Waiting and Acting

And so another year has gone by, and it won't be long before we say goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018.

I won't lie.  The last few years have been quite the roller coaster.  Starting with the lows of diagnosis, whether it was SPD or ASD, to the middles of therapy sessions and appointments here and there, to the highs of seeing progress with R in terms of speech, behavior, and schooling.  It's quite taxing for me as the parent, and I'm sure my husband and even R himself finds this exhausting.

And in the spirit of honesty, I will readily admit that this is not the family life I had envisioned for myself.  But God, in His infinite wisdom, knows what's best.  Romans 8:28 has always been of great comfort to me, more so now than ever before.

I suppose that I have learned - and of course still learning - a lot about parenting, child-rearing, and even about myself through this journey.  And with learning comes time for reflection. No better time to reflect on the past 12 months (or maybe even further) than at the moment nearing the end of the year.

I was planning to post tips on how to deal with the holidays with a child on the spectrum, as well as having sensory issues come to play, but as I continued to think on it, I realized there was one thing I wanted to discuss more than that.

Let's dive right in!

We're Seeing Progress!

It's a really huge thing once your silent child starts speaking.

A year ago, I read an article by Jenn Schleich, that really spoke to my heart.  R's speech delay had caused my husband and I much anxiety, and reading her article really articulated how we felt about it.

Some months ago, it popped up in my Facebook memories, and I read it again. The last part of her post really jumped out at me, I agreed so much with it. I will quote it here, in its entirety for context, and emphasis are mine.

Our speech pathologist often jokes that some day I will come to her and beg her to make him stop talking instead. It’s a joke intended to reassure, but when she says it I know there will never be a day when I say children should be seen and not heard. There will never be a day when I wish my children would just shut up. I will never again underestimate how important communication is; to talk amongst ourselves, to share stories, is to connect with another person. The most essential human ability is communication, because without it we are alone.

So, how has R been doing in the field of speech?

SPD and Language Delays

Yesterday, R had an awesome session of speech therapy, and we've been seeing a whole lot more improvements of him attempting to speak and experiment with sounds.  Last night, I caught him singing ABC to himself.  He never did that before.  And I'm really excited!  He could be conversing with us soon and I can't wait!

Then it got me thinking.  A lot of people have often asked me how SPD affected R's language development, and how it has caused him such a delay.  So I thought I'd do a bit of research and share what I've learned.

In my previous post I talked about how essential pretend play is to language development.  I had also discussed even earlier on the link between SPD with oral motor problems, orofacial apraxia, and even Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).

Today we will discuss about the usual language development of children and how SPD can affect this.

So let's jump right in!

Homeschooling with SPD

Because it's been a while since I posted...

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

新年快樂!

Now that it's out of the way... On to the topic at hand.

R and I have been homeschooling now for at least 18 weeks, not counting the weeks he had for Christmas and New Year breaks.  Over time we've done a few projects, some activities, and a lot of learning, mostly on my part.

SPD and Oral Motor Problems

You also mentioned that R has aversions to certain food textures due to SPD.  Could that be related to his speech delay?

If you were to ask R's speech language pathologist (SLP), the answer is a resounding yes.  One of the red flags of SPD is language delay as well as feeding problems.  We had R assessed by an SLP around the same time as the OT, then another assessment with the SLP a few months after consistent OT sessions.

Language works in two ways- expressive and receptive.  Receptive language basically is how we understand words.  It's the ability to understand language.  This is how we learn to associate words with items and contexts.  Expressive language is the use of words, sentences and basically language.