Asher has officially started Speech Therapy! Well, along with Occupational Therapy and meeting with a Developmental Specialist on a monthly basis. His evaluation with Nevada Early Intervention Services was back on February 21st, but it has taken some time to finally get some services. With limited resources in Nevada I really had to fight for services. I have always been concerned with Asher's speech, but in January Asher started getting these ear infections that would NOT go away. January was unbelievably the hardest month of my life (although April is becoming another close contender). Asher got an ear infection the first week in January, but even with antibiotics they just got worse, transforming into acute double ear infections, and it wasn't until the second week in February that his ears cleared up! Just in the last couple weeks Asher started sleeping through the night again:) Poor guy could hardly sleep for those 6weeks with non stop ear infections. Which also meant no sleep for mom either, mind you I was also 6 weeks pregnant when this started and I was sick and tired and exhausted! We were referred to an ENT and were heavily down the path of getting tubes in his ears right before his ears finally did clear. I am happy that we did not have to intervene medically with his ears for now... although if Asher gets another ear infection between now and October he will probably still get tubes in his ears. Which brings me back to speech. While Asher presented with an infection starting in January all the doctors and specialists I have talked with since this process started have agreed that he probably had fluid in his ears for much longer, maybe since November which probably is the reason he is delayed. We all got sick with the flu in November and Asher subsequently had illnesses on and off all winter (like normal for kids).
From Asher's evaluation back in February I found out that Asher was a little delayed in more areas than just speech. Mainly because speech and cognitive development are so closely related. Nevertheless it really scared me and I was distraught that something might be seriously wrong with Asher. However, I'm not so dramatic now because he is progressing well and I know he has the time to catch up now :) He qualifies for Speech Therapy 2x/mo, he also qualifies to meet with a |Developmental Specialist 2x/mo and with a Occupational Therapist 1x/mo. It's a lot of therapy, but through the state it is provided for free and I am happy to finally be able to communicate with Asher. It has made life so much easier and there a lot less tantrums. So far I have only been to one therapy session since I work full time now. I am really sad that I am missing out on the actual sessions, but Drew tries to fill me in as best as possible.
Asher is now signing: "more", "milk", "please", "help","bath", "cat", "up", and he is working on "car/truck", "airplane", "cracker" and putting two words together like "more milk". He is so cute with all of his signs and how he transforms them and is so happy all of the time! He also has a lot of word approximations like "sho" for shoe, "gog" for dog, "bubbas" for bubbles.... there are more, but I'll have to ask Drew. We are also working on giving him more opportunities to make choices. This has been such an enlightening process as a first time parent. I've learned a lot about development and sign. The first is always a guinea pig! The hardest thing as a parent for me right now is to not compare him to his peers... especially because all his peers are girls right now who are talking up a storm! I'm always concerned with doing enough for Asher and helping him the best I can and making the most of the time I have with him (which is slim these days). I am happy that he is progressing and it makes me hopeful for the future! He is growing up so so fast!
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