Harry has now had sound for 5 months. It doesn’t seem very long to me but someone referred to him as not being a newbie now.
With all the progress he has made over the last few months , our expectations have been be that he would continue to develop at this extraordinary speed and before he was two years old ( so only 10 months away) he would be on par with his peers. But the reality is that that his output is directly linked to my input and I have taken my foot off the pedal a tad this last month. It is inevitable that would happen- with a family of three kids you can’t possibly put all your energy into just one child, and it wouldn’t be fair to do so even if you could.
So at 5 months post switch on Harry has the following sounds:
M- Mmm
Y- Yeah
G- Some babble with G in it
B- Brrmm
He also definitely says “uhh” for up in a variety of situations and is close to saying a version of “Bye” when someone leaves. There is even a possibility he said “car” recently but it will need to be repeated in order to be lodged as official.
This is a modest addition of sounds and “words” to the last months listing and we are thrilled that the progress is constant.
On top of all this he is integrating so well at the normal toddler activities. A weekly visit to Gymberoo allows him to climb and explore to his hearts delight- well for 30 mins anyway. He is then required to come and sit on the mat and do singing in a group. This he is not so fond of. He much prefers to maul the other babies and plant kisses on their faces. I have really landed on my feet here as the assistant informed me today that she did a 3 yr degree in Auslan (sign language) and would love to have the opportunity to practice on Harry.
How perfect when only this week we started to learn Auslan as a family.
We have also settled into a pattern of visits to Taralye, the Oral language centre for Deaf Children (www.taralye.vic.edu.au ) This is our support service and from his 2nd birthday the centre will also be able to offer Harry some sessional kinder classes with both hearing and hearing impaired kids.
Once every fortnight I visit Judy our case worker with Harry and she observes and helps me record his progress. Harry now recognises when we get out the car at Taralye and gets excited that he is going to spend time in Judy’s office which is filled with lots of great toys and activities. The sessions are very informal but we always seem to cover off a lot of things in that allocated hour. It gives me a chance to check in any concerns that may surface about how much Harry is achieving and be comforted that he is comparatively making great progress.
Harry's Ears 