I can't wait for winter to be over. It seems like its been especially long this year. This cold is awful.

Anyway I still can't manage to get rid of this foolish cold. I think it likes me too much to go away. LOL

But they finally scheduled my 2nd SPECT scan. I go in on the 31st and then see the doc next month to get the results. Hopefully they can get more of this mess taken care of.

My doc started me on the neurontin a few weeks ago. I haven't noticed that its actually doing anything yet. Everything still feels like the same ole to me. But at least the insurance covers this pill. I'm crossing my fingers.

Its been so busy and so much to catch you all up on.

My son had his Pinewood Derby race a few weeks ago and did awesome. He ended up with a 1st place trophy in the Wolf division. He still hasn't come down off his cloud yet. Its the only thing he's been able to talk about.

And my 2nd oldest had her regional Destination Imagination competition a couple of weeks ago and her team took first place and is moving on to the state competiotion next month.

I think the best news is they have finally gotten my youngest into the 2nd therapy session she needs. And she's starting to make alot of progress. So many new words coming out of her mouth. There just isn't any words to describe the feeling.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Hi tspauld. You must be so proud of all your kids. I remember having a discussion about your youngest but can't remember how old she is. Two or three? Reason I'm asking is that it breaks my heart to watch my granddaughter struggle to finish her sentences. She really struggles to get the words out. But I'm also so very proud of her. She rarely gets upset about her speech problems. If the words don't come out right, she just repeats the sentence over and over til it does. Kids are so amazing!

She will be 3 in June but she has alot of trouble talking. In fact, didn't start talking til last year. I tried to talk to my daughter about it, but she got very defensive so I haven't brought it up again but it does worry me. I volunteer to help in her preschool center where there are all 2 and 3 yr olds and so I can see how far behind on her talking skills. She's very bright tho. She is ahead of most of the other kids when it comes to education; she just has alot of problems pronouncing the words and forming sentences. When my daughter was pregnant with her there was a problem towards the end of her pregnancy-she had too much fluid surrounding the brain and had to have numerous tests done to rule out brain damage but I tried to link that to her difficulty talking to my daughter and she got upset with me. What is it that she is doing to help her? Did you say therapy sessions? What do they actually do with her?

Take care, donnaC

Hi Donna,

Sophie turned 4 this past Novemeber and she's been getting therapy since she was right around 2.

She has apraxia/dyspraxia wich was caused by her fall out the window onto her head when she was little.

She's now getting 2 one hour sessions of therapy a week. Once a week she has a session at home and then once a week we take her down to the office.

The apraxia is a funny little thing. They just did her yearly evaluation and she tested out for comprehension at an age 5+ level but her verbal skills are at a 24 month level. She's a bit behind. She's as smart as a whip, the words are there but she just can't get them out. Apraxia is a neurological disorder and children have the word there but their brain is trying to hard on figuring out how to form the lips and where to put the tongue that everything ends up coming out jumbled. Sophie has been working alot with sign language to help overcome some of the frustration and has been working alot with the therapist and us on getting the mouth to form the right shape for those letters to sound right. We're not focusing on getting the entire word to come out right, we're more concered with her at least gettting the beginning sound. Its been a long uphill battle and very frustrating for us. But its got to be so much more frustrating for her. Sometimes after us telling her to tell us again and again because we couldn't figure the word out she'll just get so frustrated that she'll either change the word to something she knows that we understand or will give up entirely.

I'm not a therapist but a mom that's on child #2 with speech therapy but it sounds like your grandbaby may need a little help. At about age 2-3 she should be stringing together small sentences and should be almost 100% comprehendible to everyone. Sounds like your noticing that she's a bit behind. Has your daughter been down to the school and noticed? You know I can almost understand where your daughter is coming from. She sounds like me when Sophie was little. Friends kept telling us that they felt Sophie was having an issue and I got very defensive, in the back of my head I just kept saying she's shy and she'll eventually just start talking. I wish I could take that back and get her the help sooner than I did, it would have been that little more she would have been ahead.

But it sounds liek she should definitely talk to the pediatrician. If there is a speech delay (there are so many different forms) its so much better to start working on them before they start school.

I'm hoping that eventually your daughter may come around and see that at least an evaluation wouldn't hurt. But I've been in those same shoes and its very hard. You just need to be there and support your grandbaby and your daughter for now. Hugs to you all!

Thanks for the information. I'll tell my daughter. I just need to be careful how I talk about it. I think she knows there's a problem, just hopes she will get better on her own, but you and I know that's not going to happen without help.

My granddaughter is like your daughter-she's smart and knows what she wants to say, just has trouble getting the words out. She definitely needs to see a speech therapist now, while she's young and before she starts public school.

Good luck with your daughter.

donnaC