Who knew...

So, as most everyone knows...Our beautiful, little Makylie has some speech issues.

She hardly talks, and a lot of the time, when she does...you need myself, or Tyler around to translate what she says. Don't get me wrong...she talks all of the time...it is just in her own language.

We just kept waiting and figured that a magic light bulb would go on, and she would suddenly be able to talk like everyone else. We work with her a lot trying to teach her to enunciate and blend letters...and she has come a LONG way in the last 3 months or so...and is getting better about copying...but there is still a long way to go.

So, at her last Dr appointment, she said we should start looking into some options. So, since then, she has had her hearing tested, her motor skills tested, her dexterity tested and of course THREE sessions of speech testing.

As it stands now....her hearing is NORMAL, her motor skills are NORMAL, her dexterity is ADVANCED.
For speech, there are 5 tests that are given.

This little bitty girl, who hardly talks, scored in the 6 YEAR OLD level on TWO of them. It is clear, my little 3 year old, non-speaker has obviously been soaking it ALL in! :)

She was literally answering questions that I, (in my head of course), was laughing at, thinking she would never know the answer to, because they were so complex. They would show her a picture of some animals on a playground, and say..."can you show me which dog, that has a collar, is at the front of the line." If you think about that sentence, there are A LOT of aspects for a little 3 year old. She had to remember dog, collar and know what front was in comparison to back, or middle. She did though...time and time again, and really, she surprised me. The other test that she flew through was the understanding test....they would ask her to find the teeth...the grandpa...the elephant...the fan...etc etc....

One test she scored average on, and I can't really remember it. I think it was asking her secondary words...like, this is a light...it is also a ------ and she was to attempt to say "lamp"...but it wasn't about how she said lamp, it was about her being able to come up with the word.

Finally, the two that she had huge problems with were Articulation and sentence forming tests. The first, DID matter how she said the words...which we already knew was a problem...the second was a test where they would ask her..."right now the girl is drinking juice", then the picture is turned to the girl with the glass being empty... "now................." The expectation was that she would say...the glass is empty. Yeah, not so much.

It isn't that she doesn't know...it is just that she can't figure out how to say it.

One test that I thought was THE most telling of her problem was connected to the Articulation test. They would show her a picture and say, "find the elephant"...she would then point to it. (she got this part right on EVERY picture) Then they would turn the page and say, "what is THIS"...it was THE SAME THING that she had JUST picked out correctly on the previous page, and more times then not, she just couldn't find the word.
What it showed, was that she knows the information, she just can't make it connect to her tongue for whatever reason.

Needless to say, she qualified for speech therapy and will begin in September at the school district preschool. She is really excited, though I really don't think she understands fully that it means mommy will be leaving her there...it will be good for her! I want her to get help with this before she gets to Kindergarten when kids really start to notice...

For me,

All kids in, at least a little bit, of school...
Seriously....
That, I don't know about....
That, I am still trying to soak in

I am not sure if mommy is ready.