Candle Fun and Dax's Speech Delay

 

It is no secret I love photography. I also cannot get enough of this little guy! Dax had so much fun blowing out the candle repeatedly. It was a great activity to work on his mouth muscles and patience.

Dax is a little over 2 years old. He is able to say just a few words.

Dax was saying a handful of words very clearly about a year ago. A seizure hit him and his words disappeared completely. I worked with him constantly and he finally found the word mama. That was all he could say for a while. I worked hard to find him help and set up speech therapy but it is a long process. In the meantime, I worked with him daily.  We worked on learning some sign language to help us communicate. 

 

 

Can you imagine how frustrating it is to see everyone around you communicating their needs and being stuck with no one understanding you? We worked with Dax so much to figure out ways for him to get his needs and wants communicated.

 

Dax has now been in speech therapy for a couple months and it has helped so much. He can say a few more words and tries hard to make more sounds. He is nowhere near the speech capabilities of a child his age but he is moving forward. The big 3 help tremendously in getting him to make sounds.

 

We will never know exactly why he lost his words or had trouble catching up to his peers. We have learned that he is more likely to mimic a sound when we do big motions while making the sound. He likes things big, wild, loud, and exaggerated so that is what we do to encourage him to talk!

He and I are home all day together. I don't really notice his speech delay too much. It is just who he is. However, when we are out and about with other children around, I notice it so much. The saddest part is that the kids, the little people his size, notice it even more. They yell at him. They ask him why he can't talk, which, of course, he can't respond. They talk, loudly, to their friends about that weird kid with no words. Ugh. It sucks big time. He is too young to realize it but this mama's heart hurts. I hope he either catches up to his peers completely before school or has some extra kind and compassionate children in his classes.