Today is Apraxia Awareness Day.
Our little girl, Bristol, has apraxia of speech and
has difficulty with motor planning. Basically, she doesn't always have the
words to say what she wants to say. She is three and uses about a dozen signs
and has a vocabulary of around 75 words.
We were concerned about her vocabulary at 18 months and were
told that it was probably because she is the third child and has her siblings
to speak for her (though I disagreed), and were encouraged to wait until she
turned two.
At her two year well visit, I was still concerned and we were
referred to Early Intervention. After going through a battery of screenings
(speech, hearing, vision, OT), we began speech therapy last May. Our therapist
would come to our house once a week and she was great! She would basically play
games with Bristol, but make her repeat a certain sound in order to get another
piece of the game to play with. We learned so many tips and tricks from Marlo
over the last year, and Bristol has come a long way.
Early Intervention ends at age three, but we continued to
work with our therapist on a part time basis privately. About a month ago,
Bristol was moved up to the 3 year old class at daycare and her speech has
drastically improved since then! We are working with another therapist over the
summer, and are excited that Bristol will be in full day county preschool
starting in the fall, and she will be able to receive speech therapy at school.
When I first learned about Bristol's speech delay, I found
this quote from the founder of CASANA (Childhood Apraxia of Speech of North
America), Sharon Gretz: " It's okay to be sad and okay to be mad. This is
nothing that anyone wanted for their child. It is also a confusing time, an
overwhelming time. Take a week and let it all out. Be mad, sad, cry, get angry.
And then you need to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and get on with the
work ahead. The work is to learn about apraxia of speech so that you can be the
very best advocate you can be for your child. You need to do it and you WILL do
it. You will do it because you must, because that beautiful child of yours is
counting on you to help her become the best that she can be." I think this
holds true for any parent of a child with special needs.
I have definitely been through the range of emotions. I feel
sad when I see a younger child speaking in complete sentences or telling her
mommy that she loves her. But I am so proud of my little girl and of the
improvement that she has made in the last year. I love hearing her sing
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in words that mostly only I can
understand. My heart skips a beat when I ask her a question and she
enthusiastically responds "Yeah, Mommy!" I love watching her play
with her siblings "Sissy" and "Bruh-bruh." Some words
are so clear, and words that I would think would be hard- like
"purple." She can't say her own name yet, but recently when you ask
her what her name is, she has started saying "B!" She is obsessed
with horses- "neigh neighs." And she's three, so she's constantly
getting into everything!
I seriously cannot wait for the day that she says "I
love you, Mommy." I know that she will get there, and we will be
supporting her every step of the way. We can't wait to see all the good that
continues to happen in her little life!
"And we know that all things work together for good for
those who love God and are called according to His purposes." - Romans
8:28
