Verbal Dyspraxia

It seems we have started on a new part of our journey with McKenna. We have gone longer than ever before without any new Lymphatic Malformations (LM's) popping up. After we removed her first one the second one came up about 6 months later. It has now been 7 months since we treated that second one and I'm absolutely thrilled that nothing new has presented. We have about another year before David and I will breathe easier though. This is due to the fact that a child's lymphatic tissue is growing and expanding until aprox age 3.

However we have discovered a new issue. She doesn't speak well. She is almost 27 months old and can hardly put 2 words together. She only has 5 or so words that might be intelligible to a stranger. And maybe 40 words that I can understand, but are spoken very inconsistently. For instance, she might say the word "baby" 5 different ways, "beeba, bowee, baibe, bawee, baboo" etc... This makes it next to impossible for me to know what she's talking about without context. And I'd say 90 percent of what does come out of her mouth sounds like babble- even to me.

Now- my brother Nathan did not speak at all until he was 3 years old. He just acted like he didn't want to or need to. I have heard numerous stories like this. Where I see McKenna being different from that is that she *is* speaking, she *wants* to speak, she *tries* to speak and is largely unsuccessful. She is obviously both frustrated and embarrassed at what comes out of her mouth. Or what *doesn't* come out of her mouth. She often appears to be groping for a word. She'll say something over and over and over like she knows it doesn't sound right, but she can't quite fix it. She'll often click her tongue or blow her lips or grunt and make noises of frustration when she is struggling to communicate.

So I did my research and came up with "Apraxia" or "Verbal Dyspraxia". As I read the descriptions on this diagnosis my heart dropped, it was describing my daughter! I tried to not jump to conclusions. I tried to hope that this was not McKenna's issue, but deep down I knew... At Rachael's (my sister and Jimmie's mother) urging I called Missouri First Steps. They treat children ages birth to 3 years for all different issues including speech. They came and evaluated McKenna. Unfortunately I was right. She has been given the diagnosis of "Verbal Dyspraxia". They are recommending speech therapy once a week. After 6 weeks they will evaluate how she's doing and may recommend going to twice a week.

This whole thing really just came up on my radar. After she turned two in July I started to pay attention to her speech. I started trying to answer questions like, "Was McKenna a quiet baby?" "When did she begin to speak?" "When did she start babbling?" etc... Much to my dismay I was drawing a huge blank on these answers. I realized that I really hadn't been paying much attention to this.

I feel like the last two years- McKenna's WHOLE life has been a blur. A blur that goes like this:

She's here! So fast . . . 3 months old, WHAT IS THIS?? A tumor? A congenital defect- Cystic Hygroma . . . Surgery or Sclerotherapy? When . .? My cousin's first baby (Gabby) diagnosed very sick inutero . . . My dad slips on some ice and shatters his face. He has surgery . . .Gabby passes away . . . Mckenna 6 months old- surgery to remove Hygroma. Rachael is pregnant! Rachael's baby Gracie diagnosed very sick inutero she has a Cystic Hygroma . . . Gracie passes . . .Turners Syndrome . . . We continue on with the show for our students . . . takes enormous effort under our grief for Gracie. .McKenna turns 1 . . .Show is over. Does McKenna have Turners like Gracie? No! Thank God . . . Gracie's due date . . . Mckenna takes a place with the unlucky 10 percent and blows up another Hygroma . . . Is this truly isolated? . . . She could have a disease . . . Rachael is pregnant again! . . . The ultrasound . . . so nervous- everything is fine! . . . Wait- no it's not. Incompetent Cervix . . . Very little hope for Jimmie . . . Rachael has emergency surgery to try to keep him in . . . McKenna has Sclerotherapy for her 2nd Hygroma . . . McKenna's MRI comes back clear . . . I fall apart . . . Rachael has Jimmie at 24 weeks . . . I run our dance program alone . . . Jimmie goes home . . . McKenna turns 2! Wait . . . . . . . . . . now why doesn't she speak?

Yeah *sigh* . . . I'll be posting about her progress and this journey she is on to the land of speech. Next post I'll write more about what exactly Verbal Dyspraxia is and what it means for McKenna.



Your prayers are always appreciated.

Love,
Amber