Developmental Update

No cutesy pictures of the little angel this time, just some info on Josh's development. He officially finished up working with his speech therapist, since they go by the school year. Josh didn't make as much of an improvement as they'd like to see, so he has qualified for another year of early intervention in-home therapy. Let me just say right away how thankful I am for a government program that actually seems to work effectively. Would Josh have developed faster if we had taken him to a private therapist? Perhaps, but this service is free and I think the pace is appropriate for him. I don't want to cram a bunch of therapy sessions down his throat because I'm becoming more accepting of the fact that Josh just does things on his own schedule.

There are two steps next in Josh's game plan. The first is to obviously continue working on his language skills. Observation and imitation (the two most common forms of learning for babies) just doesn't seem to work with him. He doesn't talk in recognizable words. Even "Mama" and "Dada" are pretty inconsistent. We're making up some laminated pictures to velcro to a board with simple graphics of things like "cup" and "food" and "bed" to see if we can get him to point to a sign when he wants something. I've also been working on sign language with him since March. Josh is awesome at signing "more" but hasn't really grasped other signs. Every once in a while he will sign for "cup" or "food" but by that I mean he might sign for it twice one day, and then never sign it again for two weeks.

The second part of the plan is a behavioral assessment. This will take place on Friday. Since his previous speech therapist won't be available to work with him next school year, she suggested that getting a therapist who also had a background in behavior management might be helpful. Josh is becoming very difficult to control because of his size and strength. Because he can't communicate what he wants, he throws HUGE temper tantrums at the drop of a hat. He has started hitting me, as well as throwing things. It only takes some small little thing to push him over the edge. He will also pound his head against things when he gets mad. Luckily the kid isn't dumb and only pounds his head against soft things like pillows or the couch, but it's upsetting to see him get so mad.

I've tried all the standard things like ignoring him, putting him in his crib for a timeout, walking away and not giving in. I'd like to think that I'm doing everything as well as I can, but it just isn't helping to curb the behavior. It's actually getting worse, with tantrums sometimes lasting as long as an hour. This happens on almost a daily basis. With a baby coming, we really need to get this under control.

So we'll see how things go when the therapist comes to visit on Friday. I'm sure Murphy's Law will prevail and Josh will be a sweet, mild-mannered kid when they come, but hopefully I'll be able to properly explain Josh's behavior so that they understand what life is like on a daily basis for us right now. Wish us luck!