Big Week

This picture doesn't have anything to do with the blog topic. It just makes me smile.
I attended a 3 day augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) conference in Minneapolis over the weekend. I had the opportunity to stay with my high school buddy Heather Jo which made the weekend extra fun. That girl makes me laugh hard, but it is also fun to share where God has led both of us in adoption and parenting journeys. She provided me with a warm, cozy bed with non-pilled sheets (that reference is for your benefit HJ!) She and her husband saved us some cash by driving me back and forth as well. I enjoyed getting to know another STL mom whose son has Cerebral Palsy. She and I experienced the worst flight of our lives on the way home. I was pretty sure the voice of a six year old was going to come on the intercom to thank us for letting him fly us home. I’m joking, but we really did have a moment or two when we wondered if we would be walking off the plane alive. I don’t think Tony really appreciated my many jokes about that afterwards.

The conference was all about devices that can be used to help a child with limited speech skills learn how to communicate by using these devices, and hopefully learn how to communicate with spoken words eventually. Going into the weekend I was concerned that it might be overwhelming and even discouraging, but I was happy to discover this wasn’t the case. The first day I wandered into seminars with catchy titles that seemed appealing, but most of the presenters were trying to sell a product (and boy do these people like their products). I actually got in trouble in the last seminar of the day for whispering with a speech therapist who was trying to give me some ideas for Isaiah. The man behind us was clearly not happy. We both turned about a thousand shades of red and confessed that we had never gotten in trouble for talking in class before. I made better choices on the 2nd day and was able to learn how to use a device we have already invested in (Apple’s iPad) to help Isaiah continue to acquire communication. There’s an amazing amount of technology out there to help children with special communication needs and it’s only just begun now with the use of many new iPad apps.

One of the seminars I attended was on child development, the progression of play and speech development. I had learned many of these things nearly 20 years ago (yikes, I’m getting old) in my first year of college, but I had forgotten most of it. (Yes, Jen, I was able to forget some of the trauma Tichener put us through the first time I learned all of this.) One thing that really struck me was the question of what happens to a child who isn’t able to move through the first few stages of play in the first 18 months of life due to neglect, abuse and disabilities. I’m not sure why I hadn’t ever thought of that so clearly before, but I was encouraged that Isaiah is progressing through those stages in the right order, albeit on his own time schedule. Tonight he spent thirty minutes sitting on the floor by himself looking at books. He signed or tried to say a bunch of words while looking at familiar pictures. I spent those 30 minutes smiling.

Isaiah’s speech has really improved in the past two months and even more in the past two weeks. He is spontaneously saying a lot more words. He is finally saying “Mama” and “Daddy” on a very regular basis. He was capable of saying many of these words, but only repeated them when we would say them to him. Today, we sat outside for a bit and he said “Hi car” to every car that drove by. He was kind of frustrated that they weren’t saying “hi” back. Silly, non-communicative cars!

Friday is a big day with a brain and spinal MRI, as well as a spinal tap for Isaiah. We’re praying that all goes smoothly with the anesthesia and procedures. We will return to the CP Clinic on November 8th to find out the results. It’s quite possible that we won’t learn anything new, but there have been ongoing questions for the last two years that should hopefully be answered by the spinal tap. On the 9th we go to the eye doctor to determine whether Isaiah needs glasses. It’s a busy time in his little world right now. I’m hoping we can put glasses off a little longer, but we will obviously move forward if needed.

Well, I need to get off the computer now. My perfectly verbal older children are deciding to use their speech skills for harm, rather than for good right now. Although earlier tonight Micah used his speech skills to explain to me in a very serious fashion why "your momma" jokes don't work as well when you are talking to your sister. Too funny.