Life with speech delays

Today DH and I met with a SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) to learn some techniques to help us work with our youngest two children.

To give you a little background, our middle child had a noticeable speech delay at age 2. Everyone kept telling us that her older brother talked for her so we shrugged it off. When there was no more denying that there was a problem, we took a deep breath and called our state for early childhood intervention and she was assigned an SLP to work wih her for an hour each week until she turned age 3.

After age 3, she began getting speech therapy through our local school system. We've been very fortunate to have great professionals to work with through all of our language and communication problems. Imagine my excitment (and tears of joy!) when she finally said "I love you Mommy" after about a year and a half of therapy!

This past summer, we had her evaluated by a private speech therapist who diagnosed her with Childhood Apraxia of Speech at age 4. To put it in the simplest way possible, she has a clear understanding of what is said to her. She has a clear understanding of what she wants to say to us, but her brain and muscles don't work together to get the words out correctly. Imagine wanting to talk and not being able to. I can't even imagine her frustration and it really put the temper tantrums and other behavior problems into perspective.

Fast forward a few months and we've had our youngest evaluated and he now gets speech therapy weekly for a speech delay. He has not been diagnosed yet, but seems to show some of the same speech patterns his sister shows. Only time will tell if his speech will develop normally or if he has a disorder like his sister.

With the struggles both our younger children are facing, we decided we needed professional help as well. As I mentioned, we met with an SLP today to learn "cues" to help our kids with their speech. Little did we know that we would discover entirely new languages! It was a little overwhelming when reality hit. We are facing a huge learning curve. Fortunately, our SLP is fabulous and pointed out that we can take this in small steps. She made us feel much better by explaining that anything we do with these tools is better than doing nothing, so it's ok to take them one step at a time.

So, my husband and I are going to learn to "speak" using verbal cues, tactile cues and sign language. I joked that some couples get to have a romantic night out, but we get the joy of staying in to practice our tactile cues *wink, wink*.

Nobody said parenting was going to be easy...

Adventure at Great Wolf Lodge

We haven't been able to take a vacation in quite a while, so I convinced my DH that we should take the family to an indoor waterpark for fall break. I began checking TripAdvisor reviews for various waterpark hotels within reasonable driving distance from our home and the one that stood out was Great Wolf Lodg. Fortunately, the one in Mason, Ohio is only a little over 2 hours away. So, we answered the call of the wolf and booked our room.

With a longer fall break this year, we were able to go on weekdays when the hotel and waterpark are less busy AND the prices are lower. Bonus! We departed from home on Sunday and arrived at check in well before our room was ready. Reading information online beforehand prepared us well. We had a separate bag packed with our suits and headed off to the pool. The front desk called as soon as our room was ready.

It took our kids a little while to feel comfortable with the waterpark environment, but they caught on quickly. I was concerned that we would be pulled in several different directions with three kids of various ages, but it turns out that my two youngest were quite happy in the area designed with young children in mind and the wave pool. My oldest was perfectly happy in the lazy river, the wave pool and the big slides.

When we figured our little ones needed a break, we headed to our room to change and check it out. We splurged and booked the Kid Kabin room and boy were we happy! I had seen the floor plan online, but it didn't prepare me for the size of the room. There was more than enough room for our family of five. The separate area for the three kids was great and they loved having their own space.

Our oldest loved the interactive MagiQuest game. The only thing that surprised me was how many kids were running around without their parents. After many trips back and forth and up and down stairs, I started to understand. Much to my son's disappointment, I still didn't let him go without a parent, so I counted it as my workout. It really is an interesting game and the kids seem to have a lot of fun playing it. Ok, so there were several adults that were clearly having fun with it too.

Great Wolf Lodge does a great job of keeping kids entertained. Between the time spent in the waterpark and playing the MagiQuest games, our kids were so busy we didn't even check out the arcade or the kid's club. From the first day, my kids begged to come back. We departed on Tuesday and the kids were begging to stay at the pool or play just one more "Quest". Based on the fun our family had, I'm sure we'll go back. At least next time we will know what to expect. For one, we'll plan a little better for our meals. I leaarned that we could pay for our breakfast in advance when we made reservations and checked in at a cost of $40. Instead, we paid the morning of and were shocked that for a family of 4 (little guy was free) we paid over $60 for breakfast.

All said, it was an expensive trip for three days, but everyone had fun and it was a nice break from reality for a few days. I'll be watching for specials and seeing what kind of deal we might find to convince us to go back!