I jumped the paranoid gun getting Cam in early intervention- but I am glad because Sonia is his assigned child development specialist and she has given us great ideas and homework to get Cameron talking.
There are certain skills/acheivements that occur prior to talking! We have learned a lot about the process in these few short weeks since Cam started.
When Sonia comes, we work on 3 specific areas- cognition, fine motor skills, and expressive language. These are the 3 areas where he has goals and needs some catching up. Even though these are the focus, it is still important to work on receptive language, social skills, and gross motor too!
Part of his goals are reading- I have always read to him, but there is more to reading than just words. We are working to get him to point at 10 pictures on command. He does 7! He is on track and follows one step commands, and a couple of two step commands too. We know he is understanding us!
We also work on cognition- so for this, we do a lot of repetition, and giving him choices. They can't be vague, it has to be very specific with examples. We started giving him food choices- for example, I hold an apple in one hand, and a banana in another, and ask him to choose- and I show him the apple and repeat apple, then I take it away and show him the banana and say banana. Even though he points and babbles and I know which one he wants, Sonia has told us it is important to learn emotion and get frustrated. It encourages communication. Seeing the object and hearing the name in connection with the object is vital to speech. She said that children need to hear a word 100 times to know it, then another 100 times before they will try to say it. We make him wait for his choice to encourage him to say the words back to us. We also give him clothing and pajama choices. These types of daily activities also work on patience and attention span.
Sonia has stressed a major importance in repetition. I have such a hard time with this part- for example- "You want an ap-ple with lunch? I am cutting your ap-ple. Here is your ap-ple. Yummy ap-ple. Do you like your ap-ple?" and breaking down the words by syllables. We are so used to just doing these day to day tasks, it is hard to verbally announce it all and think about it!
We work on labeling EVERY action and object.
We play with toys and activities that engage his attention, and force him to focus and use fine motor skills. We pick up small coins, we squeeeze water bottles, we pop bubble wrap, we roll and squeeze play doh, sort silverware or toys by type or color, and play with toys that have buttons, knobs, latches, etc- and again just label and label every action, and give a sound effect for most actions- it is easier for them to learn words and objects when they can associate a sound or action with the object. So for example- when we pop the bubble wrap, we say, "pop! pop!" When he pets our cat- "Meow Cat! Meow Cat!" Ball- bounce bounce bounce... etc.
We also are going to get some stickers, and put them on his body parts- then label the body part as he pulls/plays with the corresponding sticker! "Foot! Toes! Belly! Nose!" etc.
It seems like a lot of playing- I feel like it has made a huge difference to just become more aware of actions and objects we take for granted every day and help label them all for Cameron. Dan and I are noticing his mental growth is just abounding every day, and we have also been reading the book of mormon to him daily.
I don't think Cameron necessarily needs early intervention now that we have started, but really, Dan and I needed it more! It has just been a process of learning about how we learn and how children develop and what they need to grow and thrive. It has made us more aware, and it is amazing how much progress we are seeing!
We also decided about 3 months ago to start working on sign language with him. That has also helped tremendously as he has a form of communication that can be understood. It is amazing how fast he picks it up too!
Sonia told us to keep working on sign too because it is a precursor to spoken language.
