Trials

So an update on my blog is way past due.

Jake's teacher had a meeting with us regarding his speech progress. The good news is that he is progressing and learning new words, but he isn't caching up with his age group, which is making him fall further behind.

Jake has officially been diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. His language is considered empty.

I have learned a little bit about apraxia to help me understand what Jake is going through. 1 in every 1000 children have apraxia. Basically what apraxia is.... is where the brain is has a hard time taking transporting the information from his brain to form words in his mouth. Children understand what is being said to them they just can't communicate at their normal age level.

When a normal kid hears a word about four times he can repeat it. Jake has to hear the word approx 400 times before he can repeat it. And it can't be in the same time frame. I can't just drill the word over and over or repeat it 400 times. . . it has to be within a time span for him to pick it up. Last week Matt and I were teaching him the color red. Every single day we drilled it into him. After a week we would say to him "this is the color red, now tell me what color is it"? Now a normal kid could just say red, but Jake has to take a few seconds and sort out all the pathways in his brain find the right word and then make his brain send it to his mouth. Some times it takes more than 15 seconds for him to repeat it but we are proud of him still the same. It is interesting to watch him because you I can tell he is thinking really hard, his lips want to say "blue" but he knows it isn't blue so he has to spend that extra time to get his mouth to say red. Kids with apraxia struggle to say words with 2 or more syllables. These kids know that they don't sound normal which makes them self conscious. Some kids get frustrated and feel disappointed that they choose not to speak. Also apraxia kids becomes overly stimulated when they are touched. Jake only gets this way when I wash his hair-thank goodness because I love when he want to cuddle with me. Although when he was a toddler he hated to cuddle.

I guess in a way I feel cheated because I don't get to hear those cute things that three year olds say. Most of our conversations are us trying to figure out what the heck he is trying to tell us. The other day we were driving in the car and Jake kept saying toast. "Toast, toes", ???? what he heck are you telling me kid. "No mom toast whoo whoo." OH GHOST. "ya toast mom."


"I am looking forward to the day
when I can hear my little boy tell me about his day,
what he dreams at night...
what makes him grins sometimes."


I know that we are born with different trials and this trail will pass. Jake is making progress and I am so proud of him for not giving up on me. He is smart, loving, a wonderful big brother and I love him so much.

I think things will get easier for me once Aiden is older and starts talking more. He can already say many things that Jake can't say. He talks more like a gremlin, slurring his words together. It is so cute.

Sorry if I put you to sleep:) This is what has been on my mind so I thought I would share it.