Severely Delayed-Update

As I mentioned in a previous post, my son has been struggling with his speech. Really struggling. And, it is not easy having a child that is delayed in anything, but the logistics of having a child that doesn't speak can be particularly frustrating and saddening.

Well, the good news is that the light bulb everyone talks about has finally gone off. One day, he picked up a new word. Then another. Then a few more. Then, he started stringing words together. Good gravy, the child was on fire. We had been getting speech therapy for a few months and finally qualified for First Steps, the early intervention program in Kentucky. And, for whatever reason, something just clicked. Did the speech therapy help? Probably. Did all the speech activities we did everyday help? Maybe. Did he just decide one day that it did actually help him to talk? Yes. Personally, I think he just had to wait until it was the right time for him. My little man is just one of those people that has to do things on their own time.

And, this post is late by a few months. But, having previously had these moments where I swore he was going to start talking more and then nada, I was scared to feel too positive. Scared to put too much stock into him repeating back a new word. Even too scared to tell anyone about it because nothing is worse than feeling that weight lift off your shoulder again only to have it come crashing back down again.

But, I think we can finally say that things are looking up. He is talking, and even speaking in small phrases. But, since he likes to keep us on our toes, he is not saying the first consonant in a lot of words, which is another issue all together. And, boy, is it hard to differentiate words when you don't have the first consonant. Ice cream truck, monster truck, and fire truck all sound exactly the same. Thank goodness each has their own roar that he has perfected.

So, we are still in speech therapy, and probably will be for a while. We are still working hard to get this consonant thing figured out. I am still the annoying person walking through the store, but now I am saying things like, "Watch my mouth, buh, buh, buh-bird" as well as giving a rolling dialogue of what we are doing. It is still tough, and scary, and frustrating. But, I gotta say, hearing "omma" again was worth every single moment. Every. Single. One.