The tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips!

Afterwards we made pink fairy cakes which are proven to improve your speech.

Let me tell you a story. About a year and a few months ago Orla went for her U8 test, which is a development check for 4 year olds. I wrote about it here, and mentioned that the one issue that they seemed to find with her was her speech. The doctor said that I needed to take her to speech therapy and gave me a referral for a woman who would carry this out in English. Given that Orla was starting school in September I planned on making the appointment pretty soon afterwards, so that it didn't interfere with her education. But strike me down, for I am an unbelievably lazy bisem, and I didn't make the appointment. As I said in my post at the time, I wasn't overly concerned, I just felt that she spoke 'young' and given that she did her speech test in German, I didn't think she could be expected to pronounce words correctly in her second language. 

One of the things I find funny here is that almost all of the English-speaking expats I know here in Berlin have their kids in speech therapy. In fact I have friends who have met some of my other friends through their speech therapist. And I can honestly say that I would have said that those kids spoke clearer than Orla and had very little need of a speech therapist.  

Anyway, today Orla had her U9 check. And once again she had her speech tested. He was over the moon at her progress, and asked which speech therapist she had seen. I lied because I thought he would give me into trouble and said she'd seen one at school. Actually that's not even a lie. She has *seen* one, but she hasn't done anything with her. Anyway, he was so pleased he says she can stop now. Well, what do you make of that?

I have to say that I was quite amused with the questions Orla was asked as part of her test today. They struck me as *very* German. After being asked where she lived - Berlin, we moved on to two of the most important topics for a German child.

Question number 2: Do you know how to correctly use a pair of scissors? (Well, it is important if they can hold you back a year at school in Germany if you can't!)

Question number 3: How do you know when you can cross the road? (Ha, ha, ha! This was followed by further questions about when you know it's not safe to cross, etc. Orla even got a bonus point I think for also mentioning you should never step into the bike path!)



On the subject of U8 tests & speech therapy...
The rain in Berlin falls mainly on the graffiti-covered buildings