To all of Emma's peeps

To all of Emma's fans,

I'll get straight to the point. I wanted you all to know that we've started speech therapy. If you are reading this, there is a high likelihood that you are in this spunky girl's life and I want us all to be on the same page. Although our visits to therapy may be ending nearly as quickly as they started, there is still some work to be done. It may come as no surprise to you when I say that she has struggled with a bit of a stutter. It comes and goes but, as far as I can recall, she has essentially been stuttering in some capacity since she first began stringing together words. We chalked it up to normal language development when she was 2 but then we didn't really notice much of an improvement at age 3. About 5 weeks ago, things got really bad and her stuttering frequency increased ten-fold, to the point where she showed marked frustration that she couldn't say what she wanted to. It didn't help matters that her older sister would yell with great urgency to "Just say it!!" They definitely have a love-hate relationship. 

 Needless to say, I quickly called her doctor's office to seek advice. They directed us to the school district and now here we are, a couple sessions in with a lovely therapist who Emma is convinced is a doctor. The first time we went, I told Emma she had an appointment and she looked at me almost excitedly, and asked if she was going to get shots. She and I have been going to the sessions, just the two of us, and this may sound weird but I am totally cherishing our time together. I don't think anyone ever wants to bring their kid to therapy and I am definitely no exception. It has been a bit of a tough pill for me to swallow, this whole business. But, the silver lining has been getting the opportunity to spend solo time with just my second-born, maybe some of our longest stretches alone together in her entire life. I feel like I've gotten to know her so much better as I watch her interact with the therapist and answer her many questions. She is the sweetest, most hilarious little human and I can hardly stand it! At her first appointment, she was asked to identify and name a bunch of different animals one might spot in a pet shop. The therapist held up a picture of a guinea pig and without a moment's hesitation, Emma yelled "It's a chinchilla!" I nearly died laughing. What kid (or adult even!) can identify a chinchilla? Mine, apparently. At another point, they were conversing about animals that lived on the water and I when she excitedly burst out "And Jesus walks on water!!!" I could have eaten her she was so cute.

Our appointments have been enlightening. Emma stuttered some but quite minimally when she was alone. The GOOD news is that she isn't showing any other physical signs of stress when she stutters. This means it is a fairly mild form and it is quite unlikely she will qualify for further services through the school district. Yesterday, we had big sis join us for the last part of the session and we noticed a marked difference. It was eye-opening to watch her go from speaking smoothly to stuttering when there was someone else in the mix. Her therapist and I will be having a phone conversation to discuss these findings next week but essentially what she saw was a very normal example of two siblings trying to get a word in edgewise which likely is making things challenging for Emma. We have our work cut out for us!

 

For any of you in Emma's life, here are the tips and tricks we are trying to put into practice to help her:

-lead by example and use slow and easy speech

-don't rush her

-allow her to finish all of her sentences and ask her questions

-it's ok to acknowledge "you had a hard time getting those words out, didn't you?" if she is obviously frustrated but otherwise avoid commenting on her stuttering   

-stand up for her and help create space for her to finish when you notice others cutting her off

 

Please and thank you!

 

Lastly, I'll close with this breakfast time snippet. She's ridiculously cute, I'm telling you!