Happy (early) Easter! We again had a couple great weeks. We went to Orlando to see Leslie and Joel last Sunday. They took us to a Spring training baseball game between the Cardinals and some other team. The game ended up getting rained out, but we still had a great time. Elise just LOVES Leslie and Joel. The weather has been great lately, and we have been to the beach multiple times to work on our tans. And were even able to take the dogs to the dog beach on Saturday. On a less happy note, Elise has an official diagnosis for her speech delay. Her therapist diagnosed her with Apraxia disorder. Here is a good website that you are welcome to go wild reading all about it; http://www.apraxia-kids.org/ . But basically Elise understands everything we say, and can follow commands. But when her brain tries to send a message to her mouth to talk, it doesn't work. Doctors debate whether this is a neurological disorder, they really aren't sure what causes it. There are different severity levels, and Elise is somewhere in the middle. This disorder can affect her speech far into childhood, but not her learning ability. Insurance charges a $30 copay for EACH speech therapy visit, so I am trying to get her approved for Florida early steps. Missouri has a similar program called first steps that we qualified for and received speech through them before we moved here. So we are hopefull that she will again qualify and we can get her into speech therapy. Now to clear something up. Currently Elise is in feeding therapy, not speech. But, her feeding therapy is conducted by a speech therapist. It's confusing I know. Kids with Apraxia require intensive speech therapy to overcome their disability, so her feeding therapist doesn't have time to do both feeding and speech therapy in the same lesson. So until she gets into the early steps program, her feeding therapist has given us specific things to work on at home. And, you'll notice next time you see her how much baby sign language she knows. It can be overly frustrating for kids with Apraxia to communicate, since they understand us, but can't say what they want. So us creating signs that help her communicate to us lessens that frustration. I'm disheartened with her receiving another problem to add to our list, but we knew that she would have faults in her development. There was just no way after all she's been through, that she wouldn't hit some additional bumps in the road. Luckily we have some great resources, and should be able to work through this like everything else. Otherwise she has another minor snot cold, but has managed to avoid vomiting spells. She continues to be happy everyday, and is so much fun to be with. I hope you all have a great Easter. We should have some great Easter pictures for the next blog. Oh and Jenny, Jason took some pictures of me and Elise wrestling on the floor so you could see me. Love you all, Kristin
Happy (early) Easter! We again had a couple great weeks. We went to Orlando to see Leslie and Joel last Sunday. They took us to a Spring training baseball game between the Cardinals and some other team. The game ended up getting rained out, but we still had a great time. Elise just LOVES Leslie and Joel. The weather has been great lately, and we have been to the beach multiple times to work on our tans. And were even able to take the dogs to the dog beach on Saturday. On a less happy note, Elise has an official diagnosis for her speech delay. Her therapist diagnosed her with Apraxia disorder. Here is a good website that you are welcome to go wild reading all about it; http://www.apraxia-kids.org/ . But basically Elise understands everything we say, and can follow commands. But when her brain tries to send a message to her mouth to talk, it doesn't work. Doctors debate whether this is a neurological disorder, they really aren't sure what causes it. There are different severity levels, and Elise is somewhere in the middle. This disorder can affect her speech far into childhood, but not her learning ability. Insurance charges a $30 copay for EACH speech therapy visit, so I am trying to get her approved for Florida early steps. Missouri has a similar program called first steps that we qualified for and received speech through them before we moved here. So we are hopefull that she will again qualify and we can get her into speech therapy. Now to clear something up. Currently Elise is in feeding therapy, not speech. But, her feeding therapy is conducted by a speech therapist. It's confusing I know. Kids with Apraxia require intensive speech therapy to overcome their disability, so her feeding therapist doesn't have time to do both feeding and speech therapy in the same lesson. So until she gets into the early steps program, her feeding therapist has given us specific things to work on at home. And, you'll notice next time you see her how much baby sign language she knows. It can be overly frustrating for kids with Apraxia to communicate, since they understand us, but can't say what they want. So us creating signs that help her communicate to us lessens that frustration. I'm disheartened with her receiving another problem to add to our list, but we knew that she would have faults in her development. There was just no way after all she's been through, that she wouldn't hit some additional bumps in the road. Luckily we have some great resources, and should be able to work through this like everything else. Otherwise she has another minor snot cold, but has managed to avoid vomiting spells. She continues to be happy everyday, and is so much fun to be with. I hope you all have a great Easter. We should have some great Easter pictures for the next blog. Oh and Jenny, Jason took some pictures of me and Elise wrestling on the floor so you could see me. Love you all, Kristin
4 comments:
Do you have a new puppy?
Sorry Elise has another hurdle, but she has come a long way and will make this one, too.
Thanks for all the good pictures.
Love ya,
Grandma Mary
After I read the titles on the pictures, I see now that is Mable. I thought it was a different dog. Oops!
GrMa Mary
Thanks for the update. Loved the pics. I checked out the apraxia site and boy is there a ton of info. We had a nice thank you card from Melissa, Jon and Ethan and the pic they included it too cute (it is on our fridge). Can't wait to see you all again (soon!!).
Love,
Leslie and Joel
Awe, thanks for including yourself in some pictures. :) You know it is a good time of year when baseball season gets going in full swing. Hopefully we will be able to take in a Cardinals game this summer. I love the pictures of Elise with Mabel. Levi still wants nothing to do with either of our dogs...maybe it is because they weigh 150+ lbs and Ray looks more like a polar bear than a dog. I will find some time to read up on the website that you passed along. Wishing you a Happy Easter!
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