Unlocking Language

Welcome to my blog! I thought that I would start by telling you a little about me and my family. I have 4 kids that are amazing. My oldest is 12.












Taylor is my only girl and is an awesome big sister to her 3 younger brothers. I honestly can say that she is a big reason that my sanity is still intact. Taylor loves to dance and is a talented runner. (Which I am sure comes from her dad, since I couldn't run if my life depended on it) Taylor is also a veracious reader. Someday I am sure that you will see her name on the cover of her own book.



Dylan is 9 and love sports. He is equally talented in soccer, baseball, and basketball and golf. If I could take a sample of his attitude and self-confidence and bottle it, I would. He has an amazing ability to be o.k. with himself and to be supportive and non-judgmental with all those around him. When Dylan was a baby, he was very sick, but thankfully, tubes and a tonsillectomy helped that. He is a big help to his younger brothers:)





Devin is 6 and has a very dynamic personality. Anyone he meets is his friend. Devin was sick as a baby, he was a little slow to walk, but once he decided to walk, he only would run! Devin had water behind his ears, but no ear infections. So I didn't even know about it, until his speech was noticeably delayed. We took him to an audiologist and found out about the fluid behind his ears and got him tubes. Finally there was some words!! Before there was just what the speech therapist called "Hawaiian language" all vowels and no consonants. After tubes he started speaking, but really struggled with it. He substituted "w" for everything. It was like having a little Elmer Fudd in the house. "Say hewo to my widdo fwends!" We worked so hard each day and if we broke each word do to individual sounds he could get it. I can't tell you how much we worked to say Idaho. His Grandma and Grandpa live in Idaho and we visit frequently so this word comes up a lot. He would say I want to go to Iaho. That D was a killer for us. It took about a year, but he got it. Learning letters was very hard. We worked every day on them and he had a hard time making the information stick. So I started to research language development. I had thought that I already new a lot about development since my degree is in education...but boy was I wrong.
I by chance found some information about Apraxia. When I read it, I thought "That's it!" The speech therapist that was working with Devin when he got to kindergarten didn't think that could be it, but I convinced her to test him. Sure enough he was and it just wasn't as apparent since we had worked so hard for the 2 years prior to kindergarten. Devin still has to think about everything before he says it, but he is doing amazing with his speech. Reading is VERY difficult for him and he tends to flip the letters when he write and reads, but he is working on it.
Devin loves to play soccer and baseball and golf, and he has an amazingly positive attitude.

In my next post I will introduce you to Trey, the reason for this blog, his history and some things that I've already learned that has helped me to help him.