Thursday, April 30, 2009

The One Where Skippy Learned to Swear Properly

So today I had to go to Skippy’s speech therapy class so that he and his teacher could teach me how to play a game that they do for therapy. I am trying to have faith in this process…I have to say, it is slow going. But looking back, I can see some improvement.

There was one cringeworthy day last year when I picked Skippy up from speech therapy, and his teacher had the somewhat awkward task of explaining to me that we needed to help Skippy with his swear words. At this point, I should insert this award that Stefeny over at Pike’s Pickles awarded me a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, you know I’ve earned it.


Okay, but let me just say that this one was not my fault. Last year the biggest problem with Skippy’s speech is that he left the last consonant off of every single word. We worked with flashcards for months, until he was able to put the ending consonants on his words. They aren’t usually the right consonants, since he does something called fronting, where all the sounds come off the front, so that sounds like “k,”, “g” and “r” are replaced by “t,” “d” and “w,” respectively. But at least they were there. So on this particular day, Miss Robyn informed us that we needed to work with Skippy, because several times a day, whenever he found something interesting or surprising, she was treated to Skippy’s rendition of cursing, which sounded like, Oh my Go_____! and What the He___?! And yes, for about two weeks, those expressions were an integral part of my barely-four-year-old’s vocabulary.

The speech therapy flash cards themselves provided endless fun for the family. When we started tackling the consonant sounds in the middle of words, there were a few grumbles around the house. The big boys were morally opposed, it seemed, to teaching some of the words his teacher sent home. For instance, they told me that no four-year-old boy needed to properly pronounce the word “nipple” and that particular flashcard frequently found its way into the trash, only to be replaced by the teacher at the next session. I think I’m with them. That could definitely open a whole new can of worms.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL.

I am so glad my son's speech therapist is a pastor's wife.

Keep the faith. I have seen so much improvement in Wyatt's speech since he started therapy 2 years ago.

CB said...

I bet your older kids had a hey day with that.

I hope skippy didn't get frustrated or maybe he was too young to know what all the fuss was about.

The "nipple" word - too hilarious. I don't think that is on any spelling lists I 've seen.

:D

P.S, I would love to be a the beach right now! Great picture

Della Hill said...

Don't you know that swearing is only effective when done properly?
The two times in my life that I heard my mother swear I couldn't take her seriously because she did it wrong.
And both times she was trying to make a point to me so it was a complete loss.
At least he's getting practice now, right?
My nephew has made a lot of progress since he started speech therapy. I didn't realize how common speech issues are, but that's because the kids with problems usually get them straightened out when they are kids.
-Della

Josh said...

That makes more sense. That is why I had to teach him what a nipple was. He had no clue. Unfortunately I think I taught him wrong. He thinks a nipple is the same thing as a chest.

Victoria said...

Wow, Jes...I actually don't think that when I was nursing I told the kids the milk came out of the NIPPLE. I think I told them it came out of the breast. I hope you didn't also teach Skippy how the baby got out of you to begin with. I know he was curious...but given your tendency to be so anatomically correct, now I am a little worried!

Victoria said...

And I'm not exactly sure why it seems worse to talk about nipples than breasts:)...haha! Plus nipples come on bottles, but since I never bottle-fed, the boys probably don't even realize that!

Stefany said...

YOu have totally earned this award =0)

Tyler said...

I am filing a complaint about 'McD3'. they totally blamed me for skiptastic steve being morbid. Joshica, i will not specify who said that when having the nursing conversation skatman always brought up death and that little jiffery would in fact one day leave us, same with you and jess and dad... They blamed it on me.

the end. Plus you never taught me how to swear, I had to learn it form rap songs and girlfriends.