I'm sure that most who read this, if anyone does, knows who Maxton is. Our energetic little boy is 3 1/2. As every parent says, where has the time gone? And stop growing up so quickly. The days have just zipped by since he was born.
Over the last 3 1/2 years it has been a great adventure watching Max grow and change into a rambunctious toddler. He has always been just a little behind in his development but never behind when it comes to height and weight. The last time we weighed him, about 2 weeks ago, he was 38.6 pounds. I just measured his height and he is just shy of 42 inches tall. He is quite frequently mistaken for a 4 sometimes 5 year old because he is so big. With that there seems to come expectations that he can do certain things. I can understand. However, coming from someone who does not know him it's hard. One of the biggest expectations is speech.
Max is speech delayed or language delayed actually. He has pretty much always been able to make sounds and baby talk when he was little. He started saying hi and a couple other words fairly early on but little else. I have always been concerned about him talking being an issue. I've been told by my MIL that this is a common thing with the males in her family, so I wasn't completely surprised. I was however, surprised how it would affect the three of us. Also in turn my parents and several others in our lives. The amount of frustration that comes along with this has been overwhelming at times.
Taking him to Sabbath School and having the teacher ask him to say his memory verse, telling the cashier at Fred Meyer thank you for his sticker, telling someone his name, it's just assumed that he can do these things. But he can't. The looks some people give him and us hurt when he can't respond in the way they expect. And it hurts because it makes me feel like I've done something wrong, even when I know I haven't. It is very hard not to compare him to other kids his age, and even younger. I have shed many a tear in frustration and sadness when I feel like I can't help him. I try to not let him see that but when he does he is the sweetest boy. He hugs and kisses me and you can tell how empathetic he is and I love him for it.
We decided early on to only teach Max two signs to help him. He knows please and thank you. I did not want to teach him a whole bunch of words and have him come to completely rely on signing. Sometimes I regret not teaching him more since he has been struggling with speaking but I'm now glad we didn't teach him more.
At his 3 year well appointment our pediatrician had some concerns. And suggested we see about some therapy. We had already begun the process of having him tested or evaluated for speech therapy through the public school system which was recommended to us by a family friend. When we first thought about putting him in some sort of therapy I had no idea how we would pay for such a thing. And no idea that we could do it through the school district. I am so thankful that the public schools offer these programs. Without them, we would have been lost. We had his first evaluation before Christmas just to see if he qualified for services. After he turned 3, two lovely ladies who are both speech therapists came to our house for a more in depth evaluation. They determined that he would definitely benefit from speech therapy and set us up with our first appointment. Since the middle of January, Max has been going once a week to have therapy with a very nice lady, Anne Marie at the primary school down the street from us. I feel we have been so blessed to have her to work with. She has been so patient and understanding with Max. Yes, it is her job as a speech therapist, but she has been great.
Since he started therapy, his language skills have improved a lot. He still has a long way to go though. He still struggles with full sentences and calling people by their names. He prefers to call most people mom and has just recently started calling Zac by his first name. We figure it's what he hears everyone else call him, so he can too. He knows lots of words and is always picking up new ones. Like today, I set up his small play tent in his room and now he won't stop saying tent.
Last week we received a progress report of sorts from his speech therapist. Since his therapy is through the public school, he doesn't have therapy during the summer. She said she is very impressed and happy with how he has progressed over the last six months and can't wait to see how he has been doing when the school year starts again.
In the meantime, we just take it one day at a time. Working on colors and letters and every day words. He still uses the word for the sound something makes when talking about it. Beep Beep is car, hoo hoo is owl (or all birds really), woof is dog and meow is cat, things like that. He's slowly getting there but this will be something he probably struggles with for a long time.
I came across this article on FB awhile back and it so perfectly fit how I feel about this whole thing I wasn't sure how else I could say it. So if you're interested, it's a great read. http://www.scarymommy.com/mom-speech-delayed-child/
Thanks for reading.
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