Speech Therapy

Monkey started speech therapy this week. There is so much that goes on in my head in regards to her being delayed. I can tell that there is so much going on in her head too. I think her and I and anyone who has to try to communicate with her is just very thankful and relieved that we get help now.
The evaluation was so hard and the lady wasn't exactly awesome. In fact she kinda snickered and laughed at how badly Monkey's articulation is. This of course Monkey picked up on and about half way through the testing process said no, and went and sat in the corner. There were tears and begging and bubbles. I think that lady kinda forgot she was working with a child and had been focusing on her student, who I assume she had never been allowed to have before. She did change her tune and figure out what she had done. She didn't ever apologize to Monkey though, which I think she should have.
Anyways, after the evaluation Monkey started trying to talk more. She is a bit of a perfectionist. She is one of those kids who stood FOREVER and never tried to take a step. Then one day she just stood completely on her own took a dozen steps, and then perfectly sat down again. She didn't even wobble one time. You have to practice talking to get it right though. You can't just start doing it suddenly and perfectly. They don't make walkers for talking. This I think has been part of the problem.
Anyways, she is in therapy now! I was expecting them to send home exercises for me, but I was not expecting her to actually have homework at 2 years old. It made me laugh, it is just a little puzzle and something fun for us to do, but still the idea is kinda silly. Can you imagine talking to a friend at the park and hearing her say "Come on honey lets go home and do your homework" to her two year old. I mean okay Monkey turns three in a week but still, you'd probably be standing their with her mouth open for a moment.
I'll do updates about the speech therapy every week because I think that if your kid is a little behind this information could be helpful for you too.
So this month they are focusing on some particular vocabulary and a big thing with speech is repeition.
So we are singing
5 gingerbread men on a tray
one jumped off and ran away
catch me, oh catch me, catch me if you can
I am pretty fast I am the gingerbread man
of course you repeat this until there are no gingerbread men left.

With this two of the vocabulary words are fast and slow
So I decided to make  game up so she can work on listening to directions which also helps build language skills. It is really easy, you wave your hands fast and then slow. Then she takes a turn giving the directions for mommy to wave her hands.
Other vocabulary words are prepositions such as on, behind, over, and such so we are going to add putting our hands ON our head and BEHIND out back later this week.

I told you that she started trying to use her words more after the evaluation but after one therapy class I can see her talk with confidence, I still can't understand her but she doesn't care she is talking and she is proud.
So maybe I will get to have conversations with her before her imagination wanes and get a glimpse inside the world of childhood, which we've so long ago forgotten about and can only be reminded of through our children.