We began speech therapy in mid-2011. However, the first therapist we had, spent more time on feeding therapy than speech therapy and could only see her twice a month. She also expressed concerns about whether Kimi would ever initiate speech, due to her late start in speech development, and the fact she would only repeat words at that point in time. After a few months, we changed to a different therapist who has been working with Kimi ever since.
After being with us for six months, Kimi could only say a few words, but could understand a LOT of English, as shown by her responding actions. By the time she was home nine months, I counted 36 words that she could say, most were names of objects and most were not very clear. Her longest phrase at that time was a self-initiated "Up-pa" meaning, "Up, please" when she wanted one of us to pick her up. One year after bringing her home, she could say 48 words and said "Up-pee" for "Up please".
After being home for over two years, Kimi's language has increased quite a bit. She can say three- to four-word sentences, and a couple of six-word sentences, when she wants to. However, we are still working on her enunciation. She has begun putting the end sounds on words and can say some blends like "bl". Kimi's current speech therapist has said Kimi will probably require speech therapy until about age 12, and should eventually be able to speak normally - something we hoped for in China, but did not know with certainty.
I have attached a short video showing how Kimi is talking now. This video doesn't show the extent she is talking, but gives you some idea as to where she is, developmentally and speech-wise.
