December (Weekly Speech Goal included)

11 Dec

Hi.  It is Christmas, and everything is winding down (or up, depending on which way you look at it)!

Matai finished up with Bridget (speech therapist) yesterday and we feel good to have had a term of consistent sessions and great relationship building. I value Bridget's visits because they give me a chance to sit back,watch Matai and take the time to focus on his speech and language for half an hour.  It is also so good to hear about what Bridget notices and what development she spots.  Matai has increased his language usage and comprehension in the last 6 months. 

Anyway, speech goal from now until Christmas:

SANTA!!  Not only will be working on understanding and expression of this word but we will be making a point of introducing the concept of the person!  Matai doesn't understand Christmas yet but we'll see what we can do :)

Weekly Speech Goal 13 Oct - 19 Oct

1.  Big / little  (for understanding)

We are not sure of Matai's understanding of either of these terms and this week we will aim to find out!

• Aaron is going to give choices - big / little spoon, big / little toast at breakfast
• I will also give choices of big and little during routine
• I will set up some play with  - big and little cars, big and little stones, big and little balls, big and little shoes
• I will use playdough to make big and little.

2.  'Matai' - We will try to get him to produce his own name, probably by imitation.

As it stands, Matai calls himself 'you'. We sign 'I love .... Mummy, Daddy, Mia every night.  When it is Matai's turn we say I love 'you'.  Now when Matai runs through the family names, which is quite regularly, he says Mummy, Daddy, Mia and then points to himself and says 'you'.  I know he knows his name is Matai as he responds to it, but I guess 'you' is easier to use!

• Reading his photo books, getting him to imitate, asking 'Who is that?
• Taking care to use third person rather than you, yours etc.
• What is your name?

Weekly Speech Goal 6 - 13 Oct

Straight into it!   Edit 13 Oct

1.  to find out which body parts that Matai can say spontaneously (ie. without imitation needed).

• I will use the drill toy which he likes to drill against himself to encourage him to touch different parts of his and my body, trying to elicit labelling as we go.
• I will get him to wash his own face after meals and try to elicit labels.
• In the bath/shower Aaron will try to elicit labels.

Yes. We got 'hair', 'ears', toe' clear enough to understand. More were said, but not all were understandable. 

We know that Matai understands these words and can imitate them, but the idea is to find out which he can initiate of his own accord.


2.  Understand  - 'pants'

We know that Matai can understand 'trousers' and often imitates it.  However does he understand 'pants'?  My guess is yes.  This is a word that I have heard Aaron and preschool use so I want to check.

• Ask him to fetch his pants
• Ask him to put his pants away
• 'Pull your pants up'
• Read 'Buster' focussing on pants instead of trousers.

Yes - he's all over it, we found this out in just a few minutes!

3. Produce - 'Hello'
Matai says Hello, usually with a wave, however I don't know whether he can say 'Hello' because of imitation or whether he is able to produce it of his own accord.

• Greet him with a wave and wait for a verbal

Well we got a bit of imitating but its not so easy to understand, especially as he doesn't have the 'H' sound yet.  All the focus however has brought out a really loud and obvious 'HI' all the time!!

Highlights this week:

• Matai initiated 'that one'.  He was passing me a book to read to him.
• 'awa' - if you hear this, it means 'stop' or 'no' in Samoan, and apparently it is part of Matai's repertoire now :)