"Bye!"

Yesterday was Karys's second ECI speech therapy session. We've seen several improvements in her speech since her last session. One of those improvements is in the word "mommy." When Karys was about 20 months or so she would say "mommy" as "eh-mee." Then as she got older, it became "ommy." Between our last speech session and this one, we were able to get her to add the first "m." It was cute because Ryan would remind her, "Say mmmmm-ommy" and really over-enunciate the first "mmm" sound so Karys would say, "Mmmmmm-ommy!!" and eventually could remember how to say it without a reminder (and without the extra long "mmmm" :) Another word that saw improvement was "mess." It used to come out as "meh" (as in, without the "s" and now it's the whole word.

Since her last therapy session we've been watching the LeapFrog Letter Factory video daily (sometimes she chooses to watch it more than once a day!) and it is definitely helping her. She's learning letters and their sounds and can recognize them both in the video and out in real life. The other day she saw a magnet that I had and found the "F" and made the "f" sound and the same thing for an "M". It's really impressive how quickly she's picked up on this!

Her therapist was impressed at how much progress she's made in two weeks. At this session, she worked with Karys using the picture cards that she gave her last time. They practiced words, and also did an activity where Becca would hold up two pictures (ex. a ball and a cupcake) and ask, "Which one do you eat?" to try to get her to say something like, "Eat cake." Although she didn't answer in that way, she did know the right answer!! :)

Becca also gave us some new words to work with: "bee, bow, boo, bay, and bye" because all of these words combine the "b" sound with a long vowel sound and long vowel sounds encourage Karys to talk with her mouth open, which is something she definitely needs help with. She's pretty close-mouthed when she talks which is one of the problems with her speech. In practicing those 5 words yesterday, she could say the first three pretty well, but "bay" and "bye" she said with a "d" sound instead of a "b" sound. I had a feeling she would do this, because she's always said "bye" with a "d" and when she says "baby" she substitutes "b's" for "d's." It's definitely something I've been trying to work with her on!! Becca said that maybe it's the sound that comes after the "b" that trips her up sometimes.

For her next session, we're supposed to help her start using a two-word phrase consistently and improve at imitating words.

The funny/cool part about yesterday occurred as I was putting Karys down for a nap. She was sitting in her bed and I was about to leave the room and she looks at me and says, "Bye!" I looked at her and said, "What did you say?" and again she says, "Bye!" I happened to be on the phone with Ryan at the time and I asked him, "Did you hear that?" and he had heard the same thing I had. Karys said it for me again, and the last time she also waved, so I knew that she knew what she was saying. I'm not kidding when I say that she has NEVER said that word correctly...she didn't even do that during her therapy session yesterday!! I don't know how it clicked in her mind to say it the right way, but I was so proud of her!! And today she still wants to revert back to using the "d" sound out of habit, but she just needs a reminder and she remembers how to say it correctly. I can't wait to see what happens between now and her next appointment, December 7! :)