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Lacking creativity and articulation

So after about 4 months of 4H, Ashlyn and I have decided to throw the towel in. I really wanted to try to make it through the entire first year before we gave up, but we decided over break to stop half way. Ashlyn was the youngest clover in our group and the majority of the girls were in high school. She was very timid at the few meetings we attended, which is normal of Ashlyn, but she really did not enjoy going. I enjoyed the Christmas caroling outing and was about to lead the Photography class, which I was not sure how to really do. After much discussion, we are both very excited to work on our doll house we bought a while back at our own pace and to try another girls outing another time :) Those interested in 4H should defiantly do it because it seems to be very neat, but something kids might enjoy better with a friend or sibling I think. We might even give it another try when Joshua is old enough to do it with her so she would enjoy the meetings more...

I haven't given you all an update lately on Caleb's speech progress so I wanted to say something about that. He is talking A LOT more than before. Unfortunately, that means you hear a lot of words that are missing a lot of sounds. He was really working on the following sounds before our Christmas break: k, t, s, f and g. We are working on these sounds at the beginning and ends of words. When we return this week, we will move onto these sounds in the middle of words. A while back he started a small stutter which only lasted about 3 weeks and went away (very normal for kids with Apraxia once their language skills improve). Being the busy mom I was around Christmas, we really did not practice much like we should have and we did not have the scheduled 4 days of therapy like we are used to. He is now stuttering again and missing those sounds we were working so hard on before break! Today at the Kearney Speech, Miss Angela said she could really tell a difference on his f sounds and stutter. She said it is not good that he could regress so much in such a short time. We go back to Miss Catherine tomorrow and I am interested to hear what she says and thinks. I am still shocked at how hard it has been the past few days to understand him. We hope someday when we no longer go to speech "school" he won't forget it all!!! I must say even though he is struggling so much with his articulation, his behavior lately has really improved. He might just be getting out of that 3 year old stage :) and all that consistency with discipline might be paying off. We'll keep ya posted...

Comments

A said…
Did she say why it wasn't good for him to regress so much?? Josie's behavior was awesome and then when we started being more lenient on the discipline, wham! it's back!!! so stay consistent even when it gets better! I'm so glad he's doing better behavior wise - what a blessing!
Hanson Crew said…
Learning all these sounds will come by repeatition so as long as he says all the sounds over and over and over correctly, in time he will know them all (hopefully by Kindergarten). We didn't really repeat them over and over for 2 weeks and he regressed. We had hoped he had learned a few of them well enough to just know them like he will in Kindergarten, but he doesn't. Both therapists today said that he just needs more practice and will get better someday...it's hard because you hear the wrong sounds like 100 times a day so it is a reminder all day that it is not better...I think my frustration is much bigger than his at this point and he is really trying hard. This is my small experience with a "special needs" child and it is really hard each day. It is harder when you have "normal" kids to compare to and you know where he should be. With God's Grace, we will get through it all and someday I am sure I will look back and be glad that I had all of this one on one time with him that I might not have had otherwise - sorry for the really long response. Oh, and I am so glad to hear about your father-in-law! Praise God.