Jakes Speech Testing

Jake had his last speech evaluation today. Jake has been diagnosed with Apraxia which is a speech learning disorder. Which basically means that Jake's brain has a hard time transferring his thoughts to the muscles in his mouth to make words. Another thing that kids who have this tend to use the wrong word in place of other words. Which totally makes sense because Jake does this all the time. For example Jake says "horse" instead of the word "where", he asks for "juice" when he wants "milk" so you see how confusing this could be for us. He especially has a hard time calling people by the right name. Aiden has a new nickname "neigh neigh" (yes like the sound of a horse) at our house. Jake has started calling me Ma Ma, but dad has become "Hey D". At least he's not calling him Teresa anymore:) He also calls all of the daycare kids "hey D" or "hey nana."

At the screenings they tested him to make sure he isn't behind developmentally. It seems that kids who have speech problems have many delays developmentally besides speech. The therapist says that he isn't behind cognitively (smarts) and understands almost everything that is being said to him. He seems to understand and following directions. He has good motor skills. (that's not a shocker) and he does okay with socializing with other children. The only only test score that he didn't do well in is his speech. Right now he can say about a 100 words but still has a hard time putting sentences together. Also most people have a hard time understanding him.

Jake has developed a talent for being able to ask for something without being able to say the word. For instant-we were having carrots with our lunch and he wanted ranch dressing but can't say ranch or dip. He kept pointing to the fridge and blurting out his "jake jiber jabor." I asked him if he wanted ketchup "no," he picks up his carrots and says "sis". "Do you want dip or sauce?" "yes" is his reply. I guess I have to add that I am pretty good at figuring out his demands. He is also very independent. If he wants something he will just grab a bar stool and drag it through out the entire house. Sometimes this is a pain because he gets into stuff he shouldn't be into.

One thing that the therapist suggested was teaching Jake some sign language. I was actually surprised about this suggestion because I thought that doing this would only delay his speech development even more. So about a week ago I learned some simple signs on the Internet of common words that we use daily and have started teaching him. He LOVES it. In fact he has started making up a few signs of his own. He likes to imitate me when I make the sign and thinks its a game. I have totally noticed a difference in him since I have taught him. Instead of making him repeat every word and demand him to repeat it I show him the sign and he copies me (with a smile). I still try to make him repeat the word.

Jake will be starting school twice a week in the fall. Because of my daycare they are providing a bus to pick up and drop him off at school. This relieves a ton of stress from me because now I don't have to arrange plans for someone to watch my daycare kids. He will especially love the bus ride because he absolutely loves buses!