Round two.

Our second round of speech therapy for Kennen is about to commence. We had speech therapy from the time he was around 16 month until he was just under 2 years old. It took him that entire 6 months to actually say Mama. Since then, his cache of words has exploded to an uncountable number. But, he says very few of the words correctly. He pretty much has the right number of syllables in every word, but he only uses vowels to emphasize each syllable. I told my father in law that he is a vowel boy and so he taught Kennen how to say, "A, E, I, O, U". It's pretty cute.

Today when we had his 2 year speech evaluation, I asked them about getting his hearing checked. They said of course it's a good idea, but then one of the women said that she thinks that his problem is probably Apraxia of Speech. Before, we thought that he just had delayed language skills which would eventually correct itself as he went to school. Apraxia of Speech is not something that will correct on it's own. :( Basically he can hear the word correctly but somewhere as he is processing it in his brain, there is a hiccup and he cannot figure out how to get the word out correctly. It goes along with motor, and sensory development. His other physical motor skills are fine but I would agree that he has some sensory issues. Little things cause him to freak out big time.

I was kind of skirting the issue of whether to sign him up by using the 'I have to ask my husband' crutch. It always comes in handy when I'm trying to be sold anything...even though I am the one that handles all our money. The SLP (speech language pathologist) pretty much told me though that there are ways to 'rewire' the way he thinks about language, and the younger the better. I definitely don't want him to be behind by the time school starts so I went ahead and signed him up. Our first appointment is Friday at 3:00pm and my 'assignment' is to get him to say 'Puppy'. Right now he pronounces it "Uh-Eeeeee". She told me to drag out the vowel sounds and and that if I sort of sing it, another part of his brain will be activated and he will be able to process it better. I was tucking him in for his nap and I tried it.

Mommy: "PuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuuupeeeeee"

Kennen: "UuuuuuuuUUUUuuuuuueeeeeeee"

Mommy: "PuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuuupeeeeee"

Kennen: "puuuUUUUUuuuEeeeee"

Mommy: "PuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuuupeeeeee"

Kennen: "PuuuuUUUuuuuuh-eeee"

Mommy: Puppy"

Kennen: "Puh-ee"

I cried. This seems like nothing really but it's the first time that he has said a word that starts with the letter 'P'. It's a big deal. I'm proud. And I'm hopeful that this is going to work.

It's hard not to beat yourself up as a parent when something like this happens. I wonder what I did wrong. I'm a full time stay at home mom and my child cannot speak clearly. If I was the nanny, I would have fired me by now.