Geno's Words

Today Geno had his first appointment with Tabea Ziegler, his speech therapist. She stated that she has taught for 11 years with young kids and has been working in this office taking care of the needs of children from age 0-7. She stated that the services are all provided free of charge from the canton of Zug and that today she would ask me some specific questions about Geno. She was here for an hour and a half. She plans to come and do therapy play with Geno for the next three Thursdays at 10:30 am, and then meet with us again to see what our plan will be from there.

She stated that she thinks from what she could tell today, that Geno is just a little bit behind. He has the beginning stages of stringing words together, and that most children will be speaking understandably and conversational by three.

I really felt comfortable with her as well. She gave me a couple of pamphlets with checklists to fill out, and these should help guide the process. The manual is called the Vademecum which is an overall view of the physical, linguistic, and social development of a child from birth to the third year. It is typically used by doctors, nurses, child advisors, special educationalists, psychologists, and therapists. This helps them gain an impression of the activities of the child in his familiar surroundings and from the rate of development as seen by the parents.

These are the words Geno can say so far:
Animals:
1. Cow
2. Pi (pig)
3. Mow (mouse)
4. Bee
Animal Sounds:
5. Moo for cow
6. Woof (ooo,000) for dog
7. ooo,ooo for Monkey and scratches his head
8. Du Du (Quack)
9. Meow for Kitty
10. Tweet for bird

Rar (roar of lion)

People:
11. Ma (Mom)
12. Daddy
13. Char-ee (Charlie the dog)
14. Bar-ee (Coretta)
15. Poo (Winnie the Pooh)
Other words
16. Wow
17. Ah-oo (when something bad happens)
18. Owie when he hurts himself
19. Poo (poop)
20. Goo (good)
21. Mow (milk)
22. Two (used to tell us he is two years old)
23. Two (also used for toes)
24. Peas (please)
25. Done
26. No
27. Yeah (Yes)
28. Party
29. Car
30. Tee (Teeth)
31. Mmmm (for things he likes to eat)
32. I
33. Go
34. Pee
35. Ba (Ball)
36. Boon (balloon)
37. Woa

38. Bee (also for baby)

39) Blue

40) Chee (for cheese)

Here's a picture of Geno and I waiting for the therapist. When I ask him to smile, he always puts his finger to his face.