From gibberish to "I want..."

Dallin and Jason

Dallin is speaking more!!!

As some of you know, under the recommendation of one of Dallin's doctors, he's been doing speech therapy for the past few months. Jason, Dallin's speech therapist, does home visits and brings his bag and tub of "goodies" to work with Dallin on a one-on-one basis. Jason has some of the coolest toys and games, which Dallin looks forward to playing with and Hinckley is always more than eager to get his hands on. Dallin also attends a speech therapy "play group" twice a week. This is all done to help teach and motivate Dallin to speak more and to do it clearly. His therapist and play group use sign language, structured games/lessons (singing, art/craft, snack and reading time at his play group). For those of you who didn't know, Dallin has had delayed speech due to a whole year's worth of severe ear infections which hindered his ability to hear when he was about a year old and that was added to a medical condition he has called, laryngomalacia, which he's had 2 operations so far. He's been such a trooper. We're praying and hoping that with time, it will improve and we won't have to put him through another operation. Since Dallin's second operation for laryngomalacia, he's had (ear) tubes inserted. He has made such great improvements in his speech and we've been extremely happy with his progress. Before therapy, Dallin mumbled a lot and could make out a few single words for sentences. Believe me, life in our home for Dallin was difficult at times and he would throw tantrums when he wasn't being understood. Then the therapy started and now he's able to make complete 3-4 word sentences. Dallin's world is becoming much easier now and life is so much more pleasant. We still do sign language for some words with him, and he's learned other signs from his therapist and his play group for words he struggles with. I am a firm believer that teaching your children sign language is a great tool for communicating, especially if you have a child like my sweet Dallin. Jason's last report (from his visit this past Wednesday), stated:

"Dallin is talking more than ever. He initiates interactions and changes how he says some thing to match a model. If he is not understood he makes reparations until he is understood ..."

I am so proud of Dallin. He's been through so much and thanks to Jason and the play group, we expect Dallin to be up to par by the end of the year!