As I write this, my sweet Kolton is finishing up his first day of
Kindergarten. This is a date I have worried about for the past
4 years. I wondered if the other kids would realize he doesn't
speak well, wondered if they would pick on him for it,
wondered if he would know he was different.
As I've said before Kolton was informally diagnosed
with speech problems when he was 18 months old.
He wasn't saying any words--at all.
Not momma. Not dada. Nothing.
As proactive as I am about everything when it comes to them,
I'll admit that this slipped through the cracks. I had just moved
to a different country, not to mention I also had a six month
old baby. I just wasn't on the ball enough to know that his
not talking was a problem.
At one and a half, he had a full hearing screening, where we
found that he can hear perfectly, I was so very grateful for that,
but that meant it was something else.
After a year of Early Intervention, he was diagnosed with Childhood
Apraxia of Speech. Basically this means, he can understand what
you say, he knows what he wants to say but just can't make the words
come out the way he wants to. He started "Preschool Program for
Children with Disabilities" or PPCD two days after he turned three years
old where has received regular speech therapy for the past two and a half
years. We've been fortunate to have some really great speech therapists
working with him and I will be forever grateful to them for helping
Kolton find his voice.
My goal was always to have Kolton speaking at age level, completely
understandable by the time he started Kindergarten, well, today is that day.
The truth is-we aren't there yet. We haven't made it to our destination
on this long journey, and that's okay.
This is a marathon not a sprint. There are no quick fixes for CAS.
I can say today that Kolton is a very smart, and sweet little boy, all he
wants to do is play, he never lets his speech problems get in his way of making
friends and having a good time. I've never really witnessed kids being mean
to him about it, mostly they ask why then get on with playing.
Kids are just like that, I guess.
To my sweet Kolton, if you ever read this: I could not be more proud to be your mother.
