Speech Therapy and Signing Time

We had a fantastic Speech Therapy session on Tuesday.

It started with my mom - she called and said "What time do I need to be there to watch the other kids?" I was planning on taking all of them because Mom had spent the entire day on Monday with us (because of various Dr visits) and I didn't want to impose. Not only did she come to watch the kids, she brought a lasagna to heat up! It was such a nice surprise and a blessing.

J-man went right in with our therapist and plopped right down in his seat. He did ask for Mr. Potato Head but Miss Judy had a bucket of puppies. These puppies jumped from word to word. Each word had a final "p" sound and he got most of the words. He even won the heart of Miss Judy. She told me that he was so full of life. My heart was so thrilled.

Today we went to Target and we were looking through the card section for the perfect card for A&EMom and he saw a fuzzy sheep card and said "Sheep" and just grinned. Mini-Me said, excitedly, "Mom! He said 'sheep'!" I looked up from the card I was considering and he said it again. I wanted to Hoot and holler. I kept it restrained to clapping with a "Yay!!" and "Good Job".
This mom is soooo proud.

Miss Judy said that we could add some signs to his day to help him along with his vocabulary. ThoughtfulMom had mentioned "Signing Time" oh so long ago. Right after we started the Speech Therapy hunt I purchased Vol. 1, Vol. 3 & Vol. 4 from Amazon. We got Vol. 1 yesterday.

J-man watched it at least 10 times. Well, that may not be accurate. Since he can operate the DVD on the computer by himself, he kept playing it and playing it. He picked up the signs for "Shoes", "Milk", "Ball", "more", "Want". And a bonus was that Mini-E picked up the sign for "milk". I'm not sure she knows what to do with it.

Mini-Me wasn't sure she was pleased at all when I made us all sit down and watch. But She finally found a happy heart when we learned the signs for "Wake up" (from the Internet) and "Daddy" from the DVD. Now we can sign our favorite phrase "Wake Up, Daddy" because The Professor likes to pretend to sleep. Which then causes the kids to yell as loud as they can (Thanks to Jeff from the Wiggles) "Wake UP Daddy!!" Now they can tap him and sign it. Hopefully saving the poor Professor's ears.

I sat down and ordered more DVD's from Amazon (because they are the same price as the SigningTimes website - but I have a trial subscription to Amazon Prime = free shipping). J-man just saw me clicking on things from "Signing Times" site and he started whining "Wa Tha" which is "Watch That" without the final sounds.

I can't wait to see the other videos. I haven't used my sign language in YEARS. I've forgotten more than I remember knowing. So it's fun remembering.

There was a downside to watching/listening to the Signing Time DVD yesterday. When Mini-E got up in the middle of the night, I got second shift at 3am. I got her to bed. I snuggled back in bed and all I could hear was "It's signing time with Alex and Leah...It's singing time with Alex and Leah...come and play". Of course, the final song makes me cry.

If it helps J-man communicate, I'll be glad to listen.