This doesn’t mean the disorder is cured, however.  He still struggles with normal three-year-old sound difficulties and, unlike in most children, these problems will not simply disappear naturally.  We will have to continue to work with him and carefully teach him how to make these sounds and say these particular words.  And, as we continue with “school” work, learning the sounds the letters make will not come as easily to him as it may to many.  Reading may be difficult for him.  But we aren’t worried any more.  We know we can take on each delay as it comes and that he will be fully able to keep up with the other children his age.  I can’t wait to see the progress the next year brings!

It can be made two ways (or more, I’m sure).  We made it by cutting two paper bags in half (width wise), stuffing one with grocery bags and putting the stuffed bag end into the empty bag end, creating a soft cube.  The other option is to use a 2 litre milk carton to create the cube.  We wrapped ours in green construction paper as per Drew’s request, but it can be decorated any way your child wants.  I had to use duct tape in my wrapping because it was all we had! 

After creating your cube, write on each side a different activity.  Ours are: Running on the Spot, Twirl in a Circle, Stretching, Leap Frog Jumping, Jumping Jacks, and Dancing!  Then have your child toss the “dice” and do the activity the cube lands on.  It is fantastic fun, and easy!

Each joke, which he recites entirely by himself, ends with someone’s, or something’s, name and a loud “BLAH BLAH”.  We don’t know why.  Then he laughs hysterically and we can’t help but laugh with him!

Unfortunately, we have noticed a bit 0f a set-back.  His pronunciation continues to improve so much so that I’m not at all worried about his next assessment, which we should hear about soon.  However, he has started dropping words from sentences and replacing them with “hm” instead.  So “I want to go to the playground” becomes “Drew hm hm hm playground!”  Of course, it would still be pretty normal at this age for the entire sentence to only be “Drew wants go playground”, but because dropping the words is a new “symptom” it’s a bit concerning.  A friend who does some work with other children like Drew tells me that this issue is quite normal among children who have been in speech therapy and is usually simply because they’re trying to talk faster than their mouths can keep up.  I hope that’s all it is and that he will overcome it soon.

Jami-Lee is starting to talk more and more too.  Most of her speech is random babbling, but her inflection tells you exactly what she wants to say and almost daily she’ll blurt out something real.  Just yesterday she said “Shoe stuck!”  It’s not her first two-word combo.  She says “Yay, Drew” (who she simply calls “Do”) or “Where Drew?” or “What’s that?” all the time.  Most of what she says would probably be totally unrecognizable to people who aren’t used to hearing her chatter, but that’s pretty normal for a 16-month-old and we’re not at all concerned that she’ll have her brother’s difficulties.  In fact, the very fact that she babbles means she shouldn’t; Drew really never babbled at all.  I’ve never counted her vocabulary the way some parents do, but if I were to count all the words we’ve heard her say I think the number would easily be at least 20-30.  That’s pretty exciting for a Mommy who’s first dealt with a child who couldn’t talk.

Now if only I could teach them to clean and do chores.  They do help pick up their toys, but I can’t wait for the day they can take their turns washing dishes and mopping floors!

So here’s the big news not everyone has heard:  Drew’s Phonological Disorder has been upgraded from “severe” to “moderate”!!!  We knew that he had responded amazingly well to the speech therapy, but I was still a nervous wreck in the two weeks between his re-assessment and our last visit with his therapist before the Summer.  I was beyond elated when she told me the news!  She even went so far as to say that he’s on a “mild end of moderate right now”!  She explained/warned that one of two things would happen during his Summer break from regular therapy:

1. The months of careful practice would appear more and more in his daily speech (there is always a delay between practicing the new skills and sounds and their appearance in daily speech); or

2. He could possibly get lazy and revert to old speech patterns, which would simply mean that we would have to step up practice with him on our own.

