I did not get to attend speech therapy with JJ for any of August, and just got to attend last week again. My work schedule is busier than ever, but my husband was happy to be part of the process for a time. I am feeling guilty just handing it all over to him feeling like I need to be the one involved. It is part of my control issues I suppose:) However, I was feeling out of the loop and not noticing as much improvement with the craziness of the wedding, etc. However, after this session I was able to see a few more things that are different so thought I would share about that:)
Keep in mind that with Apraxia the actual articulation errors are only a small part of the symptoms that we deal with:)
First: his sleep issues are worsening. Friday night he didn't even go to sleep until after 2 a.m. We decided to wake him by 9:30 in the morning to offset things. That switch has reminded me why we stopped that in the first place. Because of the Apraxia affecting his REM (restful sleep, etc) and the speed at which his brain "wakes up," if he is woke up he does it veeeeeery slowly. He has to be held and rocked for 1 - 2 hours before he really wakes up. That means that we can't get anything done. I am remembering why we stopped waking him up lol! He does like to take a HOT bath at bedtime and I put lavender in the water with him and he usually falls asleep faster that way:) Once he falls asleep he stays asleep all night about 1/2 of the time. The other 1/2 he wakes about 5:30 and crawls in bed with us. That wakes me up and I don't fall back to sleep. So after going to sleep at midnight or a little later after he finally falls sleep, and waking at 5:30 when either he wakes me or my body wakes me anticipating he will wake me, I have struggled with being tired lol! He also wakes A LOT more when he has bug bites that he needs "mommy, scratch it mommy!"
Second: Eating has been improved but still not anywhere near "normal." Most of the time he may eat a few bites of food in the morning but then not eat much else. After 10 or 11 p.m. though is when he really gets hungry. The other night he ate a whole box of mac n cheese! Of course I am not thrilled that the food he likes is box mac n cheese (I never used to cook it but my teenagers discovered it and...there you go!) He also rarely drinks anything, but will drink 2 glass of milk in the hour before bed. The saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" certainly applies to him!
Third: Sensory issues - his car sickness has increased. In fact he has not just been nauseated but actually gotten sick in the car twice in the past week:(
Fourth: Articulation- I think his articulation is improving. We understand him better and others say that they understand him better. He still says /s/ for /f/ when he talks, but as soon as I prompt him he will say it correctly (unless he is being ornery;) The SPL states that she will start working with the /s/ sound with him this week to help him to know that some words actually do get the /s/ sound so he doesn't get the idea that no words have /s/ lol!
Fifth: Retrieval - this is such a major issue with Apraxia and he is doing SO WELL with it! There are some words that he consistently doesn't seem to be able to retrieve but for the most part his vocabulary has vastly improved. It isn't that he didn't know the words, but that couldn't retrieve them. Now his retrieval of more complicated vocabulary with more syllables in improving noticeably. This is wonderful!
Sixth: Social - JJ ROSE HIS HAND AND ANSWERED A QUESTION IN SUNDAY SCHOOL...TWICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is SOOOOOOOO huge! He has never really acted like he cared what was going on in Sunday school. He wanders around or sits on my husband's lap a lot. We have been teaching his class for a full year now (the 4/5 year old class). We were going through the days of creation and he raised his hand and gave a good answer that was as on track as any other kid in the class. It was so precious!
He has also had much less stranger anxiety with less clinging to us. He will respond to people (using brief words) with they ask a question or we prompt him to give an answer. YYYYAAAAAYYYYY!
Last Friday Grace had a dentist appointment. The Dental Hygienist has been a sweet friend of ours for 17 years since we started going there and we explained JJ's stranger anxiety. He watched Grace get her teeth "tickled" and ride on the chair. Then...he got up there himself for a ride on the chair! AND he let her look in his mouth and "count" his teeth. AND HE LET THE DENTIST LOOK IN THERE TOO!!! With the mirror instrument!!!!!! Can I just say that this is AMAZING progress for him?!?!?!? When I asked him if he wanted to get his teeth "tickled" (he did touch the "toothbrush") next time he gave a resounding "NO!" ;)
Seventh: Fine Motor Skills - We had got a free app on the kids' kindles to draw Frozen characters. During church he pulled one up and drew a picture of the snowman! AND it LOOKED like the snowman lol! He still holds pencils/crayons very oddly but he is able to color inside the lines very well and does it carefully:)
With this said, when he moves one hand the other hand will mirror the same movement. So when he moves his hand to color the other hand does too. It is the same with scratching. I think that makes the movement more exhausting and perhaps less effective. That is my philosophy why he struggles with us having to scratch for him. He will do it a little, but when tired he insists we do it.
Eighth: learning - he has always struggled with learning things like colors, letters, numbers, etc. He can't do the latter at all yet but we are working on it! However, in the past month I have noticed that he is getting about 4 colors down consistently! It has always amazed me that he can learn how to operate an electronic device and play a video game competitively with his older siblings but he can't/won't learn those colors lol!
Ninth: attention span - he is loving me reading him CHAPTER BOOKS! We have started reading Robin Hood (the classic kid version). He sits on my lap a long time for me to read several chapters. In fact, I have to get up and move onto a different project before he ready for me to be done! That is very new and very welcome:)
Tenth: Spiritual Jonathan has prayed to accept Jesus into his heart:) Now, what that really means in terms of fruitfulness in his behavior is up for...watchfulness. But it was a very sweet moment to share with my little guy as he asked and prayed with me:)
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