"Hey Lady!"

Those of you that know me know that my youngest son Noah has some speech and language issues. At the age of 18 mos our Pediatrician was concerned about his lack of vocabulary and suggested that we do a hearing test on him to make sure that that wasn't causing his issue. He passed with flying colors and so it was determined that we would contact our school district to get him involved in a early childhood developement program.

He turned 2 in September and that's when we started home visits with a early childhood development teacher and also a speech pathologist. At first he was very upset about these strangers coming into our home. He'd have little "meltdowns" and just would not cooperate with them. Now they are his best friends. And their services have done him a world of good. At one point I was afraid that we would never talk. Now he doesn't stop. He's moved onto classroom based sessions with them and that has also done him a world of good. He's able to be in an evironment of his peers and interact with children his own age who need similar help.

We've been working with him alot on Names. Trying to teach him is name, and his brothers names. He's always been able to "say" Christian, and since he and Christian are together 24-7, that name came right away for him, but it sounds more like "Ish". He does pretty well with the older boys names as well, but sometimes all three of them are all "Cody". That's just the easier name to say I guess. Mom and Dad have always been easy for him too.

This morning we met at our home with Cheryl and Denise, his "teachers" to discuss the plan they had developed for him for the classroom this summer and into an actual pre-school next year. We were discussing our goals for the next year and I mentioned how we had been working on names with him, and that I'd like him to be able to address people by their names. (For awhile everyone was "MamaDaddy". ) They laughed and said that they too had tried to get him to call them by their names. He did pretty well catching on to saying "Cheryl". I assume that is because he saw her most often, but just recently has been spending more time with Denise. I asked if he addressed her by her name to which she responded, "Usually if he wants to talk to me or get my attention he just hits my arm and says "Hey Lady!"