Eleven months ago, I was 7 months pregnant, my grandfather had just died, and I’d just been bowled over by the fact that Sophie’s developmental delays were more significant than I realized. The first week of October, 2010, was pretty much the worst week of my life.
I’ve never written about this in detail, and I have my reasons, which you’ll just have to trust. I am comfortable talking about it now is because we’ve come almost all the way through it – eleven months later, Sophie is pretty much caught up – she is still getting both speech and occupational therapy but I expect she’ll be all done with that within the year.
Back in October 2010, I knew that Sophie had a speech delay, but I thought it was more expressive – what she couldn’t say, rather than receptive, what she understood. Then some test results showed I was WAY wrong, and that her delay was more receptive. At the same time, Sophie’s preschool teacher shared some concerns with me about how she was doing in class , and based on those two things, I decided we needed to change some things and take action to get her on track.
I started working intensely with Sophie at home, got her signed up for occupational therapy as well as speech, and took steps to get her into a preschool class where there were other kids with delays, and where she could also receive speech and OT at school.
And as I said, it’s all gone wonderfully. Sophie is doing amazing and as you saw a couple weeks ago, she’s even reading already at age 4!
But through this whole process I’ve learned a TON, and now I want to share it with you. So, I am going to start a series here about overcoming developmental delays, playing with your child in an educational way, and just giving tips and ideas about how to target certain problem areas. You’ll find these posts in the categories “developmental delays”, “speech therapy”, and “occupational therapy”. I’ll be covering strategies, games, activities, and supplies that are helpful in working with your kids in an intentional way – whether for fun, or if you have a specific goal in mind.
So stay tuned, I hope I can help some readers and maybe we’ll all learn something together!
I think that is a great idea – to share what you have learned here. Whether our own kids have been diagnosed with development issues or not, we can all benefit from learning ways to work with kids on important skills. I’m so glad So has responded SO well to her therapies.
This is a great idea, and will probably reach many. In fact, it’s such a great idea, and so cool, Mrs. Duggar was speechless!!
UP
Love you so much! I can’t wait to hear the cool stuff you’ve done!
I think it’s wonderful how much you’ve done with Sophie. As a teacher, I SO appreciate how much time and effort you put into helping her at home rather than thinking we could just fix it at school. It makes me wonder if all of my students’ parents put in this much effort at home….would we have so many special needs students with learning disabilities and other delays???? GREAT WORK….give yourself a pat on the back.
Ditto to Kathy’s comments!
You have transformed her. If every parent were as involved with their child’s education, I would be a much better teacher.
My little boy Alistair is about Sophie’s age, I think. He’s 4 1/2 and in public school receiving speech therapy 3 times a week. He’s improved so much over the past year. I’m looking forward to hearing about what you do with your daughter. It’s nice knowing another parents who knows what it’s like. It’s so easy to get frustrated. Simple tasks are so much more difficult and tips, tricks, games, etc. would be so helpful.
I’m excited to read about fun/ educational activities to do w/ your kids! I almost have my associates in early childhood education, so let me know if you want some tips or something!