The ipad has given him a voice and I am continually amazed and excited with how well he is doing with it.
Something that I had heard others mention happening but I didn't really expect in our situation is increased vocalization. The longer we use the ipad the more Junior is attempting to say words himself.
At the zoo recently he was trying to mimic the sounds some of the animals made and was quite proud of himself.
Here he was ready to go for his bike ride and was telling me yes with his eye gaze(to his left) but also vocalized yes("yaaa)
Last night my sister was here and gave him his cough assist treatment. He HATES his cougher treatment and at the end my sis was teasing him about Heidi needing to be coughed. Of course he thought that was very funny. I told him that "No I don't need one but Mellisa does". He looked at me with a big smile and said "hIIEE off"(Heidi cough), he wanted to give me a cough treatment. I was laughing so hard but also wanting to jump up and down for joy because he had said a new word. He has a few words he attempts and I know what his "word approximations" mean but for him to try a new word is a very big deal.This morning his nurse was leaving and instead of his usual smile to say goodbye he actually vocallized goodbye. It came out as "I" but he is trying and that is wonderful. I am so proud of him.
When Junior was younger a speech therapist told us that if a child isn't speaking by about 6 they will never speak. Because of Junior's high palate he will never be able to speak like a typical person but thats okay. He has many word approximations that I can understand and is now attempting new words. I always say that when the "specialists" say never Junior says "watch me".
Between his ipad and word approximations his communication abilities have made a huge leap in the past few months.
I can't wait to see what the future holds.
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