Not Quite Done With Physio

Josh had what I thought could possibly be his last physio appointment this morning. He's walking really well now, he's steady on his feet and his movement looks symmetrical. But it turns out that we're not quite done yet. Josh still doesn't push himself up to a standing position from the floor. He can pull himself up while holding on to furniture, but not straight up from the floor. His therapist worked with him a little bit and eventually he did manage to do it a couple of times with guidance and support. But I can tell that it wasn't something that he liked doing so trying to get a repeat performance here at home could be difficult.

Josh doesn't have to go back to physio until August so even though he isn't yet discharged from the service he does get a nice long break.

Josh also had a speech appointment this week [on Monday]. The appointment went well but I can't say that his speech has improved much since his last appointment - from a verbal perspective anyway. He still only has a few words in his vocabulary and his baby babble is full of mostly vowel sounds. I don't hear many consonant sounds. His comprehension is awesome and his attention to others when they speak to him is phenomenal.

That being said he has improved in areas related to speech over the last month. Specifically he now points to pictures or objects in books or in and around his environment and waits for us to label it for him - to tell him what it is. I have also been teaching him some simple signs so that he can communicate with us in a way we can understand. He has done really well with this and he already has several signs that he uses on a regular basis.

The best example I can think of to show how well he is doing with signing happened last week while I was in the bathroom getting ready for work. Josh was in the bathroom with me puttering around as usual. At one point he walked over to the door and pushed it closed (not all the way) and then would swing it open again. He repeated this a few times and on the third go around he closed the door completely. He reached up for the doorknob on tippy toes and tried to turn the doorknob, but he couldn't quite twist it far enough to open the door. He fiddled with it a few moments longer and then turned to me and in a fit of exasperation shouted, "Mama!" I looked at him and said, "Yes Joshua? What's the matter?" He then did the signs for 'please' 'help'.

This is awesome for 2 reasons. One, he did the signs himself without cuing and two, he put two signs together. It was certainly a proud moment for me and it was reassuring to know that we are making progress.

Speech will continue to follow him but his next formal appointment won't be for a while. I'm going to be starting a course called It Takes Two To Talk which is a program for parents with children that have a language delay. His therapist won't see him while I am taking the course but will touch base with him when it's over. I go for an information session later this month and then I guess the course starts in April. I'm curious to see what it will be like. Apparently at some point they record a video of you and your child interacting and communicating together and then as the course goes on you critique yourself on what you did well and what you could have done better. It sounds....interesting. At any rate I'm sure it will give me lot of tools and techniques to use with Josh to help encourage and develop his speech - which is ultimately my goal for the course. There's nothing I won't do for that boy :)

I'll leave you with a cute photo of Robb and Joshua checking out the new pole Robb got at the Fishing and Outdoors Show a couple of weekends ago.
















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