The rule of three suggests that “events or characters introduced in threes are more humorous, satisfying, or effective in execution.” I’ve always been fond of the number 3 because of its “round-ness”… things just always seem more complete when they come in threes. It’s why I wanted to have 3 children. But just as “three times a charm”, all 3 kids came out with the same issue: speech. I have been dealing with speech for almost 6 years, as my oldest started therapy at 19 months old. The middle started speech at 2 after being jipped for almost 6 months. And as expected, my youngest started her speech journey this morning. With her, however, I was prepared for the high possibility that she would also need services, as her two older siblings were still going to therapy weekly. I did hope for a miracle; that perhaps she might be born with a slightly different gene (since I’m just about convinced this is all genetic) and could possibly come out talking up a storm. I did all I could to try to raise her chances; I chose a natural birth, I used essential oils during my pregnancy and during the birthing process, and I read and sang even more while I was carrying her. And for a time, it seemed that maybe it might’ve worked. Maya began using words a lot earlier than her siblings, thanks to the modeling they were able to do for her. She also started saying full sentences by 2 years old. So I knew that vocabulary wasn’t an issue; she was great at listening and copying what she heard. The issue became pronunciation; the same as with her sister and brother. She has a hard time with saying certain sounds which in and of itself, qualified her for services.
So as of now, speech continues to be a big contributor to our lifestyle. Noah has speech once a week and has regained another IEP with speech as the major component for pull out services in school. Noah’s major problem continues to be pronunciation, especially with tense and plural words. He struggles with saying things in the right order, giving me reason to believe that he might have a form of dyslexia which, as you can imagine, is affecting his reading skills. We hope to get him tested as the school year begins in August so that we can find the right tools to help him. Maya has started early intervention which she’ll receive for an hour each week at day care. I plan to go and observe two of her sessions per month so that I can continue her therapist’s work during the rest of the week. We have stopped signing with her so that she can be encouraged to use her words more and we’ll be working on the harder sounds she cannot yet make in hopes that the more she hears it and the more she can see how myself or my husband or her teacher is saying it, it’ll soon be easy for her to emulate. And what about Layla? Although she still mixes up words from time to time, or may talk a little faster (that would be my fault) she has graduated from speech services. We still help her if she needs it but that is few and far between. We hope that because Maya’s issue is pretty much identical to what Layla was dealing with, she’ll be able to graduate from early intervention and won’t really need speech that much longer.
But I am prepared to go to distance with her if I have to. I am my children’s biggest and most powerful advocate and I will do whatever it takes to ensure that they have the best chances to succeed. I’ve been at this for 6 years now, what’s another few more? Besides… rule of three, right?
Outnumbered 