Comparing

Maya will begin her last year of preschool in a few weeks.  We have one year to get her ready for Kindergarten.  During this time of the year, I have continuous questions running through my mind…

• “Will Maya be ready for Kindergarten?”
• “Can I do more to prepare her?”
• “How is she going to react to this school year’s schedule change?”
• “How much progression will she have over the school year, both in speech and academics?”

When I become lost in my thoughts, I have to remind myself of how far Maya’s speech has grown over the last few years.  Her growth becomes apparent when I look back on videos from previous years.

I recently found this video of Maya at age 3.  The video was taken March 2015.  We are in the car and holding a conversation with Maya.  She is telling us about visiting somewhere with a cat and she was scared of the cat.

 

The second video was taken today, August 17, 2016.  Maya will turn five on September 14, 2016.  We are sitting at our kitchen table working on some school work and playing with beads. Please take the time to watch the video and compare the previous video to these two videos.

 

 

Chews

Maya likes to put things in her mouth. A therapist suggested this necklace for Maya. I ordered it from Amazon.  

Mr. Calvin

I’ll come right out and say it, CJ was diagnosed with “Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech.” (The term “suspected” is used because CJ is under 2 years old. He is almost 22 months.)

As CJ’s mommy I use the term “suspected” very loosely.  A mother knows her child. Watching CJ attempting to communicate is like watching Maya all over again.  He struggles to communicate his thoughts into words.  He has very limited vocabulary. The words he does say are not spoken clearly and are missing syllables. He cleverly has developed his own “CJ Language.” I know he will has a speech condition.

I’m not sure why both of my kids have issues with speech.  All I know is, Kevin and I need to keep moving forward, ensuring both kids receive the love and care they need.

Fortunately for CJ, he has access to phenomenal speech therapists. We are utilizing Maya’s therapists for his treatment.  Maya has a wonderful team of therapists that support and love her.  She has had such tremendous growth over the past year because of her therapists.  When we noticed CJ’s speech was not progressing, we made arrangements to have his speech evaluated.  He has now started speech therapy with two excellent SLPs.

A couple of times a week, CJ attends speech therapy.  He recently began to receive services from Early Intervention and he visits a private speech therapist.  Even though he is young, he has already began to show interests in his therapy sessions.  I am anxious to see how quickly his language development progresses over time.

I’m going to share a video of CJ at 18 months old.  In the video you will notice minimal mimicking of language.

 

 

 

 

Driving

We spend a lot of time in our car.  Every day we have somewhere to go, therapy, preschool class, gymnastics, visiting family, errands, etc. We like to stay busy and we are always on the move.

For the longest time our car rides were quiet. Maya developed her own traveling habits.  She has always enjoyed holding my hand when we travel in the car.   A tiny voice from the backseat would say, “nan” and I knew she wanted to hold my hand. Maya spoke in simple phrases for a long time and I found myself wondering if I would ever hear her sing nursery rhymes, ask questions, or hold conversations.

Today, the silence has been replaced with growing conversations and endless stories. Maya loves to share her thoughts and hear stories about animals. She asks hundreds of questions. She enjoys singing and dancing to songs on the radio. Her sweet voice is music to my ears.

Here is a clip of a family outing. Maya loves to tell stories and share silly ideas. Her speech is improving and she is working on articulation and grammar.

Car Ride

Fun

Our days aren’t always filled with lessons and speech therapy. We love to have fun as a family. One of our greatest joys is spending time together as a family. 

We love to let the kids play and act silly. Recently, we have enjoyed watching Maya dance to her new favorite television show theme song. Over the past couple weeks she has done her best to learn the words to the theme song. Hearing her sing the words to the song is the sweetest sound. 

Homework!

Recently, Maya has been avoiding practicing speech at home. Typically, we sit down and review the letter sounds and words she is learning. I do my best to make the process as fun as possible. Realizing that she has become bored with our usual practice, I decided to make some  changes.

Continuous changes are always needed in a productive work environment.  At home we have changed the name from speech practice to homework. Like every kid, Maya wants to grow up and act  like her older friends.  Now she gets to do homework like her big kid friends. We also use a sticker chart and work toward a larger reward instead of instant rewards. I really enjoy this approach because I am able to incorporate counting and calendar practice. 

Maya is really enjoying our new approaches to speech practice. The changes may be small, but she is motivated and curious and more importantly willing to learn and participate. 

In this video Maya is practicing the sentence “I am four.” 

Click link below.

Sentence practice

New Year, New Reflections

A new year offers the opportunity to reflect on the past year.  2015 was a wonderful year for Maya.  She has made great strides in her speech.  She learned to say her name and she has learned how to pronounce new letters. During 2015, Maya has grown and changed, and she is learning to share her unique personality with her words.

During 2014’s holiday season, Maya did her best to sing Christmas carols.  She knew a few words to “Jingle Bells” and she loved singing, “jingy bells, jingy bells, jingy all the way” over and over again.  Her love of the song was always met by our encouraging praises.  2015’s Christmas season brought new changes and new songs.  Maya has found her singing voice and she enjoys singing many different Christmas carols.  She is doing her best to master jingle bells and she sings it almost every day.

