speech progress

I'm a bit behind here, but Ella's speech has been improving quite a bit. For about 1-2 months she's been favoring word-approximation type speech over sign, although she still uses sign for complex word.

She's still lacking ability to create r, s, sh, ch, th, f, v and several other sounds, and her use of "t" is absent in many words. However, she is willing to try to approximate most simple words.

Her speech is quite broken, and would not be readily understood by many who aren't familiar with early speech. However she still gets her point across to us. Typical examples of things she says now are "I wah mo coh key" (I want more cookies) "hu guh key key" (hug kity kitty). "uh oh pah pee" (uh oh, potty), and of course lots of "yeah" and "no" (both of which are reasonably well formed and most people should understand her).

Intonation is another area we will eventually have to work on. Her current use of pitch is a little strange, and at times humorous. For the most part, she always pronounces a given word with the same pitch pattern. "ma mi" (for mommy) is always pitched low, then exaggeratedly high. "Wheee" is always pronounced in a flat dead-pan tone (this can be quite funny when she sees a slide, and races over to it saying "Whee" in a robotic monotone..)

While this level of speech may not be much, the frequency of her talking is what's really the big difference. 6 months ago she used words only as a last resort, or when specifically asked. Now she is using spoken word on her own to make requests, answer questions, etc.

She's also starting to speak at a much louder volume. Previously everything spoken was very quiet, but she now occasionally speaks loud enough to be heard clearly in the next room over. (talking loud, but not shouting volume).

Anyway, that's my quick update, hope you all are well.