Holden's Signs

Back in October, for Holden's 18-month check-up, our doctor told us he was behind schedule for talking. He encouraged us to start Holden in speech therapy. Nathan and I knew this would be a positive thing to start Holden in, and no matter what, the speech therapist could at least help us to help Holden speak correctly.

There was just the one slight distraction we had in our lives - a new baby girl! I resolved to give myself a few months with Maura before embarking on enrolling Holden into speech therapy.

Come January, I began the task of contacting the county and setting up appointments to have Holden analyzed and assessed. Our service coordinator, Janise, came out to the house and observed Holden, and spent two hours with Nathan and me asking questions about his development, his speech, etc. While we all walked away noting that Holden does have a speech delay, Janise was ever so graceful in also pointing out how advanced he is in fine and gross motor skills.

Our next step is to have Holden evaluated by actual speech and occupational therapists on March 1st, and to formulate an action plan. I'm very excited about this because I cannot wait to give Holden the gift of speech. It is a very powerful tool, after all.

While we wait for our March 1st appointment, Nathan and I were tasked with writing down the words Holden actual says (Mama, Dada, Outside, Apple, Ball, Bubble) and also all of the signs Holden knows. We were surprised at how many signs Holden has picked up in a year. While we have taught him a few, Holden has learned most of them from "Signing Time" - his absolute favorite show. Thank you Rachel, Alex and Leah for teaching our son one form of communication!

Here are all of the signs Holden uses and understands:
Again
Airplane
All-Done
Apple
Awake
Ball
Banana
Bath
Bear
Bike
Bird
Block
Book
Boots
Bug
Build
Bus
Car
Cat
Caterpillar
Cereal
Chair
Cheese
Clean
Climb
Cold
Cracker
Dirty
Drink
Fish
Football
Fork
Friends
Go
Grapes
Hat
Helicopter
Hot
Hurt
Knife
Light
Mail
Milk
More
Napkin
One
Open
Peas
Pillow
Playground
Please
Rain
Sandwich
Shoes
Sleep
Socks
Sorry
Star
Starfish
Store
Thank You
Tomato
Train
Trash
Tree
Up
Water
Work
Yes