2016 offers many new experiences and learning opportunities for Maya.  She will turn 5 this year and I can’t wait to see how much she grows over the year.  The start of 2016 has already been exciting.  Maya has learned to write her name.  One of the greatest joys in parenting is watching your children grow, learn and explore.  I am looking forward to all of the new adventures we will experience during 2016. I look forward to sharing them with you over the course of the year.

 

Good Day

Today was a good day, an enjoyable, successful, busy day. Maya had 3 appointments today. Two separate appointments with two different SLPs and one with the eye doctor. Each appointment ended well, good news all around. That’s why I’ve decided to write about today, good days need to be celebrated and remembered.

CAS is a condition requiring hard work, determination, and most importantly, dedication to a therapy schedule. Maya’s therapy schedule is grueling. An average week consist of visiting 3 different SLPs and one Occupational Therapist. In one week she will attend 5 therapy sessions. Sometimes I feel like we spend all day in the car, but our “Mighty Maya” never complains about attending therapy.  I attribute her positive attitude to the amazing therapists that work with her.  Maya’s wonderful therapists are the reason we are seeing tremendous growth in our sweet little girl.  They are dedicated to making sure Maya succeeds and they are as happy as I am when Maya has an awesome day.

Today, everything “just clicked” for Maya.  During her therapy sessions, Maya successfully produced new letter sounds.  Every time Maya successfully makes a correct sound, she has tackled another hurdle in her journey with CAS.  Silly thing is, I don’t think she is even aware of her awesome accomplishments, but I always make sure to celebrate even her smallest victories.  She knows her mommy is proud of her hard work.

Maya’s appointment with her eye doctor went well too. She has not had any regression with tracking and we are moving forward with more at home vision therapy techniques. I could not be more thrilled for our little girl.

Days like today are uplifting. I thank God for providing our family with a strong support system. I’m thankful that I am able to commit so much time to making sure Maya receives everything she needs. I’m extremely grateful for everyone that plays a significant role in Maya’s life. Together we are supporting Maya and she is overcoming the challenges of CAS.

Things we do

I enjoy sharing videos of Maya and I working on her speech at home.  We have been working on the letter F sound at the beginning of a word.  One of her therapists allowed us to borrow this wonderful game.  Enjoy!

Kindergarten

It is difficult for me to organize my thoughts for this post. I have revisited and revised this post several times.  My emotions and my fears always get the best of me when I am writing it.  I have so many thoughts about my daughter attending kindergarten in 2 years.  Like many parents, I want my daughter to be very well prepared.  I want her to excel at everything she does and most importantly I want her to be confident.  Confidence will help her overcoming any adversity she may face while at school.  I apologize for the choppiness and random thoughts in my writing.  And even though kindergarten is 2 years away, I know the clock is ticking and it is my responsibility to prepare my daughter.  I am responsible to give her the tools she needs to feel comfortable in a school setting.   I am posting it because two years from now I would like to use this to reflect on Maya’s growth.   

It is that time of year again, the start of a new school year.  In a few weeks, Maya will begin her second year of preschool. Maya will continue to attend preschool for the next two years and then she will enter kindergarten.  For a mother with an elementary education background, the thought of kindergarten scares the (insert swear word) out of me.

I have two short years to prepare Maya for kindergarten.  I have two short years for her to find her voice.  Compared to her peers, Maya still has difficulty articulating many of her words.  When Maya is conversing with others, I’d say she is understood 65% of the time.  At times, I step in and translate her speech and if I am not available she will do her best to show the listener what she is trying to say.

I know her expressive language will grow, but we still have a lot of work to do.  I want her to enter kindergarten feeling comfortable with her speech.  I expect her to be able to interact with her peers and communicate with her teachers and other adults. By the time she is in kindergarten, I hope I will not have to translate what she is saying.  I want her to be able to articulate what she is thinking with fluency and confidence.

This is a great website to help understand expressive language milestones in children.  http://www.speechtreeidaho.com/resources/typical-speech-and-language-development/

Over the next year, I’d also like to work on improving Maya’s reading readiness.  Nemours Reading BrightStart is a great website to help parents understand their child’s reading readiness milestones.  These are the milestones a four-year old child should have:

http://www.readingbrightstart.org/reading-skills-by-age/4-year-olds/

In addition to practicing speech at home we will begin to visit many of these concepts.  However, I will introduce them to Maya through games, play and reading.

Maya is continuing to work very hard at each of her therapy sessions.  Recently, I have noticed a change in Maya.  She has been more outgoing and she is starting to take more risks.  She doesn’t allow her CAS to stop her from interacting with others.  She shares her thoughts, ideas, and opinions with the many people in her life.  I thank God that she is happy and very strong-willed and she likes to remind me…

Maya: “Mommy, I’m 4, I’m a big girl now.”

Me: “I know, but you will always be my baby.”

Maya: “Stop mom.”

Me thinking to myself: “So it starts, and yes Maya no matter what you say you will always be my baby girl.”