Adventures in Speech Therapy, Part 3: Graduation Time

If you have missed the other parts of this series, you can click the links below.

Part 1

Part 2

I have nothing but good things to say about our experience with the private firm we are using in our town. My daughter's speech therapist, Claire, says my daughter has shown some of the fastest improvement she's ever seen. As far as the speech and enunciation part of the sessions, my daughter has graduated and no longer needs that therapy. I almost take hearing her speak correctly for granted now. I can't remember the last time she "slipped up" and said an "r" sound incorrectly. A couple of weeks ago, she suggested because of a vocabulary game they were playing that we start a new focus with our sessions--communication and comprehension skills.

I knew the trouble Claire was seeing in her session with my daughter is part of the Auditory Processing delay my child was diagnosed with a few years ago. Sometimes, my daughter has a different way of describing than the way most people would typically verbalize. As an English teacher and writer, I see it as both a blessing and a curse. I choose to look at the blessing side. Writers are applauded for originality and being unique. The curse comes in when people try to conform you to a prescribed way of descriptions and vocabulary. My daughter sometimes sees the world through a set of tinted glasses that I believe would make the world a better place if more people saw the world the way she does.

I am completely in favor of increasing my daughter's vocabulary. Claire had some great suggestions about what to do to work on it. Games like Taboo and other word association games are helpful, along with analogies and "Which word doesn't belong?" exercises are great for increasing them. All these are skills we can work on at home, though, and I am grateful that I have resources at home which allow us to work on improving these skills.

 

Ultimately, I arrived at this conclusion: we will be completing our final week of private therapy this week. It has been wonderful, and though I am grateful our insurance has paid for a large chunk of it, our weekly charge can be used at home to purchase skills books to work on the same things she is working on with her therapist. I will be sad that we won't see Claire and her bright personality each week, but I know that my daughter has graduated from her speech needs. I anticipate that we may be visiting Claire again with my son, so our paths may cross again in the future.

Do you have any questions about our experience? Please leave them in the comments below.

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