To date, Rayyan still has no speech. He is approaching 4 soon and yes, we are indeed very worried. Rayyan's speech therapist informed us that Rayyan has difficulty making the bilabial sounds (p,b,m) and most of the sounds that he makes come from his throat (which is why he is making a lot of 'aaaaaah' sounds).
And yes, I do agree with her. When he cries, he will call out 'mamamama'... Maybe he is calling out for me, or maybe that is his distress call, I'm not too sure. But if he doesn't cry, you will rarely hear him making the bilabial sounds. And it is very important that he makes the bilabial sounds as these are sounds that babies first produce, like pa, ba, ma...
So the therapist suggested that we try exercises to make him more aware of his lips. What we did was we encouraged him to make the syllable 'ma' by placing a spoon to his lips. His teacher at AAS also suggested immersing the spoon in a cup of cold water to increase the sensation.
Although Rayyan is now more aware of his lips, he is still not making the bilabial sounds. Nevertheless, I must give him credit for trying. He really tries very hard. Sometimes, I just feel like crying when I see him try so hard. Thank you for trying so hard baby! Mummy is very, very proud of you!
