Ian is finally mimicking something verbally! He began in speech therapy on Wednesday. It's just a breathing sound, like the beginning of hi and he'll do it over and over. We are trying to work it up to a hi and sometimes he'll make a sound afterward but not yet hi. We're trying hi, horse, hot, here, just about anything. This is a start. It's huge actually! And this is why I love our new speech therapists. They do it all, take whatever they can and make it into something.
He's also grabbing the right cards for things he wants. I have a stack of cards for when we are going to eat, read, drink. It's just the beginning of this system as well. For his birthday, Lila made him some more cards including Thomas's, Piggies, Wash Lila. I'll upload them to show. They are adorable! We were having our lunch picnic yesterday (we get out of PM at 11:30 and have to pick up Lila at 12:45 so we drive to the wonderful park across the street from her school and have a picnic lunch) and he kept going through the stack of cards looking for the piggies one so I'd do one of his favorites "this little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home... So fun to see him be able to get what he wants by a clear form of communication.
His sign for "want" is now solid and done on his own, without me even having to touch his wrists like I had to do for so long. It's a step and I'll take it!
We saw his neuro on Thursday. I really need to change docs. It's just not a good fit. She always looks at him and just says surprisingly, he's doing very well, look at him. But she's not a fan of alternative meds/supplements. And not super informative as to what's going on in his brain from what she can see by his MRI. Any questions I ask, for instance about the comment stating his white matter is strange, she just says, that's his condition. She does know Dr. Dobyn's, the research specialist in Seattle who specializes in brain malformations. And she made a comment about a supplement he suggests to help with the developmental delays caused by his malformations. Saying I should use that instead of all of this other stuff from these other people. Of course I called immediately to Dr. Dobyn's office to find out and they don't know what she's talking about. Strange.
She also asked the question, which our ped has asked before and something that has been on my mind quite a lot, does he use an electronic device to communicate? This has been on my mind since last July when the therapist at NAPA got him to tap the iPad to communicate "more". At the time I wasn't interested in it at all. I just wanted him to get his words back. But now, I think about it quite often. Our speech therapists, at the group at Pediatric Minds, are working on many modes of communication. Not quite that form yet. So we'll take it step by step.
I posted to a couple of my SN groups and found a doc in Pasadena who was highly recommended by a few people. I made an appt with her for July. She's connected to CHLA which is good since most of our other specialists are there. I'm excited to check her out. I've been thinking about it for a year or so. It's definitely time.
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