A Glimpse!

I've decided I'll update McKenna's blog at least once a week, probably on Wednesdays after her therapy session.

Today's therapy went really well!!! She focused and worked hard for the whole hour and was making headway. She said 2 new words today:

"hands" (Ms. T. said she was close enough on this one. It sounded like "hents")
"bubble" (this was perfect!)

There might have been another one, but I can't remember. Ms. T. took an inventory of her vowel sounds today. There are 12 vowel sounds in the English language. 7 of them McKenna either could not do at all or had a really hard time with. We are supposed to focus really hard on vowels right now because once she gets those straight it will increase her intelligibility greatly.

I continue to be so impressed with Ms. T. She is so good with McKenna. She is totally in control, patient and seems to have a good balance of pushing and compromising.

McKenna just attacked every thing today with energy and excitement and she had a good sense of humor. My mom watched the session today and there was a couple of times she and I couldn't help but laugh at something and McKenna didn't get embarrassed or clam up- instead she gave us a good natured grin and laughed with us. That was really great for me to see.

I actually teared up at one point- when she was saying "hands" because I was so excited and relieved at how she was doing today. Last week's session was a bit discouraging.

All week long, leading up today I've noticed that McKenna has really been making a lot of good attempts at speech. You have to be a very experienced listener to catch it, but her attempts are more direct and organized. Like she's starting to understand how to work on it. I feel like she went into this weeks session with more security and confidence too. It may also be that by the 3rd time now she knows what to expect and what this time is about.

Since she's smart enough to know she's not talking right, I've really wanted her attitude about therapy to be one of excitement that this is *for* her, to help her. And I've wanted her to feel success so she has hope that it will work for her. I really think that's what happened today. And I'm relieved to the point of happy tears. I think it's going to be so magical for her to be able to communicate. I now have a glimpse of how her world will open up!

The nature of Dyspraxia is that things often take one step forward and then two steps back. I'm not getting ahead of myself. We still have a massive amount of work to do. These little things I was excited about today would be miniscule to someone who didn't know where she was coming from. She still can't really speak in sentences- even two words together or even a lot of single words and be understood. Over 1/2 of vowel sounds she really struggles with. But today I caught a glimpse of how this is working for her and I'm going to cling to that!

Thank you for your support and prayers!

Love,
Amber