She wasn’t really concerned that the second possibility would be a problem for him and it  certainly has not been.  In fact, having to stop and correct his speech is becoming more and more rare!  There are still a number of sounds and words he has difficulty with, and he does sometimes need to be reminded not to be lazy, but generally he’s doing very very well.  A number of people have even told us how elated they are to be able to have conversations with him, and it warms a mother’s heart to see her little boy talking when 8 months ago we didn’t know if this day would come.  We look forward to the days of frustration over difficult communication being long behind us!

The plan now is for him to have another re-assessment in either the Fall or Winter and his therapist expects that he will still need another block of therapy to work on the sounds and muscle movements that are still a problem.  So it may be a while again before there’s a new update!

I wrote in the Speaking in Phrases that I hadn’t totally believed he really would improve like he has.  I was so afraid to believe it was possible, and I praise God for his work in my little boy.  I sometimes find myself wondering why he would have allowed Drew to be born with this defect in the first place.  What is the point of this challenge?  I may never know the answer to that question.  In fact, I most likely won’t.  Regardless, I trust that he has a greater purpose for my boy and his resilience.  Perhaps one day he’ll be an eloquent public speaking journalist or politician!  Only time will tell and for now I will simply revel in his incredible progress.

This is what I’ve been working on:

I am excessively proud of this dress I crocheted for Jami-Lee.  It is another project I did without a pattern and I’ve been working on it for a few months.  It’s totally adorable, but I wasn’t able to get a good picture of her in it!  They’re all either a blur of her trying to walk to the camera, of her sitting in her stroller, or from the back!

I made two of this hat for two adorable little princesses!  My new “neice”, Hailey, and another friend’s baby girl, Belle.

This hat was made for another “neice” as her 2nd birthday gift.  I did make this from a pattern, but it was so poorly written that it took me a few attempts to adapt it until it worked properly.   The hat is a bit big for Miri, so her mom wore it instead!

I used the same adapted pattern to make a hat for myself as well, and would also like to make tiny pink one for Jami-Lee when I can.

In addition to these four I’ve been working on a red stripped blanket that Jami-Lee has claimed as her own since it was only a strip!  I also made another of the name wall hangings for my newest nephew, Nate, but somehow lost the photo I took of it!  Of course, with two busy  skinny toddlers who have recently grown into bigger clothes there has also been  plenty of waist bands to cinch in and holes to mend!   There’s never a lack of projects to work on after kids are in bed. 

Drew continues to make progress with his speech therapy.  His therapist is working particularly on “p” and “b” words right now.  He’s made quick progress on the “b” words.  He’s now able to say “bus”, “bye”, “big”, and others that used to evade him and some of them are starting to sneak their way into his everyday speech!  The “p” words are still a bit more troublesome, but we’re keeping our heads up!   Unfortunately, as he’s improved at pronouncing the first letter of these words, the last letters are starting to be dropped.  Dropping the last letter is actually very normal for age three and his therapist believes the coordination of both sounds is simply too difficult for him still; but because we know he can say them properly he should re-attach those end sounds himself when he figures out the coordination a little more.  Sometimes it looks and sounds as if he’s talking with a mouth full of cotton as he tries so hard to get his little muscles around the hard words, but he’s working so hard at it and I’m very proud of his efforts.  I’m also very grateful that the frustrating moments of simply not being able to communicate with him are occurring less and less.

Jami just keeps growing both bigger and into a more difficult hand full!  I’ve been told that she’s just like me!  She climbs everything in sight, does pretty much whatever we tell her not to do, bites, throws huge on-the-floor-kicking-and-screaming temper tantrums when she doesn’t get her way.  But she sure is cute!  She’s also starting to talk more and more and is a joy to watch despite her strong will!

And I continue crafting!  I have numerous projects on the go right now.  I’m working on a blanket, which Jami-Lee has claimed as hers since it was only one skinny stripe wide!  I’m also working on a crocheted dress for her, a number of hats, and a name wall hanging for my new nephew!  Hopefully I will start finishing some of these projects soon so I can show them off!