Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Update on Graham!!!

We just got home from a LONG day at the hospital, and wanted to quickly share the great news!!
GRAHAM'S HEARING IS PERFECT!!! THE SURGERY WAS A GREAT SUCCESS!!! PRAISE GOD!!!
More tomorrow!

1 comments:

Christy said...

AMEN!!! That is sooooooooooo wonderful!!! Things'll be kickin in now! Emphasize and label sounds he may have been missing... pots and pans, door creaks, whispering, whistles, rain, toy sounds, etc. etc. Go on a sound hunt. (You'll need another adult for this one...) Take a noisy item (familiar toy with a bell, a drum, an animal toy that makes a sound, etc.) and have the other adult hide with it... you and your son will seek out the toy/item/noise just by listening for the sound. Ask, "Where is it?" and go find it with him. They generally love hide and seek so this will be fun for whole family. Brother and sister can help "hide" and make noises. Even giggling can be found. :-)

I'd really encourage you to just push push push the language and speech modeling. If he says something, repeat it back with the corrected sounds (but don't be obnoxious about it or he may get annoyed with you).

Use a big mirror with him so he can watch you and himself talking up close. Play with sounds your teeth and tongue make: /t, s, f, th/, etc. Babble them (ex. "tuh tuh tuh, sah, sah sah",etc.) Silly sounds are great in that they make the kid giggle and he'll get the opportunity to play with the sounds out of context.

Keep using two to three-word sentences with him to keep it simple, allowing him to catch up. He'll likely pick up what his sibs are teaching him too.

Turn-taking games are excellent as they are good opportunity to model speech turn-taking too. My nephew (and most all my students) love the Ice Cream Scoop game (Fisher Price, I think). Great for vocabulary and emphasizing speech sounds: /s/ in "strawberry", /r/ in "rasberries", etc. They love the sound the scooper makes too.

I hope I was able to give you a few ideas that will help. I am always available via phone. ;-) My cell: 913-645-9455

Miss you! I'm SOOOOO happy for your good news!!!!