Graduated Speech

Yesterday Andi graduated from speech therapy! This is a huge success for her and I'm so happy with all the hard work she has been doing. I met her speech teacher and classroom teacher for her annual IEP. They reviewed the past speech therapy that she has had and where she started. It was pretty bad when she first started. Not many people could understand her besides me. She first started therapy when she was three. And she has had 3 different speech therapist during that time because of all the moving we have done the last few years.

I can't even begin to describe the feeling that I had when I heard that she had NO ERRORS in her speech. She was tested and she has ALL of her sounds down! I have been told many times by all the speech therapist that I have worked with (daughter #2 is also receiving speech therapy so there really has been a lot.) that speech affects reading skills. We have struggled with learning how to read. I always felt like I was lacking something as a mother because I couldn't teach her how to read fluently.

I feel like I have been learning a lesson for the last 5 months. I know I have learned this lesson before but for some reason since we have moved to this new town it has been hitting me in the face. And that lesson is "line upon line", a little each day really does go a long way. That is how life works. Everything builds upon each other. If I want to become something better, develop a talent, learn a new skill, or build a better life then it takes time. It takes one big choice to do that "something" and then a WHOLE BUNCH of little choices, that sometimes seem so hard to do, to make that big choice happen. This goes for EVERYTHING in life. Whether it be ANY areas of the 7 Dimensions of Wellness; Emotional, Physical, Spiritual, Social, Environmental, Intellectual or Occupational.

With that lesson in mind, I was so grateful to hear that after three years of work and struggle that she had finally accomplished the task that we set out to do. It gives me hope for my other children since we are in the middle of receiving that speech therapy for Lydi. Some days there seems like there is no progress. I could even say that I have wondered for longer periods of time if the speech therapy was even doing anything. BUT I think that is part of the lesson that I'm learning. Those feelings are going to exist for me because I'm a person that struggles with "hard things". A lot of things that I have done in life have come to me naturally. Of course with work as well but I have a personality that when I want to do something or learn something, then I do it. I struggle with the things that don't come naturally to me or that I don't have a desire to do. I also struggle with things that I have no control over, like my children's speech and reading skills. And that struggle is real. But it is all a part of learning and growing for me.

In that meeting I was shown some reading samples of Andi's class work. She is progressing super fast now! I couldn't believe the progress she has made in just these short few months of first grade! Granted we still have more work to do. However, another lesson on how things have to build on each other to become what the ultimate goal is.  It's just a blessing to have these good moments when I realize that things are going to be okay. What we are doing is working. It's just going to take more time and more work. Everything will be alright. I'm not failing as a mother .

So today I want to THANK all the speech therapist out there! Thank you for your time and dedication to help people learn how to speak. Communication is so important and I'm just so grateful that my daughter can now speak and people can understand what she has to say. I know it can get frustrating for children when people can not understand what they are trying to say. The guessing game gets old and frustrating. Having other kids make fun of your kid for how they talk hurts.  Or getting comments from other kids like "Why are you speaking Spanish. I don't understand you." All that can be said is Thank you for fixing these problems. Thank you.

And a VERY BIG THANK YOU to those speech therapist that have been involved in my children's lives. We have 5 great therapist involved with our family in the last 3 years. All of them have been so wonderful! I don't have a single complaint about any of them, they are that good. Thank you for all your help and what you have done to teach me as well as my children. We are blessed.