NotSheep

Scratchy had today off - it’s not a public holiday here (we get Monday and Tuesday instead) but Toby had an appointment for a speech therapy assessment. Although he’s only 20 months, speech delays are often associated with his condition, so when we received the diagnosis, we requested an assessment for two reasons: one, to give us a chance to speak with someone who could give us suggestions for how we could help him, and two, to get us on the waiting-list for actual speech therapy, rather than waiting until he was two or three years old and then having to wait for months. The assessment took nearly six months to come through, so that seems to have been a wise move.

Right now Toby has a few sounds that sound like words but not any real words. He does use lots of appropriate intonation though, and copies much of what he sees, and these are good signs. I can see his speech developing; it’s just a bit late. He understands everything we say, and a delay in itself doesn’t worry me; he won’t be going to nursery school, so it’s not a big deal if he’s not speaking clearly by the age that would usually start (which is three, here).

The appointment went well, although Toby slept through most of it The speech therapist was positive and pleasant and agreed with me when I had a moan about their pre-assessment form (which you post back to them before you get an appointment) being non-breastfeeding-friendly - questions like, “Does your child still take a bottle? If not, when did he/she stop?” - I see the need for the questions but feel they could be phrased in a way that doesn’t normalise formula-feeding. Anyway, I digress… the SLT gave us lots of information and suggestions about what we could do, and said she felt Toby was doing everything he needed to be doing, and that lots of children this age don’t have any “English words”, so she wasn’t particularly concerned. She’s suggested that she assesses him again in a year (though is happy to see us sooner if we feel it would be useful) - and since we’ve had the initial assessment, we shouldn’t have to wait more than a couple of weeks for an appointment. So we got exactly what we wanted out of this appointment

In the meantime, Scratchy took George, Freddy and Jack to W5, where there were lots of extra activities laid on because of Easter, including “The Great Eggscape: Barnyard Breakout”, in which they got small egg-shaped toys along the lines of Mr Potato Head, had to build their creature, and then raced them in Lego Racers. They all had a great time; however there are no photos (a first: a W5 visit and no pics!) because Scratchy forgot to take the camera and I forgot to remind him. He did have his phone, but a) it takes lousy photos and b) its battery was dead, so you’ll just have to use your imagination

This evening Barney and his French family will be driving north about 700 km to visit his “French grandmother”, and then on Monday they’ll drive another 400 km to visit his “German grandmother”, who lives near Frankfurt. What an international child: grandmothers in France, Germany, Ireland and Canada - and that last one originally from China! This week has been better for him than last week was (thank goodness), and I think this trip (and some time off school) is good timing for him. We’ll be talking to him tomorrow, so I’ll update then