Speech Therapy

Next Thursday William will have his first speech therapy appointment. When the early intervention people came to evaluate him, they assessed his speech at 1% and his received communication (what he understands) at 7%. Obviously, those numbers are really low. Alternatively, his fine motor skills are at 95% which isn't much of a shock. William is an intelligent, curious boy and he loves to be active.
William babbles a whole lot. In fact, he's hardly quiet at all! I just wish I knew what he was saying. Right now these are the words he says fairly regularly (some are more clear than others): ball, car, shoes, apple, milk, please, yes, oowie, up, hide, go, and hat. He also makes sounds like follow the pattern of "ready...set...GO!" which I say almost every day when we're running around our apartment. Other people say that they've heard him say "mamma" and "papa" but I won't believe it until I hear it for myself. Isn't that kind of sad? He's almost two and a half years old and I haven't heard him call me "mamma". One time he said "orange" but I have never heard him say it again.
I hope that the therapy sessions help him. When he turns three in August, if his speech hasn't improved enough, he can qualify to attend a "special needs" preschool twice a week for a total of five hours. While I'm sure that he would love to attend preschool, I would prefer his language improve without it. He will have speech appointments every two weeks for a while and then we will re-assess the frequency. Wish us luck!