Hailey's First Speech Therapy

Her first appointment went well! I think the speech therapist did the same thing a lot of people in her field do - she walked in and Hailey immediately began with some of her words and the therapist was like "she talks pretty well." She even asked if Hailey was getting other therapies (I think she thought Hailey wasn't delayed enough to only be receiving one therapy). However, since she actually knows what she is doing, she did catch on to the problems by the end. She started saying "oh she really does drop the end of every word" and "does she just say the same phrases over and over again?" and "she really blocks her words a lot, doesn't she?" She also heard that Hailey isn't making sentences really. The therapist kept saying "can you say "I want the ball?" and Hailey would say "ball" and the therapist would repeat and the most she could ever get Hailey to say was "want ball" unless she broke it down word by word to repeat. Even then, once Hailey said it word by word, the therapist would say "I want the ball" and Hailey would say "ball!" LOL Anyway, she thinks it is actually not a speech delay but a brain to mouth connection issue of some sort. She thinks Hailey has the ability to say the words because she says them if they are broken down but doesn't say them correctly independently. Basically, she drops the end of the word because it is easier and she is struggling to get the words out. She said that also accounts for her putting "a" in a lot of her phrases (that aren't learned phrases from Hannah) - there is a brief delay between her brain and her mouth. She thinks Hailey is trying and even understands that she should be saying more, which accounts for putting "ma" and "please" on to a lot of 2 word phrases. The therapist thinks it is just a matter of practice to solidify that connection and is even going to try to get Hailey bumped up to weekly therapy because she feels that this problem could be correctable by age 3, which is something I would really like if possible.

I was very pleased with the first meeting!