The world of communication

A while back I wrote about my plan to find a second speech therapist for Matt - one that had expertise and interest in communication techniques as well as language development. Well I am happy to share that we have found one and she seems brilliant. She came to visit Matt and I so we could get to know her. She even brought her CV, a description of her work philosophy and a list of parents we could phone for reference!!! I felt like we clicked with her really quickly. She has got loads of experience in working with kids who are non-verbal and so use either sign language or pictures for communication. Last week she had 2 looooong sessions with Matt to really get to know him (and me), so as to find out what he can and can't do, and to see where we should start helping him. I was really encouraged by our time together.

A few weeks back I took photos of some of Matt's things (sippy cup, bottle, mom, dad, favourite food) and laminated them. I have been helping Matt to associate the photo with the thing it represents. I hadn't started working on these as communication tools, but somehow Matt seems to have gotten the idea. He will crawl into the kitchen, and seem to intentially choose a photo on the cupboard, pick it off and then show it to me. I will give him whatever is on that photo. So I think he is starting to figure out that this is a potential communication tool. He has only recently realised that he can do something (make an action or a sound) that will send a message. Before he would reach for something because he wanted it, not thinking by reaching he was sending a message "I want that". I am so looking forward to exploring the world of communication with Matt - in fact I am so excited about it that I am even dreaming about it at night.