I start the Hanen program tonight. It runs from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Wow. We have been through speech programs before with Walker but it has never been THAT long.

I go alone, Iain stays at home with Bill and the boys this time. I know he will come from time to time for an hour during the day and I think we schedule those times tonight. It should be interesting. I read one book and will purchase the other book tonight although I am sure it will be very similar to the one I have already.

This is the first time I am experiencing correction of a severe delay at this age. Walker was 3.5 years old when he was found to be at the 1%. I spoke to one SLP a few days ago and I was told he has a severe delay but I should find out better tonight exactly where he stands. I have redone his MacArthur Inventory of Words and so did the daycare. There is a big difference in our scoring for him as I seem to give him much more credit than anyone else does for either report. Anyway, he is learning. I am learning. We will do fine and I will let you know what to expect should you need to undergo this program.

Wish me luck!

Leigh, you got that boy to eat so I'm sure you can handle this!

I hope everything goes well.....

Good luck, leigh! May you leave there armed w/great information!

I hope it goes well!!

Good luck..... what does the Hanen Programme actually do???

I hope it goes well...looking forward to the info, I was curios about the program

How did it go Leigh???

It was good. Depressing, but good.

They started out with introductions of all of us (group anticipation of about 15 families). There were 3 instructors, two of which were SLPs and one SLP in training. They were all great and I know the 2 SLPs already so it was great. One SLP had worked with my eldest so we spent time trying to figure out where we knew each other from... lol

They did some role playing to illustrate how we communicate both verbally and non-verbally. The gist of it is to watch the cues from your child even if they are not talking at all in order to get an idea of what your child wants. It was good and very helpful for most I think.

Then they played snippets of our videos that were made at our introduction session to the program. I was so surprised which snippet of mine they played as it was just of Iain rushing to exit the room, not where he was completely ignoring everything and in his own little world. It was kind of funny to see but it was clear that Iain had no desire in the exercise he knew was going on that day. Smart cookie.

The program is called "It Takes Two" and it involves parents, gets you started early, and uses natural everyday situations to help guide us in finding opportunities for verbal and non verbal communication. The first thing was to determine WHY our child communicates and HOW they do so. I have some homework to do here. For example:

How: cries, smiles, screams, makes vowel like sounds, looks, random hand or arm movements (there are many more)

Why: to protest, to request, to get attention, to express feelings and interest, to imitate, to greet, to label or describe, to answer, to ask questions, to comment on what can not be seen.

I would answer that Iain uses screaming to protest, request, get attention, express feelings and to answer. You do this for each of the Hows to the Whys in order to gain an idea of how your child communicates.

The next stage was depressing. You are to figure out the stage of your child's communication development by answering a series of questions to put them in one of 4 categories. They would fall into:

Discoverer, Communicator, First Words User, and Combiner. Every child will progress through each of these stages with both expressive and receptive language. Often a child will understand more than what they can say so the idea of this homework is to determine where your child's skills lie. Iain is at the low end of Discoverer I find in a preliminary assessment, but he does have some skills in the upper levels too. They are emergent skills. The delay IS severe.

The main thing we learned to do tonight is "let your child lead" and it is called OWLing.

O Observe
W Wait
L Listen

In a nutshell you are to watch your child for clues and opportunities to bring in communication, no matter how small, wait for a response or initiation and be sure to listen to the child. One thing I did learn tonight is the 5 second rule. I have wondered how long is long enough as I can wait until the cows come home for Iain to initiate or respond but now I have a definate time to go by.

We have homework to do with implementing this system into our everyday lives. I am struggling a bit with some of it as I HAVE been doing a lot of this after being through it all with Walker before (not the Hanen program as per se, but many aspects of it look very familiar).

I spoke to them afterwards and they were so very great. My problems and questions for tonight were not answered as I am wondering about what on earth you do when you have a child who will NOT engage. That is next week apparently. I can hardly wait as I am foaming at the mouth to find ways to get him to engage on a consistant basis.

I did take a lot away from the session, mainly from the talk afterwards. I think I finally understand that Iain IS inconsistant and that is just Iain. He has so very much going on and we have to remember that. We have come a very long way in a short time and he was really very pressured to eat for so long (we did not know any better back then) and I did push speech for a few months too. He does not need the pressure so I have stepped back. He likely does not engage as it is so very hard for him to communicate. In time it will get better.

The main difference I find right now between Iain and Walker is that with Walker we got the instructions, did it and saw improvements. Iain is a different kettle of fish and is so very inconsistant that this is going to be hard as each day is literally different. In time it will come.

I now have another book to read called "It Takes Two". Small book, expensive, and I should be done with it by Thursday.

Overall, I think this program sounds great and will be of help. I know that I already know so much of it but it never hurts to try things again for the first time and to get some refreshers. What I think I need to do is forget what I know and just start fresh again.

