About three months ago just before my sons 11th birthday I received a letter from his speech and language therapists informing me that she no longer needed to visit the school to give my son speech and language lessons as she felt he was doing just fine on his own. He was being 'discharged' as she put it. That small piece of paper representing many years of work from many different people. In affect saying we had succeeded, all of us,  in our hard work. A proud moment and one that underlines the belief that early diagnosis is key.

When I think that my son was well over four years old before he could even form a sentence,  to his command of language now. I find it truly astounding, but then I did not attend school with him nor did I attend  his speech and language sessions or his social skills classes. So I did not witness the slow progress he was making as it was happening. I was however there to have conversations with him when ever he wanted to speak,  I find that I have developed the habit now of turning off the radio in the car or stopping what I am doing if he has something to say, so that I can give him my complete attention.

We were told very soon after his diagnosis that any kind of encouragement was vital in his progress. So to compliment him when he spoke,  and when he put more than two words together, also when he used words instead of noises when communicating, was of extreme importance. What was not explained was how to get him to understand that he was in fact being complemented. Since his grasp of language was so basic and his response to anything I said to him was usually no response at all. I was at first at a complete loss as to how to make him understand that I was, in fact encouraging him.

I learnt though over time,  that accentuating everything I said,  and using very pronounced inflection when I read to him was having an effect,  and he started to show glimmers of understanding. My theory is that he understood what was being said to him but he did not understand what the need for language was, almost as if he was sending me pictures into my mind, (I did not receive those pictures) of what it was he wanted to convey. Now if it just happened that a picture he was sending coincided with me giving him food or taking him to the toilet or whatever,  then my pre empting his needs was only encouraging him to talk less. So I developed a technique of waiting,  until he used noises or even language to ask me for something,  and then getting very positively animated when he did. I devised a game,  were I would throw one of his soft toys from one room in the house to another, he loved running after the toy to retrieve it, and it was at these times of heightened emotion on his part that I would talk to him with very exaggerated facial expressions and accentuated inflection.  It took a bit of discipline on my part but it did make a difference ...