Owen is having a little burst of speech at the moment, which is so cool, I know it is something we will be working on for years to come but he is really trying so hard to overcome his dyspraxia, sometimes you can see the word wanting to burst out of his mouth he is trying THAT hard - it comes out all jumbled or with only one sound (which sounds nothing like what its meant to) words like "Open" are nearly impossible for him - even though he can say "Owen" easily, for me it seems like a small step from Open to Owen but he just hasnt made it yet.
I think what has helped him with speech recently is an English as a Second Language music CD by Dream English. Because the principles of teaching ESL to children is - repetition, simple songs sung slowly and clearly and with few but repeating phrases or words, just what Owen needs ! His favourites songs are I like Apples , Its a Dog and the Color Song (I have provided the youtube links to these songs and you can also download free flashcards for each of the songs from the Dream English Website and the audio files you can download from iTunes). We have the Dream English CD and we sign and sing along to these songs almost everyday they are great preschool age songs and he absolutely loves them and asks for them over and over.
Also Owey isn't enjoying Apps on the iPad so much at the moment, because he is loving watching youtube ! so his favourtie things are
Stories
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Songs
10 little Numbers
Apple apple Aaa
Driving My Tractor (warning totally addictive !! his fav by far)
The Shape Train (there is also a number train, fruit, colors, alphabet ...etc (these are great because there is a good pause between each word which gives Owen time to have a try of each one as they come by.
Numbers Song (there are also versions in italian, spanish, german, japanese and french and both Owen and Cy love all of them !??? This song is nice and slow and repeated.
Its kinda great that he is choosing to watch things that are "good" for him and I definately think that he is learning speech from watching them over and over (well at least twice a day ;)
He is just starting to put a couple of words together when he talks, things like "there 'tis" when he finds something he has been looking for, and "Cy 'oool" (Cys at school). And the other day he said "I read it" as he sat to read a book, we all looked at each other to see who had said it - it was like the dog had suddenly spoken, I nearly fell over ! But its just a one off a tiny glimpse and then it was gone again, you can't make him repeat things like that when he sayes it, its just a moment, a flicker of fluency. I hope that with time and practice we will hear more of this kinda thing more often, rather than randomly, cause its in there !
