• Communication

    January 5, 2009 By in Uncategorized Leave a comment

    Despite the Christmas period, we continue on our path of appointments, these are a combination of the implant assessments and then the ongoing speech and language appointments that are provided by the PCT / Surrey education.

    Alice had her first proper session with the Kingston SLT, Mila on the 23rd December. Mila is really good with her and is much more focused on measurable achievement. After our initial assessment at Christopher Place, we have come to realise that (and this is clearly obvious to everyone but us) communication is a 2-way street and Alice needs her own language. She can certainly tell us NO these days (a beautiful pout) and has other methods but these are pretty rudimentary. Mila has given us and Alice homework to make sure that we are pushing her forward. Alice can ask for most things (through pointing) and is now doing a lovely bye-bye (with extra kisses). We are now cueing and signing with her and her ability to get her message across is developing daily. Alice understands the following;

    Mummy (cued), Daddy (cued), sleep (makaton / natural gesture), bye-bye (natural gesture, cued), kiss (home sign), drink (makaton), eat (makaton), cat (makaton), pig (makaton), where (home sign), good girl (cued), sh sh (natural gesture), wee wee (cued), poo (cued), gone (natural gesture) and we are working on dog, horse, brother and more.

    No news on the timing of the implant, but we are still hopeful of Spring….

  • Christopher Place Assessment

    December 17, 2008 By in Uncategorized Leave a comment

    We have received the details of Alice’s speech and language assessment, i don’t think there were any big surprises but the assessment is incredibly detailed. We think that therapists are just playing with her, but actually they are writing down almost everything we say and everything she does.

    Christopher Place concludes, Alice is age appropriate in attention and play, but has delays as you would expect in receptive and expressive communication. Interesting they put age ranges on these which indicate a 1 year delay already.

    It’s frightening to think that she’s already this far behind and the guilt of being the world’s worst parents continues to eat me up. But I am now even more determind to get things done as quickly as we can.

    Dear Christopher Place, we need your help, please find a space for us for Christmas. Dear Kingston PCT, pull your finger out and sign the bl**dy form.