Talk tools

This is just a quick post to provide some information about what's new with Kevin's therapy.  The therapist has been using and recommending a variety of things to strengthen Kevin's mouth and cheek muscles.  Some of these include:  sipping applesauce through a "crazy straw," sipping through coffee stirrers (those tiny straws), bubble blowing, whistles, gumming down on popsicle sticks, etc.  

The popsicle stick was interesting.  After Kevin pursed his lips onto a popsicle stick and said "Mmmmm!" for just a minute or so, he was immediately able to pronounce words that begin with the letter M.  Amazing!  

I feel like he is definitely taking great strides forward.  Although he still tends to communicate a lot through gestures, he's a lot more open now to the idea of communicating verbally.  He's even started to try out new words spontaneously, words that we have not practiced with him.  

Occasionally he still refuses to say anything.  I'm learning tricks to help him, though.  For example, I will pull out photos of our Disney trip or a souvenir photo book and he will eagerly point out attractions that we saw and will try to name them!  After doing that for a few minutes, he kind of "warms up" and is willing to say more words.  Sometimes I'll try to get him to "warm up" before his speech therapy in order to ensure that he will have a good session with the therapist.  

It's a real joy to see my son being able to express himself to some degree with others.  I see how his little face lights up when he is able to be understood.  

Here's a blog that I came across when I first started looking into apraxia.  The little boy reminded me of Kevin, both with his speech and his appearance!  There are some videos posted of the boy's progress along with some interesting information about apraxia.  You might find it interesting to take a look at it.  

http://jenkrause.com/blog/

With time and lots of patience, we can and will overcome this Apraxia of Speech!

Prayers

I'd thought I'd share a couple of quotes from Sarah today.

One of her prayers this week:
"Jehovah God, please help me to stop screaming and please help Kevin to stop drooling."

A conversation in the car today:
Sarah:  "Mommy, does it tickle your belly when someone has a baby in their belly?"
Me:  "I guess it does sometimes, when the baby kicks."
Sarah:  "Well, tonight when I say my prayers, I'm going to ask Jehovah to put a baby in my belly so I can be a mommy."
Me:  "You have to be big to have a baby in your belly."
Sarah:  "Big?  Like 5 years old?"
Me:  "No. Big like Mommy."
Sarah:  "Oh, ok.  So when I pray tonight, I'm going to ask Jehovah if he can first of all make me big like you so that he can put a baby in my belly."

I just don't think she gets it.

It's back by popular demand!

It has been forever and a day since I've posted anything new on this blog.  However, I've had several people asking me lately about when I'd be updating it.  So, here we go!

We've been very busy lately.  Last month we had an absolutely wonderful time in Disney World!  We were gone almost two weeks, which is the longest trip that we have taken yet with the kids.  Since we drove to Florida, which was about a 16 hour drive, we expected to have some rough spots.  But, the whole trip was everything that we could have hoped for, and more!  We stayed on Disney property, which made it even more special.  

One moment that I'll always remember was when Sarah met her first princess, Belle.  It's as if she was transported to some other world.  She had stars in her eyes and was completely awestruck by being in the presence of such royalty!  It was adorable.  We were able to ride almost all of the rides and see many of the shows, since the lines were not long at all.  Sarah got a stomach bug halfway through the trip and was down and out for almost 2 days.  Because of that, we decided to stay an extra day.  

Basically, it was a top notch vacation!  We've already started talking about trying to start up a fund to go again one of these years.

Next up was a garage sale, which took a lot of time and effort to prepare for.  We sold so much stuff!  More than even the money, though, I feel a huge relief of having all of those items out of my life.  I find that I'm a lot less stressed when I have very little clutter.  

On to Kevin's speech, which is actually supposed to be the focus of this blog, isn't it?  We've been in speech almost 6 months now.  It's hard to believe!  He's made so much progress.  I'll give you some examples.

Earlier today, he finished his milk.  When I asked him what he wanted, he responded with 2 words, "More, please!"  It was more like "Mo, pee!", but I understood.  He can pronounce all of his vowels and can say words with 1, 2, and 3 syllables.  He's putting 2 words together and verbally identifying many objects.  I still have to prompt him by saying, "Use your words," in order to encourage him to talk and not just to point.  He can name many of his favorite characters, such as Dora, Dumbo (Buh-bo), Donald Duck (Dah-duh-duh), etc.  I can ask him if he'd prefer water, milk, or juice and then understand his answer.  When we're playing a game, he can say "my turn!" (my tuh).  The therapist seems to feel that he's progressing well.  I believe that we should have a 6 month evaluation soon and can know how far he's progressed.

Here's a video.  Be sure to check out the serious photobombing that's going on by Sarah at the beginning of the video!

That's all for now.  I'll try to update this blog a little more frequently than I have been doing.  A great big hello to all of my followers!