The Menininho had his first speech therapy appointment yesterday. FINALLY! His speech therapist is a guy, which was a little surprising to me just because I’ve never met a male speech therapist, but hey, that’s cool (let’s call him The Man from now on). Overall I really liked his methods, such as immediately rewarding M. after moving his hands into a sign once, then saying YAAAAY. The speech therapist we’d seen for the initial evaluation, whom I wasn’t fond of, insisted we move his hands into the sign ten times before rewarding him, which just led to a really angry toddler. Menininho actually responded amazingly well to the shorter method and by the end of the session, although he couldn’t make the sign, would mimic YAAAAAY after his hands were made into the sign for “more” (the sign of the session). This was huge and I pray this kind of improvement continues.

The Man was also willing to be flexible with his planned activities. For instance, when he saw Menininho was interested in playing with goldfish, he let him do that for quite awhile, all the time practicing “more.” But eventually, he guided M. to other activities as well so that he could assess his adaptability and sorting skills.

Yes, there were a few things that I wasn’t 100% happy about, but hearing that YAHHHH from my son over and over again is enough to keep me happy for now. Mimicking sounds just isn’t something he’s really done before. Even better, it continued after the session and into the evening. 🙂