Maybe I'll Need Therapy After This

We are now knee-deep in speech therapy with Liam and if anything, we are more frustrated than before we started. I am aware that my level of patience is about two notches above zero, but as I work with him on certain sounds over and over and over again, I find myself wanting to pull my hair out. We're currently working on his B, M and P words since he uses the D and N sounds for them. Almost all of our conversations go something like this:

Me: Liam, say "baby."

Liam: Dady.

Me: Buh, buh, baby.

Liam: Buh, buh, dady.

Me: Liam, lips touching (while physically moving his lips). Buh, buh, baby.

Liam: Buh, buh, dady.

Me (moving on): Liam, say "mommy."

Liam: Nonny.

Me: Muh, muh, mommy.

Liam: Muh, muh, nonny.

Me: Mmmmmm.......muh, muh, mommy.

Liam: Mmmmmm.....muh, muh, nonny.

Me (inside my head): Argh!!!!!!!!

Me (out loud): OK, Buddy, good work for now. We'll work on it later.


I know he's not going to get it overnight, but it's just so frustrating for us both. I'm frustrated because the progress is so slow in coming and he's frustrated because he's trying so hard to talk, but we can't understand him.

The positive side of it all is that we are working on it while he's young. The speech therapist told me that she has seven and eight year-olds with the same issues. Can you imagine how frustrated those kids are? Another plus is that the therapist works at Sydney's elementary school, so if Liam still needs help when he turns three, we can go through the school district for speech services and keep his current therapist (at no cost to us - hurray!).

If Liam could talk, he would tell you that the positive side of all this is that he gets to eat a lot more popsicles and lollipops as we work on tongue movement exercises.

And since we try to be fair with treats, I think Sydney is enjoying that aspect as well. :)