Posts Tagged by Apraxia Outcomes
A Year’s Progress
| September 22, 2011 | Posted by Laura under Apraxia Stories |
I’m still here! I’ve just been very busy being a mom, a wife, a taxi driver for my kids, and working. I have so much to share but that will have to wait until another day. I shot a video of E singing Happy Birthday with S today. I was just amazed at how far she has come over the last year. Then I remembered that I had a video of them singing the same song just about a year ago. E started of trying to sing and then stopped when she couldn’t keep up. The progress she has made is amazing!
I want to share the videos with you but can’t figure out how to upload the old one here because it is only on Facebook and not my computer. So . . . I shared both videos on Apraxia Adventures Facebook page. Come like the page and see E’s progress over the last year.
As an aside, if I had all of this to do over again, one of the things I would do differently is take more videos of E talking. It’s so much fun to look back at the progress she has made. At the time, I would have never used the word “fun” to describe what we were going through, but things continue to get better and it’s not as painful to see anymore. If you’re in the same position, even though it’s hard, record your child talking or trying to talk. It will really help you appreciate how far you’ve come!
Teen Panel
| July 11, 2011 | Posted by Laura under 2011 CASANA Conference, Apraxia Awareness, Apraxia Stories, Celebrations |
– I’m not necessarily writing about each session in the order that we attended. These are my thoughts after hearing each of these speakers and should not be construed as a summary of each speaker’s presentation. –
The very last session of the 2011 CASANA Conference was the Teen Panel. Prior to attending this whole event, this was the session I was most excited about. It may sound kind of crazy but I’ve been desperate to find out what E might talk like as an adult. Obviously, all kids with CAS are different and there are no guarantees but I really wanted to hear what these young adults sounded like and what they were like.
I was simply amazed. These kids have been through so much! It brings tears to my eyes to even think about it. They sat in front of 300+ people and answered questions in microphones. That would be daunting for anyone but these teens and young adults did it. When the session ended, the audience gave them a standing ovation. I think they were embarassed by it but we are so proud of them as we KNOW what they went through to get where they are today! I think that all of them a strength of character that not everyone is able to develop. They are some of the hardest workers you will ever see.
Some of the things that I noticed or that the teens/young adults said:
- They didn’t ever remember a time not going to speech therapy. It was just part of their lives.
- They were not mad at their parents for forcing them to go to speech therapy.
- Four of the five said that learning a foreign language in high school was pretty near impossible. One said that the way that she looked at was that she had already learned a foreign language – English. If she were to actually learn another language it would require a speech therapist just like it had to learn English. The fifth one said that learning a foreign language went well for him. Obviously everyone is different.
- Two of the five had been able to stop speech therapy in elementary school. The other three made the choice on their own to stop prior to high school. One has since returned to speech therapy, by his own choice, to iron out some residual errors.
- They were all either in college or college bound.
- They were smart.
- They were funny. One of them is particularly witty.
- They still sometimes have problem speaking when they are tired – early in the morning or late at night.
And of course, the biggest question I had of all was what did they sound like. They were all a little different. Some had residual errors or prosody issues and others sounded pretty much perfect. No matter what, they could all clearly be understood. But the part that meant the most to me was that they all could express their thoughts and seemed HAPPY! They were none the worse for wear. These kids are strong!
(As a side note, there was a young boy who attended the conference with his parents. They were told four years ago that he would only be able to speak with an AAC and not to expect much from him. After INTENSIVE therapy, he introduced his dad and read the introduction from something he had written. How great is that!)
The most important thing that attending this conference gave me was hope and something to shoot for. We expect E to go to college and we’re not expecting too much. We expect her to be able to do whatever she wants with her life and she can do it.
Some of the things I took away from this session:
- E will probably want to stop speech therapy by the time she is a teenager. Whether or not we agree with her, we are going to need to let her make that decision and support her. She made decide later that she needs to go back but that is a decision we are going to need to let her make.
- It is important to stay involved in the CAS community even after your child’s Apraxia is considered resolved. Seeing these young teens/adults gives those of us with younger children so much hope that when our child gets to that point we need to pay it forward.
- Someone at the conference said (and I can’t remember who) that before your child speaks you don’t really know your child. That is so true whether your child is nonverbal at 2 or 10. One of the young adults had been non-verbal yet could speak now and was smart, witty, and dare I say even articulate. All the things that had been said about him when he was non-verbal were wrong. Until he could talk, no one knew who he was and what he was capable of.
To all the parents of children with CAS, there is hope!
