Sponsor a Child Today!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

What are the odds?


What are the odds that we would have two children, completely unrelated BIOLOGICALLY (related in every way that counts in this family!) who are speech delayed?
I don't know what the odds are, but here we are...
Some of you remember what this road was like for us and Justus.
We are still walking it, but his progress has been tremendous, and had we not started signing with him, we might have all gone crazy!
Well Treston is officially at least 6 months behind in speech.
This may seem like a strange coincidence.
Well, it's not.

Quick Recap: Justus' Story
God's hand is sovreign in the children He gives us, by birth and by adoption. It's not a random process. God gave us Justus, a child who had almost no words until he was close to 3, because He had already equipped us to deal with it.
My undergrad at Baylor is in Communication Disorders/Speech Pathology. I didn't pursue my Master's in that, but followed my passion in working with the Deaf. I became a licensed interpreter in ASL, interpreted on the college level for 2-3 years, and then taught Deaf Education to Pre-K and Kindergarteners!
Does that give you chills, to realize how He prepared me in advance for my baby boy?
It did me, when I stopped feeling frustrated and sorry for myself and Justus long enough to be incredibly thankful for His provision for our family!!!
Justus could NOT communicate with words. The frustration this creates can only be understood if you have experienced this! Justus learned to sign, and he became a fluent signer before he was three years old. By the time his speech started coming, he was able to express himself, and we have no doubt that Justus flourished in speech and language development only after he had access to language for a while through ASL. God was incredibly good to us! We didn't have to stop our life and learn to sign. We already knew how! Everyone who loved Justus started learning too! Our family, our friends, and even his nursery workers. It was amazing!
Justus' language has caught up to nearly average, but his speech, though miraculously improved, scored in the 3% on a scale of 100% upon his last evaluation.
But after he started signing, we realized how stinkin' smart he was! None of us really knew until he had some language. He scored through the roof on intelligence scores, and now he's starting Pre-K at home way ahead!!! God has been good to us! His plan for Justus has been so good from the beginning. It overwhelms me to think about it! He has never forsaken us, even though the road has been tough, because He's a good and faithful God.

Here we go again...:
Thankfully, He's the same God of Treston's life.
I have no idea what Treston's story will be. He may catch up all of a sudden. Who knows? But I'm not waiting another minute to provide communication that he needs when I CAN.
We are in the screaming and pointing (so loudly!) phase, and his frustration is growing.
So is mine.
So we are starting the more intense signing lessons with Treston.
He is not picking them up super fast, so you can pray for that.
But we are definitely in need of some communication, so let's gear up again for some hand-talking people!
We are starting lessons again on www.aslpro.com and they have functional lists we will be working from this summer. I am combining them with the necessary verbs we use in sentences.
Such as:
go
like/ don't like
want/ don't want
have
sleep
eat
wake-up

These "functional lists" are cool because once you learn the signs, you can turn it into a quiz. So fun! The kids love it!
So when you see Treston, keep Treston in the nursery, play with him at the park this summer, or whatever role you may have in his life, get your hands warmed-up!
I am ready for the screaming to STOP and real communication begin!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will be praying for you all through this time! Your family's steadfast trust in the Lord is so encouraging. Love you!

Anonymous said...

Sweet Treston is in my prayers! I am amazed at the growth of Justus since I lived with you guys! The Lord is so good. Treston is going to be great, he has a wonderful mother as a teacher. Love you all!

Jodi

The Mosiers said...

Bring on the signing!! Anything for little Treston to not be so frustrated.

Aimee Landreneau said...

Jenn~

I met you last year at the Ren. Festival with the Hendricks. Anyway, I'm sure you've heard of Signing Time, but on the off chance you haven't, I highly recommend it. My 19-month old just started really saying some words in the last couple of weeks, but thanks to Signing Time, we all learned so many words to help her communicate. It's fun and it's been such a blessing to us.

www.signingtime.com

Aimee

Anonymous said...

Beautiful picture of this beautiful boy! Lesa

Jon and Sally said...

Love that little one!! :)
Lifting him up! I've got my own little brown bear to remind me to do it!
May He be your Covering as He teaches you to put your whole self into RELYING on HIM!
Love you!
Sally