I realize now that I have not introduced you to my children and therefore I must rectify that situation!!
My daughter is Abby. She will be turning 4 at the beginning of August. It is so hard to believe! My little girl - no longer a baby - no longer a toddler - officially a kid - and officially entering that stage of manipulation. You know the "if you love me", "but so and so's parents let her"; and the lying stage "but Daddy said yes", "I didn't hit Andy". For those with kids this age you know what I mean. No longer are the tantrums taking up 2 minutes on the floor screaming but they are suggestive and mean. It's slamming doors and throwing toys. Ah motherhood!! But my little girl is one of the most stubborn persons I have ever met - and because of that she excels at all she attempts to do!! She hits a baseball with a bat without a tee, can hit a golf ball on her first attempt, memorizes songs and makes up her own words. But most of all she overcomes a specific speech disorder on a daily basis. Bless her heart she actually coaches people into understanding - and even is patient to repeat her missed words to get her point across. Although occasionally she gives up and changes the subject she does try to get any other person to understand her. She is my little princess! I intend to follow her progress as she continues to battle with Apraxia.
My son Andy is as much of a challenge as his sister but in different ways. He is 15 mths old and a terror around the house. He climbs and destroys. A boy to his core there is no mistaking his brute-ness. Like his sister he rolled over a little early and crawled a little early and walked a little early. But where as Abby was trying to say words at this age Andy has a problem saying anything at all. Let me give a quick background on my little brute. He was delivered early - cause quite frankly neither he or I wanted him in any longer!! : ) He suffered from severe jaundice right after birth and was under the lights for 3 days. Severe was an understatement - Andy's bilirubin was 14.7, at 16 he could have suffered from brain damage. Andy also suffered from feeding issues due to a severe tongue tie. Tongue tie is a condition in which the tongue is connected from base to tip to the bottom of the mouth. Andy gained no weight his first month because he was unable to nurse or properly take a bottle - we were syringe feeding him. We decided the best route was to clip his tongue - he was able to feed within seconds of clipping the skin that connected his tongue to the bottom of his mouth and after that gained weight pretty quickly.
Why all this background that I am filling you in on?? Abby's SLP had indicated that Apraxia is hereditary and commonly found in sibling so we should watch Andy close for any problems with speech. When he turned a year the SLP noticed that Andy didn't babble and showed no interest in speaking. We were able to get "Mama" out of him but only briefly and not consistently. So Abby's SLP suggested we get Andy assessed for any developmental or speech issues. So we did.
The result - severe delay in speech in areas of expression and adaptive qualities. However, Andy's cognitive abilities ranked off the charts. We have been having problems with Andy recently with tantrums. He will scream at us and if we do not get him what he wants or understand what he needs he will throw himself on the ground or start head butting anything close (pillows, walls, you). The therapist doing the evaluation said that because of his strong cognitive skills and his lack of speech we are probably witnessing his frustration at not being able to communicate. Andy qualified for speech services to start in a month or so. The goal now is to see if he is delayed because of the tongue tie at birth or does he have something more severely wrong like Apraxia (hard to diagnose before 2). Andy's first goal will be to drink out of a straw....
So both my kiddos have their own version of speech delays. I wait to one day hear and understand them. Every word.
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