Benjamin's Speech

I compose so many posts mentally, and then life happens, and I look up and my mental posts are very outdated.  So, I've been planning this post for Benjamin for quite awhile.  Here goes.

Benjamin continues to enjoy visits from his speech therapist twice a month.  Since his visit from her just over a couple of weeks ago, his vocabulary seems to be exploding, and I've been so thankful.  Her goal for him has been to create two-word sentences or phrases, which is what two-year-olds should be doing, but he has been pushing back and won't do it.  However, his repertoire of words that are spontaneous and easy to understand just grows and grows, and it has been so fun to hear!  Since his babyhood has been the hardest to document, I have tried to jot down some of the words he has come up with during those two weeks.  Here are a few - and I know this is mostly for my memory, but you're welcome to read along if you like:

banana, body, lotion, penny, muffin, raisins, napkin, sorry, buckle, button, sad, watch, water, robot, almond (aaaa-mond, of course,) listen, cookie, bag, bed, heavy, potty, hammer, yucky, honey, boy, messy, more

As I mentioned, he has mostly refused to do the two-word thing, but every once in awhile, he'd use two words together, with little gaps in between, like this:

"mine warm," "one piece," "hello phone," "Todd book."  And once he said, "sit...up...high."  So, I knew there were some two-word combinations in there waiting to get out.

At his most recent therapy session this past week, his therapist continued to be surprised he wasn't using two words together yet since his vocabulary was growing so much.  He wouldn't say the simple phrases she suggested to him like, "Bye, book!" But, he would slip in a more interesting one like "other shoe."  He still mostly refused to put words together.  One word at a time was working just fine for Benjamin.  She said that he was testing above-age for his receptive speech, but the one thing that was holding him back expressively was the obstacle of two-word sentences.  She was really happy with how much more clearly and spontaneously he's speaking.

The day after his session, he started putting his words together, and started using new words like crazy. He keeps saying words that he's never used before, like words from books we haven't read in awhile or places we haven't been awhile, and putting the more familiar words into combinations.  It has been so encouraging to me - even thrilling - to know that he was listening to me - and us - during all the time that I felt like I was just bashing my head against a brick wall with him.  We're still working hard and are planning on making a lot more progress, but I'm so happy and thankful for the gains I have seen Benjamin make recently.

I have said it with my other kids, but this is the first time I've been able to say it with Benjamin:  I love the learning-to-talk stage!  (When they are actually learning to talk, of course!)