Here we go again...

Little Dude (my youngest) has a speech delay.  Yup.  That's right.  Another child with a speech delay. 

I'll admit I noticed it earlier than I noticed my daughter's.  Unfortunately I was in denial and held off on calling early intervention (EI) for a couple of months.  I heard the same things from family and friends that I heard the first time around; "His brother talks for him."  Only this time, I also heard "He's a boy.  They are always a little slower to talk."  And my personal favorite, "He's probably just imitating his sister."

Shortly after he turned 2, I finally reached our EI department.  They came out promptly to test him and ask a boatload of questions I've answered before.  Again, I had to explain repeatedly that he can hear perfectly fine. There are no concerns there.  The only time he "can't" hear is when he chooses not to.  (He is two after all.)

With my daughter's Apraxia diagnosis, the EI people seemed to listen to me a little more this time around and were very careful when taking notes on his speech development.  At the end of the appointment, they told me they would be in touch, but they were recommending that he receive speech therapy services.  A month later, Little Dude started receiving his weekly visits from Miss K.

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 6 months since he started his speech therapy.  Sadly there hasn't been much improvement.  In fact, I've noticed that there are words he used to say that he no longer says.  He's using sounds and gestures more often.  I know a lot of that is probably because he's frustrated and can't say what's on his mind.  On the other hand, I don't know that we are doing all we can for Little Dude, so I just scheduled an appointment with a private SLP.  I think I'll call her Rock Star.  That's what she is for kiddos with speech problems.  She diagnosed my daughter with Apraxia when everyone was telling us it was a delay.  And by everyone, I mean EI, the school system, the SLPs at our hospital's speech clinic.  Everyone.  I learned about Rock Star through a good friend.  My gut was telling me Little Dude has Apraxia like his sister.  Now I'm not as sure.  I'll admit it.  I'm a little scared about what I might learn at this appointment, but I need to move out of this place called Denial.  It might keep me sane for a little while, but it's certainly no good for Little Dude.

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...