When school was beginning and we were planning speech goals for Caleb, we put him on the Children's Mercy speech and hearing wait list. Our hope was that they would contact us when school ended and he would be able to go to Children's Mercy through the summer if the school decided he could not continue there through the summer. Our original desire was to hire our good friend and Caleb's first speech pathologist, Mrs. Catherine, during the K school year and summer after in addition to the free 2 days the school was going to offer him. Because our business began an audit by the Dept of Labor right when the school year started, we were unsure of our income and unable to hire Mrs. Catherine. We are still in the middle of our audit and unsure if we will be able to hire her sometime this year. We still have that in the back of our minds as something we still hope to pursue soon (we miss you Catherine!)In the meantime, Caleb's school pathologist moved him to 3 days a week of therapy in October. This was great news since we knew the extra day would help him significantly and something they don't usually offer students. Because of many snow days and Christmas break, we were seeing a huge delay of progress in January. I think he might have actually regressed a little too with certain sounds. So I called CMH to see where he was on the list. They said he was 3 or 4 on the list, but that they could move him up and start therapy now if we were interested. So he began this week on Monday's from 4:15 to 5:00. We were so glad it was after school and worked so well with our schedule. He will continue this therapy through August and then they will decide if he can renew for another 6 months. Because we took a phonetic class there last summer with a grant, that continues through the summer and our out of pocket cost is really good! He gets one on one therapy for 45 minutes a day with Mrs. Stacey. She is going to work on blending sounds (ch and sh) as well as multi-syllable sounds in phrases and words, which is an area that is especially bad right now. These are things that the school is not working on so he won't get too worn out on the same sounds 4 days a week. They are focusing on f, v, k, and g sounds at school. We are hopeful for the improvements he could make through May.
God has made Caleb in His image and is wonderfully made. I try to remind myself of this truth every day and try to not make him feel different or wear him out with too much practice at home now. He is such a bright and special boy and has so much to teach me through his speech disability. I know he will do amazing things in his life and pray these struggles he is enduring now will be used to bring him to God and make him a stronger young man. He is still not as frustrated as he could be and continues to do so well with all of his therapy sessions. I will try to post a video of him soon showing his new proud skill of reading.
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Miss you,
Deanna