Tough Love For The Stubborn Monkey

Tyler has speech therapy twice a week. Miss Melanie brings big bags of toys and Tyler loves to play with them all. However, he doesn't necessarily like to sit down and work. In the past few weeks he'd gotten pretty used to getting up from my lap whenever he was being asked to say something he didn't want to and wandering off to play with something else in the living room. Or he'd cuddle against me with his thumb shoved in his mouth so he could say anything. Half the time he had a little smirk on his face letting us know he wasn't really tired or incapable, he just didn't want to participate.

Since last Friday I noticed Tyler talking a lot during his play.

"Go, go, go!"

"Woof, woof"

He's also become much more consistent with me. He always says the hard c when he wants his cup, "Cu...cu...cu." "O" for open. "Up, up," to get picked up or when climbing onto my lap on the couch.

And he was making more attempts to mimic all of us when we'd read with him or when his siblings would say play with him. He's even tried to say their names.

My favorite 'improvement' is his singing. We spend a lot of time in the van driving Jace and Gracie to and from school and listening to the radio. There are certain songs that he loves to sing...and it's adorable and fun for me!

So, on Wednesday Miss Melanie and I decided that Tyler needed to focus himself during speech therapy. She gives him stamps on his hands for doing a good job. In the past he'd gotten them regardless of how I thought he did. Wednesday he didn't get stamps. And today...he did fantastic! He tried to say everything she asked and succeeded at least half the time. The half he wasn't successful it was still obvious he was trying. I was amazed! Miss Melanie was excited too! Even Tyler seemed proud of himself and had so much fun!

We went through most of the toys Miss Melanie brought with her and showed her some of Tyler's favorites from home. He did so well, and obviously responds to tough love. He got his stamps and a hug!