Thursday, January 27, 2011
My Future Lawyer
Nolan has been giving our (wonderful) speech language pathologist a hard time when it comes to speech lately. He has the slightly disagreeable trait of always believing he is right, and nothing in the world can convince him he is in error.
The other day, he refused to put his hearing aids on. We tried to show him that he was missing sounds without his aids on. When our SLP said, "Let's put your hearing aids on first," Nolan replied, "NO, I don't want them on horse."
The stalwart SLP said, "Listen: F-IR-S-T."
Nolan, sans hearing aids, replied, "HWF-IR-S"
SLP: "You need your hearing aids: there are FOUR sounds. F-IR-S-T."
Nolan: "NO! There are THREE sounds. Listen! HWF-IR-S."
Of course, he was right: he was only hearing three sounds, so there was no way to convince him of four. After a brief struggle, the hearing aids were on, but he refused to concede the point (the elusive final /t/ showed up throughout the course of the day, though)!
He has had similar arguments over "front sounds" and "back sounds." Nolan uses a /D/ for /G/, and a /T/ for /K/. This is called fronting, and it is entirely normal for a three year old. Unfortunately, when we tell Nolan that "Car" begins with a "back" sound, he shouts, "No! Tar starts with a front sound!" It is hard to argue: "tar" does begin with a front sound! He needs the visual to get the "K" phoneme out of the word, and he can produce it correctly when watching us make the sound. If he isn't looking at us, though, he can't hear the difference (they are similar sounds).
I never imagined my child-in-hearing-aids would be so extremely verbal, and the little negotiator/lawyer of the family. Goodness gracious, every conversation in this house becomes a debate with the little guy!
I suppose the good news is that lawyers earn a good living: he might be giving us grief now, but perhaps he'll support us in our old age!
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6 comments:
HA HA HA!
Oh Leah, I sympathize!
The good news is that his strong, determined spirit will serve him well, through years of conquering challenges.
(Easy for ME to see the bright side, from across the country!)
How did you make that picture?! Looks like you did a pencil drawing, or is it some kind of effect?
Julie
Prisha too had issues with T D G P B , but we helped by asking her to say both words with the alphabets and she heard and made out the difference and really worked for us.But you and he would eventually move forward slowly despite all the frustrations.All the best.
That is hilarious how he's telling the SLP how it is. LOL. At least he's talking to her, Aiden still won't say A WORD in our sessions! and Aiden calls his sister, "Taywin".
When we were visiting a preschool for Aiden, we observed a speech session where they were practicing the hard 'c' sound and the therapist would put her fingers on her throat to show that's where the sound is made. I've been using the same trick on Aiden and we've actually started to hear it when he says "cookie" (although garbled).
Lauren's issues are with P, B, and M... some times she gets them all perfect, then she starts to smile and can't get her lips together and smile at the same time. We see the SLP this afternoon. It will be interesting to hear her response to this particular observation...
I often wonder at what age they'll realize they shouldn't argue about things they mishear. Maybe never.
Leah,
Kinda quiet on your end... everything okay?
Julie
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