Audiology and speech pathology appointments

Earlier this year we had a 2 appointment day at the Child Development Centre.

Audiologist This was a follow up from the appointment last June, to be sure that the “sluggishness” in her ears at that time was only due to a cold and nothing worse.  (She’d been referred for the first appointment because at 4 months corrected she wasn’t making any consonant sounds.)

Talia was upset to return to the clinic but calmed down and turned to hear all the sounds played, which was a relief.  They asked if I wanted them to do a physical examination of her ears but knowing how much she hates anyone touching her ears (major screaming session), I decided not to worry about it. No need to see them again, hooray!

Speech pathologist This was a first appointment after a referral made in (drumroll) May 2008! Can you tell they don’t have enough SPs in the public system here? I would have gone private if I was really worried, but figured Talia would catch up in her own time.

I had a lovely surprise before we went. They had sent a form asking how many words she said spontaneously (ie not just copying you) and I had filled it out in December but now went over it again in mid January and was able to circle a heap more words. I thought it was going to be about 60 words, but including animal noises, names of characters etc, it was more like 90. In perspective: 15 months - no clear words. 18 months - less than 10 words. 21 months - 90 words. So proud of my little cherub.

At the appointment Talia was brilliant, played with all the toys, even came out with a new word while we were there. The SP said she was well on the way to the 2 year average which is basically (a) 50 words and (b) two word sentences. We didn’t have 2 word sentences at that stage, but apparently they usually consist of object + describing word or doing word, and Talia knew lots of objects but said very few describing/doing words. So that’s what I have been trying to concentrate on while I’m playing with her . The SP also said Talia was great at commenting and understands what’s being said, but wasn’t so good at using language for “social purposes” - for example she didn’t call for attention or make requests much using words. So that’s something else I said I would be trying to work on.

We agreed to have a follow up appoinment in 3-4 months time, and that is now scheduled for 14 April - next week.  Since the January appointment Talia has more than doubled her vocabulary.  In fact I’ve stopped trying to keep a record because she is learning words faster than I’m remembering to write them down.  She knows a lot more verbs and adjectives, and uses words to make requests.  (So much nicer than saying “eeeeuurghh” when she wants something!)  She can make sentences of up to 4 words and constantly amazes me with what comes out of her mouth (in the vocab department!)  It’s a great joy to me to see her improve so rapidly after a slow start, especially as it was the area of development where she was most delayed at her 12 month corrected assessment.

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This is the main part of the report we received after our January appointment.

Your child has strengths in:

• pretend play - imitating
• comprehension - following instructions, understanding questions and concepts

We found your child needs help with:

• Developing language for social purposes eg calling, requesting
• Increasing action and describing words