It's in Black and White

This post has been a long time coming. Luke has flourished this year (socially, emotionally, and physically). His speech is understood by almost everyone.

Gone are the days that I have to repeat what he said to others and play translator. He is a verbal communicator and we couldn't be prouder.

Many of you know that I left teaching to devote my time to his care and ended up homeschooling Maggie in the process. While it was the most rewarding year of my life; it was also one of the most difficult. 

There were days that I didn't know if I had....enough.

Days when I wanted to call in sick and cancel therapy.

Days when Luke said I want to quit "peach". (which I responded without missing a beat...when you fix that sentence and say "speech" correctly, we will discuss it). 

Sounds harsh, but this apraxia thing can't be taken lightly.

We talk tough.

We love hard. 

And we work hard.

It takes work. A lot of it. And work, we did.

I basically scripted, prompted, cued and corrected all day long.

The good news is....after 7 speech therapies per week (4 privately and 3 via public school) from Sept.- May; Luke will only need to have 2 x 30 minutes of private speech therapy starting Aug 5th. (school therapy is also decreasing to 2 x 30 min. (1:3)

I write this not to pat myself on the back, but to stress that it isn't easy and it isn't always fun. 

But we persevered, made adjustments and pressed on. 

And because of Luke's hard work, our phenomenal team's efforts and God's grace....we made it. 

It's in black and white, too.

Luke's diagnosis has been downgraded to residual apraxia of speech and an expressive language delay. 

Yep. 

You read it correctly. 

We are beating apraxia. Although CAS sometimes shows up in motor planning; Luke is now testing above his age group in speech. 

Praise be to God. 

For without Him, none of this would have been possible.

Time Flies When You Are....

At Kaufman Children's Center.

We were able to work with Diane Nancarrow this past week for a 4 day intensive therapy in speech. And let me just say....she came highly recommended from one of my apraxia besties (who spent a month there last spring working exclusively with Diane and the OT staff).

Diane N. lived up to all of the expectations I had and then some.

Their speech sessions flew and before I knew it, Luke was working for at least an hour at a time.  Both she and Nancy were impressed with the sounds Luke has mastered and his articulation. He began the week with 3 to 4 words in a "phrase" or "sentence" and by mid week had moved to 5, 6, and 7 words per "sentence"...with multi syllable words. (He even had a 9 word question outside of speech that I shared with all my friends on Instagram and Facebook).

Having the ability to see what Diane N. and Luke were doing (from behind the glass) really does make a difference. The insight that window provides is invaluable as to what I will be able to bring back, share with our team, as well as the carryover that we can apply in our everyday lives.

Luke was able to see some of our favorite occupational therapists.....Chris, Amy and Jason daily. He worked with them in the KCC's new sensory gym and loved every single second.

I went in with questions and needed some real solutions for things that most of you reading would never even understand, nor would I attempt to explain it to you....but they listened.

They heard me and offered real solutions that we began immediately.
But what is even better, is that the strategies worked.

For the first time ever, my child has brushed his teeth without a fight and has been in bed, sleeping by 8:15 at the latest.

Luke working with Diane.  He LOVED her waiter game.

More work and a little bit of play....with Perfection.  As he practiced phrases, multisyllable words, etc. he earned pieces to add to the Perfection game....when they were all filled, they set the timer off and watched them pop up.

Luke, Brownie and Diane

May I please have some watermelon after we eat?
9 word sentence!!!
So naturally we ran to the nearest grocery store and
picked out the biggest slice of watermelon we could find.

Luke and Chris in OT

Luke and Amy

I think this little hideaway was his favorite addition to the OT room.

Jason, Brownie and Luke

Chris made this binder with Luke's Bedtime Schedule inside

Big stuff. 

He Hears Our Prayers....and Answers LOUD and Clear.

God definitely hears our prayers. 

Throughout this journey I have claimed that none of Luke's progress has to do with us and everything to do with God. 

This is an email that I received today from our private speech therapist at More Than Words Pediatric Rite Care Clinic.  We speak briefly before and after sessions, along with scheduled conferences....but she wrote today to specifically tell me how AMAZING he was in speech therapy today.

Wow, what a great session!! He was in great spirits and very focused. I started
by tracking his production of /l/ both in CV (consonant-vowel) and VC syllables using the Speech EZ forms.

He did a terrific job with the CV with just a little vowel distortion. As you might have guessed,
the VC was much more difficult.

It's difficult for him to coordinate the tongue movement from a vowel position back to the /l/ placement, which requires his tongue to touch behind his front teeth.

B/c he was so cooperative today, we were able to do some intensive oral motor awareness work with the mirror and with me modeling the tongue position. He did very well when I cued him to "touch
behind your teeth with your thumb." (This was easier for him to do than touch
with his index finger). I cued him to "press up hard!" so that he could really feel where his tongue was supposed to go. Then, after this, I cued him for tongue placement there. This is coming and I'm going to make a point of starting the session (or trying to) with this exercise until it's easier for him.

He LOVED using the dollhouse. I've found a variety of furniture and little dolls to use
with so he didn't know what to expect. This is very important to engaging him: the element
of the "unknown."

Using the hand cue for /h/, I prompted him to imitate a variety of sentences
including "He goes here." "He has mail." We did a little with the "sh" in "she," too e.g. "She goes here."

Also, continued work on the voiced "th" in the carrier phrase "I see the _______" re: different
toys in the dollhouse.

Overall, a marvelous session.

I was pleased that he tolerated the slimy creatures in the bucket, too. It didn't seem to bother him too much!

Have a great day!

Giving GOD the GLORY and praising JESUS for His healing powers!  Keep those prayers coming.  We feel completely covered in prayer!!!