Graduation!!!

This past week marks a huge milestone for Jacob. He's been receiving speech and language therapy since the time he was two and half. At that tender age, he had the vocabulary of about a nine month old.



This is a fairly recent photo of Marcus. He turns seven months old next week. Jacob's speech was hardly better than the babble talk that comes from Marcus right now. Scary.
When I started noticing how silent he was and began realizing that he should be saying SOME sort of words, I was told left and right that he was a boy and a second child. I guess boys develop slower than girls and that the first child always speaks for the second, therefor the second child simply doesn't talk. Well, it just didn't seem right that a two year old didn't have ANY words in his vocabulary. Jacob literally didn't have one word. He didn't say "mommy" or "daddy". He didn't say "please" or "apple". He was simply silent. Trying to communicate was so difficult. We had such a hard time being able to tell what he wanted or to figure out what he needed us to understand at times. He couldn't tell us that he wanted a drink or that he wanted to play outside. It was constantly a guessing game. And what does a normal young child do when you can't understand them under normal circumstances? Get upset and do a fair amount of crying. It was such a hard period in our life (his too).
Well, when I took him in for his two year check up, the doctor prescribed speech therapy. We had it arranged to have two therapists come in our home twice a week. I was so nervous about this--I was nine months pregnant with Evelyn at the time, Ryan was going back to school, and Julia was beginning preschool. So many things all happening all at once! Well, these WONDERFUL ladies entered our home and we saw incredible results immediately. The therapy was really doing puzzles, playing games, doing matching games, ect. And all the while we would talk (the therapist, myself, and Jacob--in what ways he could). We talked about every little thing that we did in the activites, specifically naming everything that we handled. None of "Let's play with this". It was "Let's play Connect Four". And not "Do you want to be these?". It was "Do you want to be the red or the black pieces?". I never realized how much we always say "this" or "that" and such. Ryan and I were encouraged to name EVERYTHING specifically to Jacob. No more holding up a box of cereal and saying "this one?". It was "Do you want Cheerios? Or Apple Jacks?" Such simple things really helped. He would at first just babble for a response--but you know what? It was a response. He had never actually said anything in response to us before.
Well, when Jacob turned three, he had about fifty words in his vocabulary. It was such an accomplishment! At the age of three, children who need therapy are put into the special education school. Oh, I can't tell you how nervous I was to send my little three year old to school every day! I think I actually cried. But he just blossomed! He continued to recieve speech and language therapy while also being able to be in a preschool setting (in reality, it was preschool--and he attended for two and a half years). When I first met his speech therapist at the school, she told me that she was going to go full force with him. She had never met a child so far behind in speech (well, that wasn't very comforting at all, but at least I knew that she was going to meet it head on). With each passing semester, Jacob improved. After a year in school, he was able to come home and with prompts tell me about what he did that day. After a year and a half he was able to describe what snacks he ate with his class and who his friends were. During his last year, he actually helped out the new kids in the classroom.
Well, this past Monday I took Jacob in to see if he needs to continue his speech therapy when he enters kindegarten. Wednesday I had the results consultation/meeting. His preschool teacher was part of that meeting. We were given the results of all the testing they did on him (speech, math, gross motor, ect). He averaged about 85-86% in each area! I almost cried when I was told that he has graduated out of special education. He's caught up to be a normal speaking five year old. The lady who worked Jacob's case told me that she had never had a child enter the program at the age he did and then not need to continue therapy in kindegarten.

His teacher and I shared a teary embrace and I cheered the whole way home. We were both so proud of Jacob and so excited for him. I must tell you, I will never take for granted the ability to communicate with my children. Or to have them be able to communicate with me. It was so wonderful to hear "I love you" come from his mouth. Such a little thing...but monumental for us. When we imagined having our family (when we first got married), we imagined the typical family--playing with kids, family dinner talks and laughter. We never thought about the chance of having a child that would need therapy of come kind. It just had never been thought about. And we were blindsided. But now, after so much time and hard effort from him, therapists, and his family, here he is--a perfectly normal five year old getting ready for kindegarten. And I couldn't be more proud of him.