The time change has been somewhat brutal on all three of us! Today has been the first day that J hasn't resisted naptime and woke up on his own for school. We have been talking a lot about obeying, or listening and doing what Mommy says without complaining or whining. He got a lot of praise today for quickly choosing a book and not complaining before naptime. He also turned off his video after ONE time of watching it (on his own) like Mommy told him and without complaining! Today (well, all week) has also been very special to us, because J's speech progress has taken off. Progress in apraxic kids can really soar, but then a lull will occur and the cycle continues. He is adding lots of new words...many words would be considered distorted, but most of his intentions are clear to us and Miss Lori. We are getting some complete words, and he has moved onto producing harder sounds in words that come out pretty clearly (i.e. the k sound). We still struggle with the typical inconsistency and leaving off certain endings or beginnings in words that goes along with apraxia, but there is still progress. His cognitive abilities are soaring when tested receptively by his teacher. He has quickly learned all 26 of his letters, can receptively identify numbers, 15+ body parts, etc. He has moved onto playing games like letter BINGO and using the touch screen computer in his class to play on the Starfall website. However, he did something today that he has never done before....J has understood the concept of counting for a long time now, and would point to items in a series, say something unintelligible for each number, and we would praise his attempts. Today, his teacher brought me in to watch him....she had foam triangles lined up and told J to count them for Mommy. He pointed to each one and verbally (expressively) said the number..."one, two, three". Then, she let me hear him say numbers like "three" when she held up a foam three. On a side note, we thought the word "three" wouldn't come for awhile because it has a th blend, difficult r sound,and the vowel ee has been a hard one for J. Yesterday, he told Lori that he was "three", but we thought that was a one time thing. It proved to be more. I have been having him count for me all afternoon, and three seems to be his favorite number in the same way J is his favorite letter. This would be such a small accomplishment for a child without a language delay, but for us...this is HUGE! So big, that I cried the whole way home, called Dave and cried a little more, emailed Lori and cried through the e-mail. Again, only those who have a child with apraxia, know firsthand what we have been through with J's speech, or are in the "speech world" can really appreciate this accomplishment. It is amazing and a blessing to us to have him take what is in his brain and express it to us. He is making connections and learning how to make his mouth move to produce the words/sounds that he needs to communicate. We are just praying that this will continue and that the times when we just can't understand him won't discourage him from trying harder. For now, we are rejoicing in J's accomplishments. There are a lot of people who are helping J and are definitely due a huge thanks...Miss Lori, Miss Terri, Miss Collins, to name a few, but we offer up our biggest thanks to the greatest teacher who ever walked on this earth, yet never had to open a single textbook for answers!
