Speech Therapy

So Joshua's just been approved for continuing speech therapy once a week at school. He was just outside the district's criteria for determining eligibility, but when his teacher threw in the fact that he no longer will read in front of his class, knowing they won't understand him, it sealed the deal.

His therapist has spent his last couple of sessions working on the /sh/ sound. In his normal speech, it comes out as /s/. He CAN pronounce /sh/, it just takes extra work, and battling old habits.

Yesterday morning the boys and I all went to the store. Walking through the aisles, Josh all of a sudden pronounced "I CAN SAY THE /SH/ SOUND!" He was very excited (so was I), and he immediately made up a game for himself: combining the /sh/ sound with other words.

Yeah, you know where this is headed.

A few minutes later he tells Ben "I'm gonna combine /sh/ with 'sit': SHHHHHHH**!" And they both immediately covered their mouths and jumped. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen or heard. I started laughing so hard I could barely breathe. They both were grinning but not sure if Josh was busted or not. "It was an accident! It was an accident!" I told them I knew it was an accident, and that's why I was laughing instead of ripping anybody a new one. Then I just double-checked that Josh understood that was a bad word, gave him a hug, and moved on.

However, from then on I just provided words for Josh to pronounce, instead of leaving him to make up his own. We were in public, after all.

On a more serious note, it really WAS exciting to hear him pronouncing all these words properly. The word "carwash" has never given me such a thrill! It reminded me of watching him with his first pair of glasses (when he was about 2), just seeing this new world open up for him. Awesomeness.