What did he say?

A novelty approach to Number One Son’s speech development is by his peers who ask me to tell them which language he is speaking and what he says. Of course, I have to say that, actually, he is speaking English, which they are quite surprised of. After all, I am pretty good in telling him off in Finnish, which they can definitely hear is a foreign language. And no, most of the time I do not have a clue what he is saying. There is some hope, since he is pronouncing some words and expressions better. For example, ‘ice cream van’ is the new favourite every time he hears the easily recognisable jingle. However, if he says ‘pain’, most of the time he means ‘train’. Thus, it is easy to see why it is difficult for everybody to understand him and why there is confusion.

However, he wants to discourse, which is more than this time last year, so it is definitively progress. Next week I have an appointment with his speech therapist. I am not sure what will happen. It may be a first of the sessions to improve his pronunciation. It may be the proper referral session, so his support at school will be official. Or it may be a routine assessment. I will see.

I think, if the weather is good, we will go and see steam trains again. We did use the Great Central Railway’s family offer and rode the train on a discounted fare. Number One Son wanted to go to the children’s rides temporarily set up at the Rothley station and drive Thomas on the Garden Railway. I was not sure how well he will take to the instructions, but afterwards I thought I may be downgrading his ability and have to go and give him an opportunity. In this way I can also span the fun across multiple days!