Monday, September 10, 2012

Update #2 Mazlyn.....



As I sit here this morning with only Mazlyn awake I am marveling in how amazing he is.  Since Thursday I can not help but wonder what the future holds for my baby and I find myself somewhat upset about it.

Thursday morning we had an appointment to have Mazlyn evaluated because of his lack of speech.  We were saying he had about 30 words but they were not consistent.  With him being 26 months old we knew that this was not the norm.  We had waited 8 months to seek this intervention with the hopes that the words would start to form and he would be fine.  It didn't seem to be coming so at his 2 year check up I asked for a referral and our pediatrician gave me the phone number I needed to get the ball rolling.   After playing phone tag for a week, meeting with the service coordinator and waiting a month for the actual evaluation, they were here.

Mazlyn had no trouble with the Psychologist and her "tests" that were hidden in all the fun puzzles and games she had.  He scored remarkably on all the areas she was testing, which we knew he would.  He is very smart, he just doesn't talk.

Then it was time for the Speech Language Pathologist to do her part.  I sat at the edge of the room with tears in my eyes watching as she prompted Mazlyn over and over (seems like  a million times) and he gave her nothing.  He followed all her instructions to a T but never spoke a word.  He attempted to say several things when asked whats this or who's that but nothing.  (I was secretly afraid that after going through everything to set up the evaluation and waiting a month for them to come Mazlyn was going to pull words and sentences out of nowhere and be talking up a storm while they were here.  I would have loved it and I would have been so relieved but then I would have had another problem on my hands: why he wasn't doing it any other time??)  This was not the case and I could tell by the way she was nodding her head as she was going through her evaluation book that something was off.

So when all was said and done and the lovely ladies had added up their numbers we were presented with a diagnosis.  Mazlyn is practically the smartest 2 year old on the block, he understands everything that is said, follows directions perfectly, has really good motor skills and his social and emotional skills are great.  As for his speech his receptive communication (what he understands that is said) is remarkable.  But his expessive communication is majorly lacking.  Their is a huge gap between the numbers which in turn qualifies him for speech therapy.  Not a problem but why??  (Of course I am filled with all the "why's" a mother would have).

It turns out Mazlyn has a motor speech disorder called Childhood Apraxia of Speech (C.A.S).  In other words he knows what he wants to say he just doesn't know how to make his mouth and voice work together to produce the words.  This is why my Baby can't talk.  He wants to he just can't get the words out.  Not easy for me to swallow but comforting that we have a reason and it's not just... "why does he need to talk when Lyvi and Wyatt will talk for him."  So, as we start this new week we are already modifying what we do with Maz, and how we interact with him.  He should start his therapy within the next week or two, we are still waiting to hear.

I will say we have gotten two new words since Thursday.  He said ba-ket (blanket) on Friday and I really only knew what he was saying because he was pointing at his Mickey Mouse blanket but we celebrated like he had won the race.  I was so excited.  (He will not say anything on demand though so after he got his blanket we could not get him to repeat it.)  But yesterday in the tub he and Wyatt were playing with boats.  Tom and I were both sitting in the bathroom and Mazlyn started to scream and whine (his normal response to get our attention because he can't get the words he wants to say out his mouth) when Tom asked what was wrong he said "boat" clear as day THREE TIMES.  Wyatt had sure enough stolen his boat and he wanted help getting it back so we asked Wyatt to please give it back to him.  Afterward we clapped and said hooray and I had tears in my eyes again.  I was so happy for such a small word.  I have a feeling we will be celebrating little A LOT.  That's okay.  If that helps to motivate him we are there.

So all in all we aren't doing too bad.  The "speech lady" as we have been calling her said it's good we caught this early and can start working on it immediately.  It's not going to be fixed overnight but with hard work on the part of everyone we should be able to get this under control within the next few years.  With regular speech therapy and consistent hard work he should be ready for kindergarten (homeschool style of course : ) ) and he should be able to be understood and be able to communicate his needs and wants.

I'm nervous about the future but I am over the "Why God??" question and moving onto the "Please help us get through this" prayer.  I know with Him all things are possible and even this speech delay is nothing for Him to conquer.  We are going to do EVERYTHING it takes to help Maz.  We love him so much!!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Update #1 of many....

So I should probably start by saying that I am the worst blogger EVER.  The last time I blogged was back in February... I would say a little catch up is in order.

Biggest news we have is that we have moved.  From our first home in Clifton Springs to our new home in Sodus.  Our official move in date was July 30th.  We are so in love with this house.  We have everything that we have ever wanted.  The most important thing being that we are minutes from everyone we love and care about.  Grandma and Grandpa VL are about 5 minutes away, my Mom and Dad are about 8 minutes away, Dan, Aleasha and the girls are about 4 minutes away, Jennifer and Jason and their kids are about 4 minutes away and Scott and Sherron and their kids are about 12 minutes away.  Life is perfect being so much closer to our family.


Our house also includes a deck, a garden, a partially fenced in yard (to be finished when the finances become available), a finished basement that has room for a "homeschool room" (YAY!!) a laundry room, dishwasher and so many other perfect attributes I would be listing forever.  This house is so perfect for our family.  Thank God for making everything work out the way that it did.  And thank Him for Facebook also because without it the connection may not have ever been made.  

We are still unpacking and settling in.  It's only been 6 weeks or so.  We have lost only a little homeschool time but we are caught back up and going strong.  This is the life and we praise God for it daily.  He is so awesome.

For now.... I am going to clean and possibly update on another area later tonight. Maybe not.  Lol. 

Shylo