Speech Update

James has almost finished his first month of speech sessions at the Swain Center. In just over a week he has mastered "boy" and "girl," and is getting pretty good at using he" and "she" effectively. His therapist, whom he has been seeing over the past three years, was very impressed how quickly he picked it up. Big sister also helped.

A lot!

James has been watching my mouth to see how I shape it to make sounds. He still makes his "Ahhhhhhh-ahhhh-aaahhh!" drone when he's wound up and his laugh still has a baby's chuckle in it. But his words and phrases are becoming clearer. Even if it gets caught up in babble, there are enough well-formed words also so I can a least figure out what he is talking about. He can reliably answer questions that require a "yes" or "no" answer, although if you give him a multiple choice question, he tends to repeat the last item on the list.

James still crams his hand in his mouth and chews on his fingers. He likes crunchy foods, like watermelon (watermeh-len), apple slices, pretzels, tortilla chips, and popsickles (especially red and purple).

He also likes to press things against his mouth: