P and B

Wynn started speech therapy this week. She's having trouble forming some of her letters, which is often the case with cleft palate. She's struggling the most with what are, for many kids, fairly simple initial consonants - P, B, T, and D sounds. We're focusing on the P's and B's to start with.

The therapy center we found for her is FANTASTIC. Their philosophy is to get the kids playing and then find opportunities to insert the therapy naturally into the play. (Much wiser than trying to sit a two year old down and say, "Now we're going to do this.") They do both physical and speech therapy, so there's a gymnasium with a trampoline and swings. Wynn even got to pet the therapy dog on her first visit. Becca, her therapist, is very engaging, and, even though Wynn was a bit shy at first, she opened up to her big time on the second visit.

Today we played with all kinds of toys - a Big, Bouncy Ball, several Pink Pigs, and some Pictures of PuPPies to get Wynn talking. Her favorite part is when we Blow BuBBles. She yells, "Blow!", and Becca and I take turns with the BuBBle wand. Wynn chases after them and says, "PoP! PoP!" as she catches them. When she wants us to do it again, she says, "More BuBBles!"

Becca laughed at Wynn's goofball sense of humor. (She started sneaking up on Becca when she was going to blow a big bubble; she'd pop it while it was still on the wand and then giggle at her own cleverness.) She also commented on how enthusiastic Wynn is about EVERYTHING.

It's nice to see Wynn having so much fun at speech, and I'm learning a lot of little things to do with her at home to reinforce what she's learning in therapy. As we left today, Wynn said "Bye!" to Becca and then blew her a kiss. Apparently, that wasn't enough, so she went over and gave her five too.