Moments that matter

Emma and 3 has a fabulous blogger's competition in conjunction with Lloyds Bank to win an iPad Mini by blogging about our moments that mattered in 2013. Straight away my mind thought of when my son started to talk.

Now when Little Bird was born I guess I just took for granted that he would develop as most children do and would be walking around 1 years and talking around 2 years. He walked at 14 months, great! But then the words didn't happen and as time went on I started to panic and it became apparent that his development was different and very late in some areas. Last year at 3 years old there were still no words and the Child Development Team were in truth not very encouraging and they were not willing to try alternative methods at that moment in time. I cried. Of course, I had more faith as a parent would and swore I'd do whatever it took to at least try and help my little boy. We were doing all the usual methods that a parent does, nursery rhymes, games but we needed extra help.

We found a wonderful private speech and language therapist who showed us the picture exchange system (PECS) and this would enable Little Bird to ask for what he wants and should alleviate his frustration. He took to it straight away, this was in the summer time of 2013 and we practiced every day. He used it to ask for the toys that he wanted to play with and the food he wanted to eat. He put short sentences together - I want - and then the item. What it does is encourage a child to understand the point of communication as well as being able to ask for the things he wants. By the end of the summer he was a much happier boy, happy with being able to have his own voice heard through the pictures.

One day in late summer he was sat on the sofa with a beach ball that had pictures of animals on it. Suddenly he pointed at them and said 'cat, duck and dog'! The day after he picked up a bath toy and said 'fish'! Those first words were wonderful moments that matter and I shall never forget the joy I felt and the smile on my son's face.


From there more words came and although still very much delayed, we are getting more words every day. I have faith that we will get more sentences and one day we will be chatting away.