Today we had our 3 month early intervention progress meeting. I am so proud of baby G and what she’s accomplished over the past 3 months. Grace started early intervention OT March 9. At the time, her 3 goals were 1) hold her head up during tummy time, 2) roll both ways, 3) sit up. It’s crazy for me to think that a short 3 months ago during tummy time Grace would just lay with her head down and suck her thumb. This past week Grace started sitting independently without toppling over!
We decided that over the next 3 months we hope she will be crawling and pulling up to stand. At the end of the meeting we shared our concerns about Grace’s speech development. According to the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association (ASHA), children should make speech-like babbling sounds like pa, ba, and, mi between 4-6 months. They should start canonical babbling (bababa) between 7-12 months. Although Grace isn’t “behind” yet, since she’s predisposed to have a delay, we thought it was important to get the feedback of an SLP who specializes in early speech/language development.
A few thoughts/tips I had today:
1. Although I am a great SLP, I am not an expert at everything. Yes, in graduate school I took classes in all areas of speech pathology. However, I’ve spent the majority of my 6 years working as an SLP focusing on language-based learning disabilities, executive functioning, and social pragmatic language. Would I be comfortable treating a patient with dysphagia now? Absolutely not. Are there other SLPs that specialize in ages birth-3? Yes. Should I try to get their help? Definitely.
2. Did you know that you can just ask for services in early intervention? Because so much of EI is family-centered, expressing your concerns can result in services. A few weeks ago we reached out to a friend who is an SLP asking if she’d be willing to do a private speech evaluation. She referred us to another SLP who told us that if we brought up our concerns to our case manager, a speech consult could be added to Grace’s IFSP easily!
3. Search out other resources. It’s AMAZING what fabulous, parent-friendly information SLPs have produced. I have found The SLT Scrapbook and Speech Sisters to be very valuable resources. While some speech/language strategies I feel like I’m doing well, teaching my husband to use these strategies has been more challenging. Having him read these resources has been so helpful.
Can’t wait to share more of Grace’s progress!
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