Conversation

I seem to have a lack of photos at present so this piano lesson one will have to do!

Today I sat listening to Toby with his truly fabulous tutor.….because they were actually having an extended two way conversation. The tutor asked Toby some questions, but Toby then indicated to his superhero jigsaw and also that he wanted to write about it. The tutor understood and started asking questions like which superhero Toby wanted to write about. He wanted the Hulk. She asked about his colour and Toby said Green. But the way she skilfully did it meant that it was not a series of questions, but a proper two way prolonged conversation.

I‘m seeing much more conversation in real life. So instead of simply saying ‘Bye’, Toby will say his version of ‘love you’. He frequently engages Rosanna by saying her name and then what he wants. The more Toby speaks, the more conversation we give back. That may sound a ridiculous thing to say, but I’ve spent years talking to myself. Now I’m having to create openings for Toby to say ‘yes‘ or ‘no‘ but also to extend that into words too. You may wonder why that’s not happened in the past….but when you have a mute child with zero interest in communicating, there's no need. Now finally conversations are opening up between us and it’s so lovely to see and hear. It gives me huge hope that Toby will properly speak.

Toby is getting a lot of speech therapy currently and it’s really paying off. We have wound Toby back to simply doing vowel sounds, and making him understand the parts of his mouth and voice including sucking, blowing, bubbles, tongue movements etc. We then have added some consonants in, and we are working on moving from one sound to another. We are trying to ingrain sounds so that they are made unconsciously rather than consciously. It’s working….and I’m so hopeful and happy.

*Edit*

After I wrote this we went to pick Rosie up from Guides. I asked Toby:

“Where are we going. To get….”

Toby said:

“Rosie school!”

I said:

“Not quite. We are going to Guides.”

“Then where are we going?”

Toby said:

“Home”

When Rosie came out Toby shouted:

”Rosie there”!

This conversation was unimaginable a few weeks ago.