I guess it's time for a new update since I see it's been well over a month since I posted the last video. Life here is just moving on faster than we can keep track of it, but I will try to recap as much as possible.
Everyone is doing well and enjoying the thawing of the snow and the coming of the Spring. Today it was actually 75 degrees and all the kids in the neighborhood came crawling out from under every rock in town. As usual, the neighborhood became quite lively as the adults came out to socialize right along with the kids. Grace is becoming much more comfortable being outside and around the other kids. She knows right where to go to find her favorite push and ride-on toys in the garage and to go down the sidewalk to the little playground where she loves the swing.
Speech therapy continues twice a week and things are still moving slowly. She has begun to say "Dada" on cue and to sing some other consonant sounds like "ba" and "la" If you put a phone to her ear, she'll say "hi" and if something falls down she'll say "uh-oh" Other than that she's still in the listening phase. Her receptive language (ability to understand spoken English) is doing fine. In fact she tested at age level for that in her last assessment. We're still relying mostly on signs for her to tell us what she wants, which works well most of the time. She's very expressive and usually finds ways to make herself understood.
Our speech therapist has begun to bring up the possibility of a condition called apraxia. It is a neural deficiency which makes it difficult for the brain to tell the mouth how to make certain sounds. It can appear in children (who are born with it) or in adults who have had strokes. We've done a lot of research and found that apraxia ranges from mild to severe. If Grace does indeed have it, it appears to be on the milder end since she does not drool profusely, has pretty good tongue control, and can repeat sounds that she already knows. From the research we've done it seems that with intensive therapy, she should be able to talk normally, but it will probably take a little longer than we originally thought. So, in the meantime we are going to step up the therapy and also increase the sign language since she's going to need a way to communicate while she's working on the language skills. It is purely a motor-function issue of the mouth and does not affect any other area of thought or physical ability.
Other than the language, she continues to do well. She is a happy little two-year-old going through pretty normal two-year-old stuff. She is hooked on books right now and will climb into anyone's lap who is willing to read to her. Although reading to her generally consists of Grace pointing to things and wanting you to tell her the word for it. She's fitting in more and more with the other girls (i.e. not above getting in arguments and fighting over toys) and still eating everything in sight. Happily the small opening that appeared in her palate after surgery has closed back up, so we'll have to see if the Dr. still wants to do another surgery this summer.
We are all packing up for the drive to Florida for spring break this week. Mom and Dad are already there and we'll be joining them for the week. Can't wait for the sun and sand and are hoping for better weather than the last time we were there for Tropical Storm Tammy.
Sophie and Lily have already packed their beach bags full of toys, the car-top carrier is full of kick boards and sand toys, and the suitcase is packed with all of the clothes that we haven't worn here since about last September.
Oh, yea, and there's the little matter of Dave's company being in merger talks and possibly being sold, which could mean a variety of different, interesting things including a new job or transfer somewhere else. We should know more by the time we're back from Florida.
To anyone who is still reading the blog, hope this keeps you up-to-date.
Everyone is doing well and enjoying the thawing of the snow and the coming of the Spring. Today it was actually 75 degrees and all the kids in the neighborhood came crawling out from under every rock in town. As usual, the neighborhood became quite lively as the adults came out to socialize right along with the kids. Grace is becoming much more comfortable being outside and around the other kids. She knows right where to go to find her favorite push and ride-on toys in the garage and to go down the sidewalk to the little playground where she loves the swing.
Speech therapy continues twice a week and things are still moving slowly. She has begun to say "Dada" on cue and to sing some other consonant sounds like "ba" and "la" If you put a phone to her ear, she'll say "hi" and if something falls down she'll say "uh-oh" Other than that she's still in the listening phase. Her receptive language (ability to understand spoken English) is doing fine. In fact she tested at age level for that in her last assessment. We're still relying mostly on signs for her to tell us what she wants, which works well most of the time. She's very expressive and usually finds ways to make herself understood.
Our speech therapist has begun to bring up the possibility of a condition called apraxia. It is a neural deficiency which makes it difficult for the brain to tell the mouth how to make certain sounds. It can appear in children (who are born with it) or in adults who have had strokes. We've done a lot of research and found that apraxia ranges from mild to severe. If Grace does indeed have it, it appears to be on the milder end since she does not drool profusely, has pretty good tongue control, and can repeat sounds that she already knows. From the research we've done it seems that with intensive therapy, she should be able to talk normally, but it will probably take a little longer than we originally thought. So, in the meantime we are going to step up the therapy and also increase the sign language since she's going to need a way to communicate while she's working on the language skills. It is purely a motor-function issue of the mouth and does not affect any other area of thought or physical ability.
Other than the language, she continues to do well. She is a happy little two-year-old going through pretty normal two-year-old stuff. She is hooked on books right now and will climb into anyone's lap who is willing to read to her. Although reading to her generally consists of Grace pointing to things and wanting you to tell her the word for it. She's fitting in more and more with the other girls (i.e. not above getting in arguments and fighting over toys) and still eating everything in sight. Happily the small opening that appeared in her palate after surgery has closed back up, so we'll have to see if the Dr. still wants to do another surgery this summer.
We are all packing up for the drive to Florida for spring break this week. Mom and Dad are already there and we'll be joining them for the week. Can't wait for the sun and sand and are hoping for better weather than the last time we were there for Tropical Storm Tammy.
Sophie and Lily have already packed their beach bags full of toys, the car-top carrier is full of kick boards and sand toys, and the suitcase is packed with all of the clothes that we haven't worn here since about last September.
Oh, yea, and there's the little matter of Dave's company being in merger talks and possibly being sold, which could mean a variety of different, interesting things including a new job or transfer somewhere else. We should know more by the time we're back from Florida.
To anyone who is still reading the blog, hope this keeps you up-to-date.
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