Its not all bad

I know my posts lately have been a little on the negative side.  I don't purposely intend for that but sometimes blogging is a good way to vent.

Andrew ran a high fever last night so we laid low today.  This was needed.  There was no outside stimulation for Abigail today so it was a very quiet day.  We colored, we danced, we watched sandcastles being built on TV.  We talked about things 5 year olds and moms talk about.  I only had to redirect her a few times and not once had to send her to her room.  It was amazing and it was needed by this Mama.

Andrews temperature broke this morning and he also laid low, although extremely clingy but that is to be expected.  There will always be room in my arms - even if all three climb up in them.

We had an amazing moment today with Andy.  Abby came running in while I was folding laundry and exclaimed "Andy said Bus!!"  My initial response was "sure he did" but I had to find out so I went into the other room where the kids were playing cars.  I sat down with them and started to play.  "Andy can I have the bus?" to this I get the accustomed nod.  "What is it that I want, Andy?" and low and behold he said "ssss" in which I replied "good try, it is a bus."  Andy nodded excitingly and said "Baaaa - sssss".  I would consider this a little prompting but I got ecstatic anyway.  He said Bus and he said it with little delay.

I had to give him a big hug.  We know have 4 words (well sort of): "Mama, Ba-ss (Bus), Pa - p (pop) and O - pa (open)".  Yes, they are not understood by all but the fact that he has the sounds and is trying to put them together is so exciting!

Andrew still needs a lot of prompting to try words but we are on the right track.  He has a lot of sounds he just has not quite figured out how to put them together.  I look forward to speech therapy tomorrow and what word he might develop in the short 45 minutes.

Ode to "MAAAA"

"MAAAAA" comes the noise of my 2 1/2 year old from his bedroom when he hears his father coming home for the day.  "MAAA, MAAA!!!"  The excitement as he runs to the door is all over his face, in his wide eyes and his opened mouth smile.

Some people may look at my little man and wonder why "MAA"?  I look at my little man and cheer for it.  The truth is Andy just started saying sounds in the past few months.  He started private speech therapy in May and ever since his sounds are blossoming.  I do not mind being the only mom in the room proud of his animal sounds even though they do not come out just right.  I am just so happy to see him try them.

My husband doesn't mind being called "MAA" either because at least Andy calls him.

Andy's diagnosis????  He doesn't have one.  The therapist are pretty certain that Andy has CAS but they are cautious to diagnose him.  For now they treat him for severe language delay and see how he progresses.

More to come from Andy in the next months I am sure.  For now, I do not mind getting a prompted "Pa, ah, Pa" (pop) or a "O, Pa" (open).  It was a 10 month battle to get him to imitate... and now that he does it game on!!!

The Joy of a "Doughnut"

I don't know how to explain how proud I was when my daughter made the "t" sound in final position.  I remember asking her what she would like for breakfast and as clear as any 3 year old could be she said "I wanna doughnut."  I couldn't help myself I cried.  I called everyone I knew and had her repeat the word.  Every repeat was right one.  Every single one - which is a big thing for a child with apraxia!

I remember being proud with the first roll over, the first crawl, the first sound and all those other important firsts.  With my daughter I consistently get firsts and I consistently cry about them!!  The first time she made a "K" sound the first time she said a consonant/vowel (C/V) word,the first time she said a whole sentence.  These are firsts I will always remember, just like when she used to scootch backwards around the living room.  She makes me proud everyday that something new takes route in her words.

I wait patiently for my son to also take flight with his speech - for I know I will be as gracious as I am with my little girl.

Apraxia of Speech

Imagine if you knew the words you wanted to say but when you put out the effort to say them the words became intelligible?  Frustrating!  Imagine trying to understand and translate for someone whose words were missing? Frustrating!  But that is every day in a family who have loved ones with Verbal Apraxia.

Apraxia (CAS) is a specific speech disorder in which a child has difficulty planning specific movements with their jaw, palate, lips and tongue in order to create speech.  The brain does not tell the muscles to perform in the right sequence and therefore words become intelligible.

My Daughter was diagnosed with Apraxia when she was a little over 3 years old.  When she was 2 she was diagnosed with ELD (Expressive Language Disorder) but did not qualify for speech services.  When she turned 3 we took her to be evaluated by the public school district.  At this point any words that she had used in the past she had dropped and no longer could say.  She was considered non-verbal.

My Daughter started working with a school district assigned SLP (speech and language pathologist) with the assumption that she had ELD.  The SLP evaluated her in several categories and learned that her vocabulary was above normal expectations for her age and she was able to used that vocabulary properly.  This ruled out ELD as a possible diagnosis.  My daughter showed no signs of any other speech related delay so the SLP started working with her through a phonic approach.

After several months of this approach my daughter showed no improvement and in some cases had actually dropped sounds that she had previously mastered.  Her SLP decided to take another route.  She decided to work with Praxis Cards.  Praxis means "planned movement".  These cards broke down words with wrong sounds that moved into right sounds.  A progression of sounds that lead to the right words.  She did well with Praxis cards but there was a continuous loss of progression or addition of sounds that were not in the words - such as an "a" at the beginning or end of a word.  My daughters SLP was able to diagnose her with Verbal Apraxia through her observances of the inaccuracies of my daughters speech.

Now that we had a diagnosis we knew that there would be more issues to come.  Soon my daughter started to show signs that a sensory issue existed - signs that when she was younger we thought was "just her age".  Such as not wanting to eat certain foods.  Being on the "white diet".  Now at 4 she still eats hardly anything.  She does not like certain textures - she will tell you that colored foods "feel silly".  She also can not handle foods that are warm or hot.  She does ok with cold things like ice cream and popsicles but her dinners meals we have to bring to room temperature before she will eat it - no hot temp - not even luke warm.  She also confuses hot/cold and hearing/smelling/tasting.  For instance she will cover her ears if something doesn't look right or cover her mouth if something is too loud.

So our journey with Apraxia begins.


find out more about Apraxia @ Apraxia-KIDS

A few specific Links:
Dear Teacher
If I could only tell you I would say