentional at home and I think mostly, as he just finally hit the spot where he cared to work on communicating with words, his speech has developed.  He now does babble.  He now does participate in repeat-after-me prompts.  He probably has about 35 words now that are a mixture of his consistent approximations and something that most toddler-familiar people would understand.  The most exciting thing was that this week he used the word, "Mum-mee," for me for the first time in his life.  A month ago he had no word for me.  2 weeks ago he started pointing at me and using a consistent something that sounded like, "bdah, bdah."  And then last week he said "Mum-mee" when we were playing with the speech therapist naming family members in a toy set we have.  Since then I'd been prompting him at home with some luck of getting him to call me that, but this week he did it all on his own.  I have a name to this little one that has my heart!  Do you know how good that feels?  Do you know how rewarding that feels?  Do you know the hope that has filled me with that perhaps he is just taking his time talking and maybe we don't have this articulation-issue road lying ahead of us?  I'll take it.  I'm Mommy to my Penn Rye.  Finally.  Thank you, Lord!  I snapped a few photos of Penn with his sweet, caring, patient speech therapist, Miss Allison, on Monday (I'm hoping it didn't freak her out too much!).  Penn's really getting comfortable with her and he gets so proud when he pleases her with participating and spouting off his words.

Well, that about sums it up for the here and now (unless you want me to gush on, because this mom is pretty proud of her little guys working hard on their words and so thankful for all the Lord is doing in their lives).