introduction

[Guest guest]

I have recently subscribed to this list and just wanted to introduce

myself. My name is Karyn, wife to Ken and mom to three boys and due

to have a baby girl in Oct. We live in Wisconsin.

Our oldest son, is 17 years old. He has down syndrome in

addition to numerous other issues including PDD, apraxia and Sensory

integration issues. He is adopted and came to us when he was 8 years

old.

Next is , 5, he is pretty typical now but as an infant he had

feeding issues and had speech therapy from 3 months to 9 months of

age. He was a late talker which didn't surprise us and just in the

last year or so has caught up with his peers in speech. He just

started Kindergarten this month.

r is 2 years, 5 months old. His lack of speech caught me by

surprise. When he was almost 2 I realized that he was quite silent

(other than stomp his foot and yell " ah " )and the few words he had

weren't developing and he wasn't using speech to communicate. He is

now receiving EI services for an hour every other week. We taught him

sign lang and have worked hard on speaking. He is doing much better.

He now has consonant-vowel approximations for words and he is

labeling things in his environment with word approximations. Apraxia

has been suggested as an issue by his SLP but we both agree it is too

early with him to know.

As a parent it is very interesting to have seen speech issues from

different angles with each of our children. is still quite

difficult for strangers and acquaintances to understand and I have

grown used to being his interpreter. 's issues were more oral

motor and feeding which really resolved by one year and the rest we

monitored. And now r who wouldn't say anything and avoided

attempts if pushed.

Anyway, I look forward to asking questions and sharing ideas.

Karyn