The Kid's Speech

 
Ok. I think it's finally about time I talked about Max's speech delay. I know I've mentioned it and hinted at it before, but I've never took the time to actually write about it. I had been concerned about Max's speech development since he was 9 months old, when he was still cooing and not yet babbling. His pediatrician referred us to a speech clinic called Youthful Horizons here in Spokane. Max has been going 1-2 times a week for speech therapy since he was 13 months old. It's AMAZING to see how much he has progressed and lately he's closer than ever to where he needs to be, speech-wise. Max has been through three speech therapists, and each one way better than the last. We absolutely LOVE his current therapist, Shana. She has just been perfect for Max in every way and she was the only one that Max himself didn't seem to have reservations about. It makes me really sad that we're most likely moving in August and won't be able to see Shana anymore!

I have a Bachelor's degree in Communication Disorders, which is Speech Pathology and Audiology. I know now that I was guided by my Heavenly Father when I decided to switch my major (for maybe the 3rd time) to Communication Disorders. The knowledge and experience I gained from BYU and from my major has been a tremendous contributor to my every day dealings with Max. As Max has only been attending speech therapy once a week for maybe the past year, he has relied solely on me (and Bryan, of course) to help him on his journey to communicate better. I have also been lucky enough to attend every single one of Max's speech sessions and recently, I had the opportunity to attend an 8-session course for parents of kids with speech delays called It Takes Two to Talk.

So...I started a blog! Another one, that is. There are so many people out there who have kids with speech delays, but do not have the access to the resources that I am able to have. Also, insurance is so selective when it comes to paying for speech therapy, mostly deeming it "not medically necessary". I have felt strongly lately about starting this blog so I can reach out to other parents and caregivers of kids with speech delays who are struggling like me! Help me spread the word by sharing my blog, facebook page, and twitter account, so I can get the word out to my target audience! Thanks for listening! Click on the links below to find me:

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Easter!

I'm so excited for Max to be a older for holidays now and to be an active participant. I think I took probably 500 pictures for Easter because he was just so cute actually being able to do things we planned. We just died A TON of Easter eggs. We had 13 hard boiled eggs and ended up dying our 24 remaining raw eggs. I always have a hard time choosing what color dye tablets to use (plus you can rarely tell their true color until you start dissolving them), so we bought plastic cups and used them all! Dream come true for me! Max loved picking out which color egg he was going to eat that morning (and it actually got him to eat eggs!) He also had so much fun collecting Easter eggs too. He would pick up the egg, shake it, open it, and then empty it straight into the basket without eating the candy. In fact, we had small wrapped chocolate eggs and Max would unwrap each one, hand it to me and say "Mama eat!" I'm sure I ate way too many. I also made lots of deviled eggs and my mom's special cherry cream cheese pie! So yummy!!!!!!

*I keep trying to upload videos, but it never lets me!