Sounds like you guys are getting what you need from the program, thats great! Long day too. It's amazing the comunication we have without even realizing it most of the time. My oldest dd went to school for ASL and is beging to teach Jayden some basic signs. It was really great she was showing him the ABCs' and he put his hand out like he was going to try that.

Thanks for sharing all of that, Leigh. Is the point of this program to equip you to work with Iain, or will he start seeing an SLP but the program is just bringing you up to speed on what will take place and to simply help you learn about your own child?

Also, are you saying that Iain is stubborn or has a mind of his own or that you just never know what to expect? I see all three things in Daniel, and it really makes life difficult. (Like when the OT tries over and over again to get him to take a bite so he can put in a puzzle piece. That is so NOT my kid!) On the other hand, he can be so amazing when he wants to comply!

I hope you get a lot of insight at next week's class!

It is great Debbie. I think though that we are the only ones really giving sign language a big go. One parent told me though of a television program called "Signing Time". Anyone ever hear of it?

I havn't heard of it. Is it a cable program? I would like to check it out.

Thanks for sharing all of that, Leigh. Is the point of this program to equip you to work with Iain, or will he start seeing an SLP but the program is just bringing you up to speed on what will take place and to simply help you learn about your own child?

Also, are you saying that Iain is stubborn or has a mind of his own or that you just never know what to expect? I see all three things in Daniel, and it really makes life difficult. (Like when the OT tries over and over again to get him to take a bite so he can put in a puzzle piece. That is so NOT my kid!) On the other hand, he can be so amazing when he wants to comply!

I hope you get a lot of insight at next week's class!

It is an early intervention program. Once this is done we break until November, I think. Those who still need help will go on to the other programs and these are the ones I am familiar with since we went through it with Walker at that stage. I may get a private SLP to help in the off months as the stall would be too great for him. I know this now for certain.

Iain IS stubborn and DOES have a mind of his own, but it is really a case of I do not know what to expect. Some days we get 0 words. Nada. Nothing, not even sounds other than screamage. Other days he will imitate me, do some signs, and use a few words. His vocab is around 5 words according to the reports. I still think it is greater.

Becky, I really think that it truly does come down to control for Iain at times. He has had so much to deal with for eating and the lack of control in that but he does not find a reward yet for speech. I do not know how to explain it other than this way... Daniel is NOT interested in performing with food even in order to complete something he may truly love to do. Iain is the same way and speech right now is a great big effort for him. He spent so much time and effort on feeding that I am sort of paralleling the experience here with speech. Maybe I am wrong but it makes sense to me as tired as I am. It does not mean that Iain has the capability to be light years ahead of where he is scoring but it means that he does have some of the skills sets but either choses or cannot for whatever reason use them at this time. The same held true for feeding. Once we knew he had a swallow we understood he had the skill set but either chose or could not use it at that time. Peristance will be the key I think, same as with feeding skills.

Does that make sense?

I havn't heard of it. Is it a cable program? I would like to check it out.

She said she had sattelite. I do not so I am searching for it tonight as she said it was on Wed. mornings and was very good.

I wonder if it's on Noggin, they have a lot of good programs for pre -schoolers

Leigh...here's two links if you haven't already found them. The program looks interesting, I'm going to record it and see if Brayden will like it. (He LOVES oobi, so maybe he will)

For the stations to find it:
http://www.signingtime.com/pressroom/stationcarriage.html

And an intersting site for the kids:
http://www.signingtimekids.org/index.php

The next stage was depressing. You are to figure out the stage of your child's communication development by answering a series of questions to put them in one of 4 categories. [...] The delay IS severe. [...] Overall, I think this program sounds great and will be of help. I know that I already know so much of it but it never hurts to try things again for the first time and to get some refreshers. What I think I need to do is forget what I know and just start fresh again.
Leigh,

Evan was at the very bottom when we started that programme. Yes, that's depressing, but it does help to know. I hope you got my PM about what to expect, but it sounds like you have a really good handle on things. You're going in with a great attitude. Yes, you will know most of the info. already--I did too--but there are always a few new little things that you'll learn that you can try. My biggest thing was that Evan needed me to wait 10-20 seconds for his reply to be formulated, which was much longer than anyone else in the class, but knowing that still makes a huge difference.

Good luck with the Hannen programme, Leigh, and I look forward to hearing great things!

It sounds like a wonderful program, Leigh...thanks for updating us. I was wondering how Iain's speech progress was coming along.

Does the Hanen Program also use songs and rhymes to develop language? I worked on a U.S. Grant Project in college - alongside SLP's, and this all sounds so familiar for some reason..

Amanda, there are only signs and rhymes if the parents themselves initiate it. They're not specifically part of the programme, unless there's a newer version, that is.