It occured to me today that all though we got good news this week, I hadn't posted it on the blog...
I am ecstatic to report that Collin had a CT scan and a hearing test this week and both came back clear. He passed his hearing test and the CT Scan was clear. Though Collin is still behind on his walking and talking, there is no problems with his brain that is causing it. There were worries with his head size that hydrocephalus and a couple other issues could be present. But that CT scan was completely clear.
I had many people tell me that their kids didn't walk til they were 18 months. Collin not walking was not the problem in itself. The concern arose because of his head size and the changes on the growth chart percentiles. When his head size jumped a bunch of lines and then continued to, it was a cause for concern. His head growth has normalized now and hopefully it will continue to.
As of right now, we are going to begin working with ECI, specifically for his language development delays. Next Tuesday we will meet with a speech therapist with the Early Childhood Intervention program that works with children with devlopmental delays. Hopefully, she will be able to help us figure out why the delay is occuring and get Collin talking and hopefully (in a round about way) walking (though she is not specifically going to be working on that.
On a slightly different note, Collin has grasped onto signing pretty well lately. There are very few words that I know how to sign, so it is very little. But as of right now, we can identify him saying more, all done, thank you, and drink. He has also begun waving hello and goodbye, giving hugs, and blowing kisses. It is a work in progres...hopefully, we will both be able to pick up some more sign language. It has helped us give Collin what he wants. It is nice to be able to communicate back and forth with him.
Does any one have any tips on good places to go to learn sign language for free (ie websites, or books, or something). I have a couple more signs that I have learned and I am working with Collin on, but for now, our signs are limited!
Anyway, I just wanted to share our good news for the week. We couldn't say how happy we were to hear the news that his CT scan was clear. We were not interested in having to have him go through Brain surgery to fix any problems! :)
And I have to send out a special thank you to all of you that prayed for Collin. I cannot begin to tell you our gratitude. Prayers are clearly answered. I cannot attest to that even more in my life this week. So thank you for your prayers, and please let me know if I can ever return the favor!
7 comments:
Check your library to see if they have the Signing Time DVD's or VHS even, you could get them in Provo. I have to say they are worth the money, I have the 2 baby signing time's and a couple of others. Maybe make hints for gifts for Collin for Christmas, they are about $20 each. Check your local public television listings to see if they show the episodes, again they did in Utah once a week.
Glad to hear everything is checking out. I'm proud of you for getting involved and getting early intervention, it makes a world of difference.
Hooray! I'm so glad.
I would love to lend you the Signing Time DVDs I have for a few months....til anna needs them! I ahve 1,2 and 3. Feel free to stop by after work someday to pick them up. I won't be in the gym for a while yet...still recovering from a back injury.
I just wanted to ditto your friends with Signing Time. That is the program we used and we loved it. It really helped get past some frustration with my boys' language delays. Just watch out, the songs will be stuck in your head!
Max loves Signing Time too and I'm sure all your kids will too. I also found this helpful site to help me find sign that apply to us in the moment. Its like an ASL dictionary:
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi
And our speech and physical therapist both said (several times) that when a child is working on speech or motor skills one of the areas lacks a lot, while they are trying to grasp the other one. Then when they hit a milestone in one area, the other area starts to improve and back and forth until they are caught up. We worked on both at the same time, but once Max started to walk, the language improved a lot.
jessica[dot]munk[at]gmail[dot]come
Great news! I am so releived :)
I'm so glad to hear that Collin's CT went well. I hadn't read your blog in a while and it was fun to catch up. Congrats on being almost done with med school. What is Justin going to do his residency in? Are you thinking of going the air force route? John joined the army to pay for med school and now owes them his life, but the financial benefits have been great and have made our family life comfortable. No deployment yet, but it will probably come.
I hope Collin continues to improve. My little guy Spencer turns 18 months tomorrow and still doesn't speak much. Sometimes I am worried, but other times it just seems like a product of being the 3rd kid and having older siblings who get you whatever you want. It's hard to know. Good luck!
We have the Signing Time DVDs and they have helped both of my boys tremendously. Stephen has a speech delay and they have helped him communicate so much better. Samuel signs more than he speaks right now, but it's great. It's also a great and easy way for you to learn the signs too! They are pretty expensive... The girl who owns the company has a store on Ebay and they're a bit cheaper than on the website. That's where we got ours. A lot of libraries have them as well, although because they are fairly popular they go quickly! Ask the person that's doing this Early Childhood Intervention stuff with you if they have a toy or video library. A lot of sources like that do- I know the Early Childhood Center here does. I just wanted to own them myself.
Post a Comment