Stacia has added another therapist to the list of ones she is seeing. She started seeing Beth at PTC where she goes for private therapy. She will continue to see JoAnna as well for speech along with Polly for OT. Since I (mama) had my times mixed up thinking I had to leave home at the time we needed to be there she ended up only going for 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes. In some ways it worked out good since it gave her a chance to ease in a bit with Beth.
Stacia made several sounds including the z sound though we only got it once and we could not get her to repeat it. This is not something unusual for children with childhood apraxia of speech to make a sound when playing or doing something else where they are not concentrating on making a sound to make a sound and than when they have to concentrate on that sound not being able to make that sound.
Stacia is starting to reach the point where she is realizing that other people can express themselves with their mouths and that she has a hard time doing that. She is getting to the point where she does not even want to try to talk. Which would explain why she has regressed some from what she was doing last spring.
Right now we are giving her lots of praise for any sound that she makes with the exception of screaming or crying. If we want her to made a b sound and she makes the m sound we are going to be praising her for making a sound.
She did go to preschool this week after missing last week due to being sick though since it was only 2 days scheduled it was a review week. They ended up having only 1 day with so many out sick or having vehicles broken down. She has 3 classmates 2 girls and a boy in her class though there is supposed to be another girl starting soon.
Her teacher is very supportive of the fact that we are planning on homeschooling her once she reaches kindergarten. Half her class are those that are going to go to be home educated and that other half will be going to public school.
Her teacher says she is doing great at school and appears to know as much and in some areas even more than the other children the only problem is she has no way of communicating to let the world know how much she knows. One advantage to having her in such a small private preschool is she gets a lot more 1 on 1 attention and her teacher is use other ways of finding out what she knows. Today they worked on colors:Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, and Brown and I was told the only one she struggled with was Orange. She can't say the names but she can point to the different ones as you ask for them or she can hand you an object of that color.
We are working on getting her an Alternative and Assitive Communication Device (AAC) though while we are waiting to hear from the insurance on rather they are going to cover the cost or not we are getting her some training in using a Picture Exchange Card System (PECS) so that between that and using American Sign Language she can communicate what she wants and needs at least to a simple degree that is more than using ASL for those who know it and can sign with her or pointing for those that don't.
While Stacia is not able to say much with her mouth she says so much with her hands, her body and her eyes. Now if the world would just learn to read and listen to children like Stacia who don't communicate with their voices. Listen not with your ears but listen with your heart to children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech because children like Stacia have so much to share and tell us if only we listen. Sometimes it is hard I know because I walk this road everyday.
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