Mavi's Speech

At 18 months I knew that Mavi's speech was behind where it should have been. I talked to the pediatrician about it and he said to wait until he turned 2 before we did anything about it.  We waited, and when he still only said "Mama" at two, and it meant both Sean and me, we knew we needed to intervene. The same week he turned 2 we moved to Washington for six weeks on our way to Hawaii. Once we got here, it took us awhile to establish insurance, a primary care provider, etc.  While trying to figure all this stuff out, we found out about a place called Easter Seals.  I called them up and instantly we had an appointment with them. We did intake paperwork, set up an evaluation, and got lots of questions answered. After Mavi's eval, they determined that he qualified for in-home speech therapy once a week. This was in November.

After Mavi's evaluation, but before his first appointment, something clicked in his mind. He must have known we were serious about his talking because it happened. He's a talker! He went from saying literally five words (Mama, moo, woof, meow, shoes) to adding new words daily. Asher was his next word which illustrates the special bond that they have. But here, barely three months later, Mavi is saying hundreds of words, spontaneously says 5-7 word sentences, is using possessive pronouns (Asher: That's mine. Mavi: It's yours?) and is adding new words to his vocabulary every day. He got a giraffe for Christmas and he used to call her Baff, but this last week figured out how to say "giraffe" all on his own. He has completely obliterated all of our goals we had for him by the time he reached three years old, and is even ahead of his age for some things (like stringing together more words than is expected of him).

We knew he was smart. We knew he understood everything we were saying. He just didn't really have an interest in speaking. But now that he has an interest, he is revealing all of the knowledge that he's been harboring in that brain of his. We are so proud of him and his progress, and by the time he graduates this program when he turns three in June, he will have no need for speech therapy at all anymore. It's been such an incredible experience to see his language explode like it has!