Levi Today

Here is where Levi is at today with his speech, after three months of speech therapy through Children's Hospital and Early Intervention. While he has added a few new sounds, such as /t/ /h/ /p/, the only word that he says that is able to be understood is "mama".  A few things from this video that point to Apraxia:

• You may notice that he also pauses between saying two sounds, like Abby sounds like "Ah eee" not"Ahee".
• He also drops of the consonants of any word that he is saying, other than "mama", as you can tell in "Ah eee" for Abby.
• He has problems pointing to features on his face correctly when named sometimes. This can be a sign of Apraxia and part of the mental block between the brain and the mouth/face. 

A few have you has asked me if Levi is really frustrated and I would say yes, but it's really hard to say what is him just being a two year old and what is due to lack of being able to communicate. The greatest example of frustration is that riding in the car has become very difficult.  He sits in his seat and points to stuff on the floor yelling "mama... mama.... mammmmaaaa!" and I have no clue what he wants.  It is not easy to drive and figure out what of the 50 things he wants (it could be anything in my purse, buttons of the dash, toys on the floor, etc.) and he usually ends up crying and giving up, definitely frustrated. Sometimes I figure it out and tell him no he can't have it, but if I can't figure it out, the poor guy just gets sad.  When we are home though, generally he just goes after what he wants without asking. He is very independent for the most part and will narrate in his own language along the way, but overall in those situations he is fine.  It's when he can't get an item and is unable to communicate with those who can get it that he really is upset.

We are anxious for the appointment on Monday!  We heard from another speech therapist that this is "The Guy" to go to in the region, so we are hoping for some answers, or at least a plan to move forward. Isn't he the cutest though? This guy will want to give him therapy just on the cute factor alone.