Long Overdue Update!

Wow, has it really been more than a month since the last update? It's been impossible to get online lately since both kids now require an adult to go to bed with them (in separate beds since I only want Logan to co-sleep with one of us at a time). Also, I feel like a broken record for continually reporting that Nathan is doing so well. But a couple of mamas with late talkers who have been reading this blog have inspired me to stop making excuses and start writing (have I mentioned how much I hate to write?? :))

I'll start with the Nathan updates. I took a second and re-read some of my older posts when we were so excited about Nathan saying anything at all. It's incredible that he has come so far as to spontaneously use three and four word phrases now. He can say "bye-bye mamaw papaw house" or "daddy car go?" without much thought. Of course there are countless speech errors and like most apraxic kids, if he tries to repeat a longer phrase it will become unrecognizable by the end. But this past week, he has fixed two of his most used words: Nathan and Thomas. For weeks he has called himself "Nay-nays". I think the 's' on the end was his attempt at a 'th' and he couldn't get past that. So my mom worked and worked at having him hold his tongue so he knew how far it needed to stick out to make a 'th' and now he's about 50/50 with saying "Na-THUN" Same with Thomas- he had been calling him "Mamas" even though he has no trouble with a 't' sound in other words. He can now say Thomas which makes him a VERY happy little boy! Oh, and Dor-deen (Gordon) has now become Dor-DUN (We really have to get him to emphasize the last syllable in a word). Now we need to start working on "Ree-ree" (Henry) and Ewa (Edward). Does anyone see a pattern here??! Oh, and his new favorite things to sing: "Thomas and his friends" and "Go, go Thomas, Thomas number one". Again, leaving out a few sounds but he gets the tune right.

He is also starting to say "I did it" and "I do it" instead of "me me" and he will answer "Right here" if you ask where something is. But what I am most excited about is a report from his therapist at Indiana State which put him on the low side of average for his age! Seriously, who thought he would come close to any kind of average a few months ago?! We feel so blessed to have the therapists, the resources and especially the grandparents who have helped him come so far.

And now for a funny story...Nathan and my dad were playing in the woods and dad said "son of a gun!" so now one of Nathan's new phrases is "sun a dun!" Although I'm not too happy about that phrase, THANK YOU dad for using the cleaner version :) That boy will repeat anything you say now. Oh wait, one more story - Logan was swinging in his baby swing the other day with all 20 pounds of his fat hanging over the sides and I started singing "Fat man in a little swing" (think Tommy Boy) and Nathan pointed at him and said "Fat man! Fat man!" So now he says "Fat man Lo", "Fat man mommy", "Fat man daddy", etc. So if he happens to call any of you "Fat man" please do not take offense :)

Okay, now for my real purpose in posting today- for the other mamas out there with late talkers. I wanted to share some of the resources we have used that we feel have helped Nathan so much. I'm on lunch at work right now so I don't have many links, but I'll try to come back and update when I get home. Anyway, first and foremost I believe the fish oil we have used has made a world of difference. Based on several studies we started using Pro-EFA from Nordic Naturals. Not all fish oil is created equal and if you really take a close look at how much Omega 3,6,9 is in each capsule you will see the differences. With most of the studies on apraxia, they have found that the particular blend in the Pro-EFA has made the difference. We started with one, then moved to two and will begin adding additional EPA soon (also from Nordic Naturals). We will begin the fourth supplement, Carnosine (specifically Carn-Aware) in about six months.

As for other resources, I feel "The Late Talker" book is a must read and can be purchased on Amazon. We also love these incredible DVD's called "Baby Babble" which I think can be ordered on Amazon as well. There are others called Baby Bumblebee or something along those lines, but we LOVE Baby Babble. They're very dry, but are basically speech therapy sessions on DVD. We also use Imitation Station CD's. Again, they are very slow, but catchy songs that are easy to sing along with once the child begins to speak. There are certain places where Nathan can say "me, me, me" or "more" to the song. Also, we use Kaufman cards. Nancy Kaufman is a SLP who has worked with apraxic kids since the 70's. The cards will take one word such as papa and break it down into different parts: pop-a, pa-pa, etc. and are great oral-motor exercises for apraxia. The cards are $200, so they're on the pricey side but we have had tons of success using them with Nathan. Lastly, we use whistles, candles, toy flutes, basically anything to help him blow and do tons of exercises with his tongue and mouth. I think the key is just working at home as much as possible and making it fun. These poor kids have to work so hard to say anything at all, but the look on Nathan's face when he gets a new word is priceless. Okay, that was brief but I'll try to add more information and links later as my lunch is over :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, and keep in mind that St. Patrick's life was centered around Christ, not beer ;)