Speech?

I just realized that Sam's neurologist appointment is March 19th and not this week. Tonight, Sam kept standing up by himself and taking a step or two. After he falls down, he claps his hands. His speech therapist has just given us some new stretching exercises to do with Sam. She said that this would help with his mouth being able to close properly which would help his drooling. She also said that his face and his mouth are so tight that he may not be able to say his words correctly until we have another surgery. But our plastic surgeon says that he will not do surgery until he hears Sam talk. So what do you do? Sam gets so frustrated with us when we don't understand what he is saying. But it is a good sign that he is trying to communicate with us. He doesn't seem to want to sign so much anymore but he is not able to say most of his words. Most of them sound alot alike. Our therapist said that we will probably need to make a set of cards that he can point to in order to help him tell us what he wants. I sometimes worry if this will set him back evem further but we'll just have to keep making him try to say the word, too.