Ian’s Brain

~ Laura

Some door, creaky and solid, has opened in Ian’s brain. He’s suddenly making some progress with his speech.

It’s not huge. He’s not reciting Shakespeare or anything. But there is improvement nonetheless.

For the past four months, he’s been on a long arid plateau despite the twice a week therapy routine. No new words. No new sounds. Just an acquiescence to the intrusion of strangers. He’s more tolerant about strangers getting in his face commanding him to say words. “BALL. Say BALL, Ian. BAAAALLLLL.” He no longer screams in frustration and disgust.

He knows the speech therapy routine. Chewing stale licorish on the side of his mouth. Blowing bubbles. Doing puzzles. Rubbing his face with a sponge. Tooting horns. And lots of sign language.

How much of these exercises are helping I can’t say. I am going along with it. Sometimes I worry that sign language has become a crutch. He picked it up quickly and easily, and no longer tries to say the words he knows in sign.

At Christmas, I struggled for weeks to get a picture of the two small boys side-by-side and smiling. “Say cheese,” I would say. And Ian would smile, look down at his hands, and grind them together. The sign for cheese. A dozen picture of a boy looking at his hands.

And then, in the past week or so, he suddenly started improving. They say that change never happens gradually, but in sharp jumps. Punctuated equilibrium.

We have a few words now and not just the first or last sounds, but entire consonant-vowel-consonant words. Mom. Ball. Car. Bus. Ham. Pop. Instead of “yes,” he says “aye” like a pirate which is just fine with us. This morning, he mumbled the words to the Happy Birthday song.

We’re off the plateau and for a short time, his brain is ready to make progress. A small window of time when the rusty doors to his brain have been thrown open. So, I’m canceling all unnecessary activities and chores and blowing bubbles for him on our painted kitchen floor.

Published by Laura

13 thoughts on “Ian’s Brain”

  1. Hooray! I know what you mean about getting past the plateau. Three times with youngest we’ve hit a breakthrough point where she’s made great leaps in talking and socializing. It’s hard not to get greedy, however, and wish it would keep on improving!

    Like

  2. That’s really great. I hope it continues like this — and that if you do get greedy you’re rewarded.

    Like

  7. It must take enormous compassion and strength to nudge those words from Ian. I am so happy your hard work is taking root, the door opened.

    Like

  10. Hurrah! Wonderful news Laura. My happiness for Ian is matched by my admiration for your hard work, as Terry wrote. Good for him, and good for you! That little boy has his work cut out for him, but he’s in good, good hands.

    Like

  11. An update. After the good week of baby steps of progress, I just got slammed in the side of the head. We had him evaluated by a neurologist today.
    She said that Ian most likely has verbal apraxia, but because of his age that we should come back in 6 months to confirm. He needs to be an intense language environment. A regular pre-school supplemented with speech therapy would not cut it. So, we’ll either go to the special ed pre-school in town or find a private pre-school that was specifically catered to his needs. He mostly needs ST, but she detected some low muscle tone so he ought to get some OT as well. She is concerned about the fact that we have no family history with language delays; this could indicate that he has some problems with his amino acids or enzymes (this is really bothering me). She thought that his gentle disposition, long attention span, and ability to pick up information visually were major pluses on his side. But he has a significant speech delay that requires intense work.
    We also talked about the fact that I was pregnant w/Ian and in Manhattan during 9/11. She is seeing a sharp uptick of kids with issues in Northern NJ. There might be a connection there.

    Like

  12. I’ve been reading here off and on for awhile and had not yet made the connection that your son Ian has a developmental speech/language disorder. My step-son has verbal apraxia. He’s 17. It’s not easy, but there is good help available. Speech therapy has been the key for him, especially with one who has extensive experience with apraxia. OT has also helped considerably. I have written some about my experiences with him on my blog and will do more of that as time goes by. He is my life’s greatest joy.

    Like

  13. Oh, and music therapy too. This was exspecially important because it helped establish rhythm to the language process, something that has helped him consciously get the syllables of words out in a way that we can understand.

    Like

Comments are closed.