i am like every other mother. I dont want to beleive that there could potentially be something wrong with my child. Kayden was on track for everything, and in some aspects he was faster with certain milestones, so me and his dad didn't see anything out of the ordinary. It wasnt until a year and a half we started to see his speech slow down, and closer to Kayden turning three it started to pick up again.
Curtis and I agreed that we would find a family doctor for him, since his pediatrician retired and closed his practice. Since that happened we had a hard time finding a family doctor/pediatrician. Pediatricians in my area stopped taking infants/toddlers that were deemed as normal i.e. didnt need extra care and wernt in the nicu. That was not Kaydens situation, so they wouldnt take him on. It took us awhile to find a family doctor we liked, and when we met up with him for Kaydens 3 year old check up, he didnt feel as though anything was wrong. I had a feeling something was off with his speech so I pushed seeing a specialist. I was told that it may take awhile before a therapist calls me. It was about a month before I got a phone call, which consisted of the therapist getting background info about kayden and seeing what his speech level was. After a 5 minute convo she advised me it would be about a 6 month wait.
We got a phone call close to 6 months from a private speech clinic. Normally we would have to pay for this service but because we got referred we didnt have to ( Thank God).
The first appointment consisted of all of us going. Curtis and I went into the room first and expressed our concerns as well as answering some general questions about Kayden. the therapist asked us about his communication and how he is with other kids. Next Kayden came in and she asked him to do some mouth movements, this allowed her to see if Kayden was capable if making certain noises and move his mouth a certain way. Then she asked Kayden to say certain words, this allowed her to see what speech patterns Kayden has trouble with. Lastly she asked kayden to point certain things out in pictures which tested his ability to understand.
Kayden then left the roon and we were able to have another conversation with the therapist.
We had 3 more sessions with the therapist 2 weeks apart. Our first session the therapist gave us a copy of the report that she would be sending to the original speech clinic. We also got a better idea of what speech patterns kayden had trouble with. The next 3 sesssions focused on different speech patterns.
Fast forward to today, Curtis and I can see a difference with Kayden. Even though we are at the beginning of this journey, we can definetly see a difference. kayden is pronouncing letters a lot better and speaking more. Because he has certain sounds down, it has been easier for him to learn similar words. There have been many times when I have said a word and kayden has said it back to me, or even surprised me and said words all by himself.
Curtis has even noticed a lot more self confidence. Kayden says hi to other kids and is the first one to engage with other kids.
Seeing kayden be more verbal has eased a lot if my concerns, the main one him going to kindergarten. I was worried that the other kids wouldnt be able to understand him, or even worse, his teacher.
Now I see Kayden picking up a lot more words, from just listening. He loves doing his activity books and learning new words. I also noticed recently that he is putting 3 words together, which is where he should be. These small milestones have made big strides in his ability to communicate more efficiently.
i cant stress enough how important it is to trust your intuition, ask the appropiate questions and dont be afraid to push for something. once I learned what was holding Kayden back it made it easier for me to be able to teach him how to pronounce certain words. I have better tools and techniques to help him get to the next level.
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