Owens speech and ability to communicate has always been one of my most prominent worries. Communication skills are vital to enable Owen to interact, form relationships, to communicate his thoughts and ideas, to learn and potentially work. Communication is undoubtedly the key to fully participating in the world we live in and to independence.
Before this appointment I had lots of thoughts going through my head.. What if they told me "No... nothing we can do, he won't be able to speak or communicate"? What if? What if? Always so many questions.
I was pleased to find that the speech therapist was the same lovely lady that worked with Lilly before she started school. Firstly I was relieved that she had obviously studied Owens notes before she came to me. That meant I didn't have to spend the first half of our appointment going through Owens "Medical Back History" ( its a long and complicated one as you can imagine)
Owen can only make vowel sounds, but does so more frequently, particularly when playing. Owen has his own ways to communicate his needs.. facial expressions, different cries, body language etc.. She said this was all such a positive sign.
The speech therapist said we could start using a few Makaton signs for him, like the sign for "more" (Makaton is the sign language Mr Tumble uses) At the moment his high muscle tone will not allow him to sign himself, but hopefully in time this will be a real possibility. I will also attend a course at some point all about Makaton signing.
Unfortunately there is a 6 month waiting list for speech therapy. Although the Speech Therapist said she will be visiting the Opportunity Class we attend, so will see Owen there in the meantime.
(Opportunity class is an early invention, teaching parent, special needs playgroup. I attend a weekly session with Owen and Florence during term time. It is basically like a playgroup/nursery that parents attend with their children, except the children attending have various additional needs. The "teachers" are highly a specialised early years for children with special/additional needs.)
The assessment was soon over and she said that many of Owens problems were probably more developmental delays than anything, she also said when leaving that she really looked forward to working with Owen and his family. She left me with plentiful of ideas, but most of all she left me with HOPE.
No particular reason for this picture of Owen other I just love it. xxx
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